Wisconsin's Nigel Hayes Asks People for Money With 'Broke Athlete' Sign During 'College GameDay'

Wisconsin basketball star Nigel Hayes held a 'Broke Athlete' sign during ESPN’s 'College GameDay' on Saturday and asked people to send him money.

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Wisconsin basketball player Nigel Hayes is one of the many college athletes who thinks he should be paid by the NCAA for competing at the collegiate level. For proof of that, look no further than some of the tweets he sent out on Friday night:

The @bigten made nearly $450 million.

My scholarship is about $160,00.

If only there was enough money to pay us.. pic.twitter.com/EPV1d0I16X

— Nigel Hayes-Davis (@NIGEL_HAYES) October 14, 2016

Thing is, unless you follow Hayes on social media, you probably missed those tweets. But it was pretty hard to miss the strong statement the Wisconsin senior made on Saturday morning when he showed up on the set of ESPN’s College GameDay holding a sign that drove his point home. On the sign, Hayes identified himself as a "Broke College Athlete" and encouraged people at home to send him money through Venmo. "Anything helps," he wrote.

Nigel Hayes has arrived at GameDay and, of course, he has a sign. @darrenrovell pic.twitter.com/tMd5Vk4zT9

— BadgerExtra (@BadgerExtra) October 15, 2016

Hayes actually hinted at how he was going to bring the sign to College GameDay with this tweet on Wednesday:

.@CollegeGameDay I'll be there for Game Day and I'll have a great sign! Thanks for the passes (hopefully), see you there!#WisconsinGameDay pic.twitter.com/IOmBr6LMdO

— Nigel Hayes-Davis (@NIGEL_HAYES) October 12, 2016

No word yet on how much money Hayes raised by holding the sign, but it’s probably not really about the money anyway. Hayes’ goal here was to raise awareness on the issue of college athletes not being paid, and he just did more with one handwritten sign than he could have done with a year’s worth of Twitter rants.

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