Analysis: Why College Athletes Should Not Be Paid

Do you want to get paid for playing a sport in college? (http://www.experienceproject.com/question-answer.php) College players should receive some payment for playing for their schools. College athletes put their bodies on the line each game they play, paying college athletes would help to begin creating a sense of financial awareness, (https://smartasset.com/retirement/should-student-athletes-be-paid ) and some athletes don't have enough money to pay for food or stuff they need and with the money they have left over they can buy things.

Whether or not student-athletes should be paid has been a hotly debated topic since the 1900s. College athletes spend just as much time, if not more time, practicing and devoting time and energy to sports as they do academics. For this, many athletes are rewarded with scholarship money. However, many people believe it is not enough. Should we pay student-athletes a slice of the wealth or is a full-ride scholarship enough? (Business Insider). What if the athlete gets injured? Where does the money come out of to support each athlete’s salary? The huge amount of money being generated from college sports has led some people to think that the athletes are entitled to some of that revenue. While, some think that student-athletes should be paid, others disagree for various reasons.

But why should a student athlete be paid in the first place? Their just athletes right? They go to school just like everyone else? What makes them so special? What makes a college athlete different than the average student is the amount of revenue that they help bring to their selected colleges. This type of revenue is made up from ticket sales, merchandise, media rights and contributions. “USA today” reported that the University of Texas generated $167.7 million dollars from their athletic programs, and that’s just one school. With this in mind, imagine just how much money other colleges are making from their athletics. Sure one can make the argument that they should not be paid because they are not professionals, but one can’t ignore the fact that they are bringing in millions of dollars and seeing none of it.

Whether college athletes should or should not get paid has been a controversial topic throughout the Collegiate Athletic Association for many years now. According to the article “My Priceless Opportunity” by Bill Walton , he believes that NCAA student athletes should not get paid because “the players entering the game know the rules going in and that they have been given a chance to make something of their lives in exchange for the privilege of being a student athlete”. Others like Michael Wilbon, author of “As Colleges’ Greed Grows, So Does the Hypocrisy”, thinks student athletes should get paid due to their hard work and labor. While I respect and admire the diligent task of being both a student and an athlete, I strongly agree with Bill Walton and the many others who support college athletes not being paid.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been rewarding University athletic programs across the nation for many years now. Allowing coaching staff and others to make money off of the athletes in these programs. Athletes, however, do not get any compensation for the hard work they put in to earn the National Collegiate Athletic Association the multi- million dollars of revenue each year. The athletes are expected to give an “all in” type effort while keeping up with their rigorous courses. A recent ruling that Northwestern University football players have the right to unionize and begin to receive that compensation from the NCAA proved many people wrong and stirred up the pot between supports and non supporters.

Paying college athletes has been frowned upon until now. A number of colleges are trying to pay their athletes for their commitment to their sports. Paying college athletes should not be something controversial, but something ethically right due to what they go through to get to this point. What these athletes do year round: compete fiercely in a sport or multiple sports, is challenging and very risky injury wise, which is the least to say about what they offer up to play their sports. A report shows that “86 percent of college athletes live below the poverty line” ( Hayes ). Despite this high percentage, these athletes still continue to thrive and surpass the struggle to pursue a life goal. College athletes should get paid because of their hard work, dedication, and the exposure they give for the school they represent.

Over the past few decades college sports has grown in popularity across the United States. But it hasn’t been until recent years that many Americans have started to argue about the big revenues generated by many of the elite sports programs. However the big question that stands out is: should the athletes generating millions of dollars worth of profit a year for their University receive any of the money for their performance? Even though student athletes don’t receive a big paycheck at the end of the month, in one way or the other they do receive rewarding benefits through scholarships and grants because of their ability to be successful on the playing field. Thus, college athletes should not be paid because they are receiving a free education through scholarships and earning countless other benefits for being part of the university’s athletic program.

The authors begin the article discussing the creation of the NCAA and how they came to the creation of their amateurism laws, providing a background to as to why college athletes are not allowed to receive any form of monetary payment. Johnson and Acquaviva then present five arguments as to why college athletes should not be compensated. These arguments are that athletes are being paid with their education, new issues would arise with fair pay if college athletes were compensated, college athletes are receiving more than just an education, paying college athletes would eliminate competition, and that college athletes already know what to expect when they sign to play for a university. The authors then provide counter arguments that help to prove that college athletes should be paid for their play. These are that the cost of living is not covered in college scholarships, college athletes don’t understand that they will be set aside if they are injured or benched, and college athletes do not receive more than an education due to their full schedules. The authors then explain some of the plans that could help to fairly compensate college athletes, such as allowing them to receive endorsement deals. Finally, Johnson and

Nearly $1 billion dollars is what the NCAA made in 2014 off of sports events and merchandise, and they still will not provide the players with an income. Some say that given the player an education is enough, but it's not anymore because they are making too much money off theses players. Paying college athletes is the right thing to do because it is their money that is being collected, if a player is hurt during a college game then it could make it to where they can’t play professional, or they should be able to take endorsement deals.

Whether you are on a college campus or listening to a sports talk radio show, the question of should college athletes be paid seems to have been discussed forever. One of the major arguments for paying student athletes is that the colleges use the athletes to generate revenue for the college. “There are also those that argue that athletes should be paid for the hours that they often put in their respective sports and classrooms” (Jung, 2013).

The NCAA or the National Collegiate Athletic Association in its 2014 total fiscal revenue collection data racked up a whopping $989 million dollars, nearly reaching a billion dollars according to USA Today Sports in article done by Steve Berkowitz. The biggest revenue earners in NCAA sports are men’s college football and basketball, with those two sports alone making $166 million alone. In addition to that $166 million, the television revenues from viewers, ticket sales, and merchandise purchases add another surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars unaccounted for. At times going respectfully to the university as their profit, where for example a standalone college like Texas A&M in the year 2014-2015 generated a total revenue of $192 million itself, which factored in ticket sales, rights/licensing to the team’s name, contributions, and other sources of revenue, according to USA

All those athletes training most of their lives to be where they are and just have the school give up on them is just heartbreaking. What could be even worse is if students with outstanding grades were able to get into a good school but do not have enough merit funds to get into the school because the school’s main focus is attempting to pay their athletes. All students going to the same school should be equal, so consequently there is no reason why some should not be accepted for what they do best and others not be able to do what they love. Contrary to popular belief, colleges are not making huge profits because they are schools and not

There has always been a big controversial debate on whether college athletes should receive some type of compensation for playing Division one sports. Many college teams pile up huge revenue from football games, basketball games, and many other different sports. Although the university piles up huge amounts of that money, not one penny goes towards any of the athletes. Even though they’re the reason why universities are getting rich from all the money the sports have obtained, the revenue that usually comes from game tickets, sponsorships, and booster clubs. Also college athletics have gained immense popularity among Americans over the past few decades, more American have turned their heads to watching collegiate sports rather than watching professional sports, to the fact that its way more exciting. This has resulted into increased revenues for the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the other colleges that’s participating with this, in this case the debate of whether college athletes should be compensated beyond their athletic scholarships. Student athletes have worked hard, have dedicated themselves to the sport and also sacrificed their own time for the sport they love.

College sports are a big thing in America. Almost every student goes to college after high-school. In high-school most athletes play more than one sport. They play football, basketball and run track or play baseball as well. After the students get done with high-school they move over to college. College sports are way different than high-school sports. Athletes spend more time on college sports than they did on high-school sports. In College they play just one sport, not like in high-school where they play many different sports. College athletes spend about 40 hours per week on their sport and they also have to manage the academic part of college. That means college students are really busy during their season. Most of the time college athletes are there on a scholarship, which means that they don’t have to pay quite as much as normal students. So the athletes basically played sports so they don’t have to pay too much for college. Most college athletes don’t think a scholarship is enough, and therefore should be paid to play college sports because they don’t have time to work, the risks to get injured are high, it is not afforced for some students.

allowed to make a mere $1,200 to $2,500, an academic year, at a part time job