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Are College Athletes Really Worth Paying? This Question

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Are college athletes really worth paying? This question is asked numerous times around the NCAA headquarters and among supporters of college athletics. Colleges are making a great deal of money from sports and many college coaches make just as much as NFL coaches and more than a professor would in a year. Networks like CBS and NBC are increasing revenue with coverage like March Madness, which has a contract worth 10.8 billion dollars through until 2024, as well as college football playoffs. For example, the University of Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban makes 7.1 million a year (Dodd) but it is his players, who are superior student athletes and win national championships year after year. Some people would agree that athletes should be paid, …show more content…

Student athletes are unable to obtain steady income because they are so busy with sporting activities and community service activities and are unable to get a job to support themselves. College athletes cannot pick up a side job that earns over $2,000 per year or accept money from their coach to buy food from any local grocery store. These are issues that make supporters question whether the NCAA is treating college athletes like employees or if they really are student athletes. In a survey organized by the Big 12 Conference, players stated that they feel that juggling athletics and course work during the season is expectedly difficult, but athletes often feel just as overworked in the off-season and the off-season can be more draining than the in-season itself. In a 2010 NCAA survey, more than three-quarters of Division I baseball players reported spending “as much or more time on athletic activities” during the off-season as during the competitive season. About 70 percent of men’s basketball players reported the same, as did 70 percent of football players. It was a similar picture for the remaining men’s sports.(New). Student athletes may not be able to get a job but are still treated like employees.
Many say that playing sports in college is a privilege and that the athletes should be thankful that colleges allow them to play the sport

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