In the midst of a rocky year for the NCAA, its president Mark Emmert spoke at Marquette University to affirm one thing will not change: student athletes' amateur status, the Associated Press reported.

College sports, especially division I football and basketball in major conferences, are huge moneymakers for the NCAA. Between college football bowl games, the men and women's basketball tournaments, the TV deals and all the royalties and memorabilia sales, the NCAA brings in billions of dollars.

Emmert said the fact that student athletes do not receive a part of it will not change.

"One thing that sets the fundamental tone is there's very few members and, virtually no university president, that thinks it's a good idea to convert student-athletes into paid employees. Literally into professionals," he said at Monday's "On the Issues" forum. "Then you have something very different from collegiate athletics. One of the guiding principles (of the NCAA) has been that this is about students who play sports."

Virtually all of the NCAA's biggest issues this year have centered around money. On one hand, there was the investigation into whether Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel accepted payment for his autograph. That came back negative.

Then, there is the ongoing legal battle with Ed O'Bannon and other former and current players who are suing the NCAA, EA Sports and Collegiate Licensing Company for using names and likenesses for unfair profit. And, of course, there are the scandals.

Sports Illustrated released Tuesday its entire piece on Oklahoma State University, which accuses the school of long-term and widespread violations of NCAA policies including paying players and offering them improper benefits.

Yahoo Sports also released its own report on five players, current and former, from SEC teams who accepted forms of payment while playing for their school. Those reporters provided receipts and other documentation to prove D.J. Fluker, Tyler Bray, Maurice Couch, Fletcher Cox and Chad Bumphis accepted illegal benefits while still college athletes.

"(There's) enormous tension right now that's growing between the collegiate model and the commercial model," Emmert, said. "And, by the way, this is nothing new. This tension has been going on forever and ever. It has gotten greater now because the magnitude of dollars has gotten really, really large."

Emmert also recently announced the NCAA would no longer sell team and player jerseys or memorabilia on its website. Since O'Bannon's lawsuit, the NCAA has also severed ties with EA Sports for licensing in its famed "NCAA Football" video game line. Still, EA will look to individual schools for licensing and various schools will still sell player jerseys and team memorabilia.

"The most valuable (television) products are things you have to watch in real time, and that's sports and 'Dancing with the Stars,'" Emmert said. "So we're seeing an explosion in the value of sports media properties and that's injected a lot of revenue into sports. ... That's led to a lot of the discussion. This whole notion of, first and foremost, treating student-athletes in fair fashion while still maintaining the student-athlete, is at the core of all of this."