COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- President Barack Obama is coming out against compensation for college athletes.

He says it would lead to bidding wars and "ruin the sense of college sports."

President Barack Obama says compensation for athletes would "ruin the sense of college sports." AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Obama says what does frustrate him, though, is seeing college coaches and the NCAA making huge amounts of money while an athlete gets banished after getting a tattoo or free use of a car.

He says that's unfair.

Obama commented in an interview with The Huffington Post after he was asked whether college athletes should be compensated because they are money-makers for the NCAA, TV stations and advertisers.

The interview was released Saturday, hours after Obama cheered as his niece's Princeton team stayed undefeated by topping Wisconsin-Green Bay in a first-round NCAA tournament game played in Maryland.