Assignment 2: Research Proposal Thesis, Major Points, and Plan

The hot topic in amateur sports has been as to whether or not college athletes should be paid. The NCAA amateur rule states that an athlete in college sports cannot be paid other than their athletic scholarship. These athletes spend a tremendous amount of time at school practice and then working on schoolwork after practice. The NCAA is an organization that oversees all of the athletes that make up the basic unit of intercollegiate sports. The success of the NCAA whether it’s through the sale of merchandise, game day revenue or NCAA tournaments that each individual sports has, despite the absolute success of these tournaments these athletes receive any monetary compensation .Some of the main reasons why the NCAA lack of payments are that it wants to maintain its amateur status and

     Instead of putting the money in the athlete’s hand, the majority of it goes to the coaches. In the past, Florida Gators coach, Steve Spurrier, signed a six-year contract for over $2.5 million a year, not including benefits. Also, the Iowa State basketball coach earned $1.1 million a year (Espn.com). A scholarship-athlete can’t receive $200 a month but his coach can get $2.5 million a year. Who is the one playing the game, the coach or the athlete? Without the players, coaches would not get paid as much as they do. Nobody goes to the college game to see the coach in action, they go to see the players. The players determine how good the coach is anyway. How well they play reflects the ability of the coach. In the NCAA the coach has complete control over the athlete due to the one-year grant-in-aid contract. “Placing the financial aid awards in the hands of the regular university financial aid committee

Their fellow sports personnel gets to indulge in this gargantuan amount of money made off them, while they do not even get a minuscule percent of it. According to Stanley Eitzen, in his article “College Athletes Should be Paid,” in the year 2000, some football coaches were paid a minimum of 1,000,000 dollars in compensation. Considering this staggering figure, it is almost impossible to fathom why athletes are not being compensated something, out of all the money they generate. As a result of this deprivation of financial support, some athletes end up violating school policies. There were reports of athletes who have accepted improper benefits from coaches, fans and “boosters.” According to Dan Wetzel, in his article “Chris Webber deserves apology from Michigan, NCAA for disassociation treatment,” Former Michigan State basketball player Chris Webber, accepted money from “team booster” Ed Martin which resulted in a “humiliating 10 year disassociation penalty.” There have even been instances when athletes sold their jerseys and championship rings. These incidents resulted in suspension and expulsion of student athletes and the firing of coaches. Most, if not all of these cases, could have been prevented if universities have stepped in, and provided the financial help their athletes needed.

Universities can sell sponsorships to various companies for advertising (at a minimum of about $300,000 per year) and have recently begun naming their stadiums after large corporations in exchange for large donations. Most large athletic departments have lucrative deals, worth about $1 million yearly, with shoe companies. Many colleges receive a substantial amount in royalties for college merchandise, which is sold under official license; some schools receive up to $6 million annually from this source. Coaches also stand to make a significant salary (including base salary from school as well as television, radio, and shoe company stipends) with the highest paid football and basketball coaches currently earning $1-$2 million a year (Eitzen 2000). Even among schools who don’t produce these extreme amounts of revenue,

College sports are one of the largest and fastest growing markets in today’s culture. With some college sports games attracting more viewers than their professional counterparts, the NCAA is one of the most profiting organizations in America. Recently there has been controversy in the world of college sports as to whether the college athletes that are making their universities and the NCAA money should receive payment while they are playing their respective sport. Many believe that these athletes should be paid. Others argue that they are already receiving numerous benefits for playing that sport from their universities. Many of the proponents of paying college athletes are current or former college athletes who believe their hard work and hours put into practice and competing go under appreciated. They feel that while the athletes are making the university money, the athletes do not receive any cut of these profits. Opponents feel that athletes already receive numerous perks and should not receive extra compensation on top of the perks they already receive.

According to the New Yorker “Paying student athletes erodes that association. If a high-school football prodigy reporter that he chose Michigan not for its academic quality, tradition, or beautiful campus but because it outbid all other suitors, a connection to the university’s values would be lost. This is not naïve idealism.” (New Yorker) The coaches at the college level are considered overpaid, but this not ture.

The question of whether or not college athletes should get paid is of heated debate in todays times. While many believe that student athletes are entitled to income, It remains undougtibly a concern of moral interest to universities across the country. This paper is going to explain the pros and cons that come with allowing student athletes the right to receive a salary.

For example at the University of Texas an in state tuition is worth around $4,000 while out of state tuition is worth around $11,000. Now as previously stated, Texas football players’ fair market value is at $578,000 per year. So at the very least there is $567,000 per player that we really do not know where it goes. I understand that college athletes do not deserve all the money they bring in but if one really thinks about it there is no where else in the world of economics is there a person that spends over forty hours a week and brings in $500,000 per year for their institution, yet they are only compensated $11,000. The numbers do not match up. (Frommer, 2013) These numbers definitely do not match up when one takes into account coaches salaries. The average coaching salary in NCAA division 1 basketball is a massive $1.47 million per year. With Duke’s head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, making the large sum of $7.2 million per year . While Duke’s athletic director, Kevin White, brings in close $1 million per year. After looking over these stats, one quickly realizes why college athletes are not being paid. In 40 of the 50 states in the United States of America the highest paid public employee is not a government official, but the head coach of a college football or basketball team. In North Carolina the average income per household $45,570 while the tax rate is 5.8%. What this means is that on average each person in

Most people don’t know that college athletes are already getting paid in different ways than just direct money. "A student athlete at a major conference school on a full scholarship is likely receiving a package of education, room, board, and coaching/training worth between $50,000 and $125,000 per year depending on their sport and whether they attend public or private university"(Dorfman). These athletes get training and coaching for free that professionals pay $2,000-$3,000 per week for. They also receive free schooling if they received scholarships from the school. They can also have free room which means the athletes don’t have to pay for their houses. The average college student pays $20,000 in tuition that these athletes get

Day in and day out college athletes work endlessly in practice, school and work without any type of reward. Over the past couple of decades universities have attempted to get the NCAA to allow these universities to give student athletes some type of money for their work and dedication. In John Nocera’s NY Times article, “A Way to Start Paying College Athletes,” he uses strong logical reasoning and credible sources to effectively educate his audience. However, he drastically changes his tone when discussing certain ideas, by indirectly calling out those who do not believe in his way of paying college athletes.

Thesis: College athletes should not get paid due to the financial restrictions of the NCAA, the imbalance of competition, and the fact that these young adults are students.

Abstract:  Collegiate athletes participating in the two revenue sports (football, men's basketball) sacrifice their time, education, and risk physical harm for their respected programs. The players are controlled by a governing body (NCAA) that dictates when they can show up to work, and when they cannot show up for work. They are restricted from making any substantial financial gains outside of their sports arena. These athletes receive no compensation for their efforts, while others prosper from their abilities. The athletes participating in the two revenue sports of college athletics, football and men's basketball should be compensated for their time, dedication, and work put forth in their respected sports.

Most student-athletes playing a sport in college are there on an athletic scholarship. The scholarship is granted to them by their respective schools and is worth anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000. According to Edelman, the football program alone at University of Alabama brought in roughly 143.3 million dollars of revenue. In perspective, that’s about 2 million per player. Even though Alabama is an elite program and brings in more than the average football program, the NCAA brought in nearly $845 billion in 2011 per Sonny. Now it is obvious there many ways a university brings in revenue, but it is safe to say that a player is worth more than that $100,000 scholarship. In fact, a substantial share of college sports’ revenues stay in the hands of a select few administrators, athletic directors, and coaches. Now think about what college athletics would be without the world class athletes it has today, or without any athletes at all. If a school didn’t “award” athletes these scholarships, there would be

In trying to decide what research topic I wanted to use, I took many ideas into thought. I decided that the one idea that interests me most is whether student athletes should be paid or not. This is very intriguing to me since my master’s program is sports management. In order to do this research there must be many ways to use research as well as ideas from other people. This project is a very big topic in today’s discussion amongst sport fans, college administrators, and student athletes themselves. Media has recently put more pressure on this topic as well with the Northwestern decision to unionize as well as pointing out an athletic director gaining an $18,000 supplement for a wrestler at their school winning a national

According to USA Today, the average college coach makes 1.64 million dollars per year; specifically speaking, the University of Alabama Program makes 81 million on the backs of their athletes. Why can't football players get a small amount of that? Instead, the athletes are expected to work for nothing, in fact most athletes have to get a job in order to maintain their current bills. This should never happen when coaches and colleges make millions from the