Despite a growing chorus of athletes, fans and media calling for the NCAA to adopt a pay system for basketball players, NCAA president Mark Emmert told the Associated Press Friday he'd be "surprised" if that is an option.

After the FBI announced last fall it had arrested four college basketball assistant coaches and six others with ties to the sport in an alleged "pay-for-play" recruiting scheme, Emmert formed a commission to study possible reforms.

Chaired by former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice, the Commission on College Basketball is expected to deliver its findings to NCAA leaders in late April.

But Emmert said he does not expect the commission to recommend paying players.

"I haven't heard any universities say that they want to change amateurism to move into a model where student-athletes are paid by universities and universities are negotiating with agents for their relationships with a school,'' Emmert told the AP. "I would be surprised if the commission came forward with that kind of recommendation.''

The concept of NCAA schools paying players in its two big revenue sports, football and basketball, has been around for many years. But the announcement of the FBI investigation last year raised the prospect that under-the-table payments to stars are quite common.

And after a Yahoo Sports report in February claimed dozens of basketball players with many of the NCAA's top basketball programs had received impermissible benefits, the call for paying players grew. Newspaper editorials around the country mentioned the time had come to provide players more than scholarship money and other intangible benefits. A Chicago Sun-Times editorial noted, "Let college athletes go ahead and make a ton of money. Drop the pretense that college sports are about amateur athletics. … Everybody’s exploiting their athletic brilliance for millions of dollars anyway, so let them make the millions for themselves."

Lakers rookie and former UCLA star Lonzo Ball claimed, "Let's pay college players since 'everybody’s getting paid anyway.'" LeBron James called the NCAA "corrupt" and said, "Kids getting paid is nothing new under the sun."

Emmert told the AP he thinks a model that allows athletes to make money from outside endorsements is worth considering. But despite the bad news hovering over the NCAA in recent months, he denies there's a crisis.

"Yes, we've got these very serious issues which require serious change and they erode people's belief in the integrity of all college sports," Emmert said. "That's a very serious problem and that's got to be addressed … That's not the same as saying that collegiate sports is in crisis."