"Shark Tank" star Daymond John is having a hard time enjoying this year's NCAA Tournament ... saying he believes it's "horrible," and is actually "modern-day slavery."
The 53-year-old businessman spelled out his beef with March Madness to Harvey and Charles on "TMZ Live" on Friday ... explaining he thinks the players are getting a raw deal in the huge event.
John said there's a ton of people making millions -- if not billions -- off the tourney ... yet players aren't seeing much of the pie at all.
"The players make nothing! Zero off of all that," John said. "I think this is modern-day slavery and they're just giving them a little bit of a crumb."
John acknowledged that players do get scholarships and do now have the ability to get paid from NIL deals -- but he insisted that's nowhere near enough.
"These players are bringing in billions of dollars and making absolutely zero," he said. "It is really, I think, what business model do you know that makes billions of dollars and pays their employees zero?"
John said he believes at some point, the NCAA and schools themselves should be the ones who put cash in players' pockets.