Paige Bueckers and choices college athletes face

The news on the best player in America could have been far worse. When Paige Bueckers, the reigning national player of the year in women’s college basketball, was injured late in UConn’s win over Notre Dame on Sunday, many fans immediately worried she could be out for the year, maybe longer.

Instead, Bueckers is expected to miss some six to eight weeks with a tibial plateau fracture. Though much better than news of a torn ligament would have been, the injury will force the Huskies to get by without their star through a large part of their schedule, and deprive fans of the most exciting player in the country.

UConn will miss her, but the team will most likely be fine. The team remains stacked with all-Americans, and may even benefit by being forced to figure out a way to win without their top scorer. If Bueckers’ recovery proceeds on schedule, she could be back in time for the end of the season and continue UConn’s perennial quest for another national championship.

But her injury shines a light on questions bigger than any one season, or any one player. College athletes have routinely been forced to adapt to a system that exploits their talents for others’ gain, with little immediate payoff for the players themselves. Especially in major sports — and at UConn, that very much includes women’s basketball — many people have gotten very rich on the backs of athletes who saw little of that money themselves.

That equation has finally started to change, but only this season. College athletes now have the right to make money off their name and image, which means they can appear in advertising and be paid for it. It’s not the same as drawing a salary, but it gives athletes at least some chance of recompense to go along with the enormous sums of money that change hands on the basis of their actions.

Not everyone loves this new system. There have been complaints about a loss of the joys of amateurism. The truth is those days have long passed. Once billion-dollar TV deals entered the picture, the word “amateur” should have been banished from the discussion. What does that mean for an athlete like Bueckers? In the past, she would have had to wait to turn pro to receive anything beyond an athletic scholarship in return for her tremendous on-court output. That interregnum comes with risks, including that of serious injury that could deprive an athlete of any opportunity to get paid in the future. The old system — and the current system, too, to a large extent — is one of exploitation. Moving past that is a good thing.

All signs indicate that UConn’s star will be back in a few months, and everyone hopes she will be as good as new. In the meantime, she has taken advantage of new rules that allow her to make some money on the basis of her talents, which is how it works in basically every other system in the country: You work, you do a good job, you get paid for it.

Fair compensation for college athletes is the right move. It shouldn’t take a serious injury to make that clear.

Once billion-dollar TV deals entered the picture, the word “amateur” should have been banished from the discussion.