College Athletes Should Be Openly Paid Essay

College athletics is a billion dollar industry and has been for a long time. Due to the increasing ratings of college athletics, this figure will continue to rise. It’s simple: bigger, faster, stronger athletes will generate more money. College Universities generate so much revenue during the year that it is only fair to the players that they get a cut. College athletes should get paid based on the university’s revenue, apparel sales, and lack of spending money.

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.

Kids grow up loving to play sports in their free time. They never get paid to play when they are at a young age. They do it for the love of the game and for the need for competition. This is the way that it is in college right now. College athletes compete with all their hearts to be the best they can for their schools. They don’t get paid a cent. It has been a common debate if that is the right way to do it. Should it be that college athletes do not deserve to get paid for playing a sport? It should not be this way. College athletes certainly should get paid to play.

Yet the college athlete gets paid nothing to play the game that he or she loves. When students play a sport in college, they become a part of the National College Athletic Association, better known as the NCAA. Any athlete in the NCAA is considered an amateur athlete, which means they cannot make any money from their respective sport. If athletes get paid in any way, it becomes a very serious legal matter. Most often, these cases end with the student being expelled and the university being fined. The NCAA bans their athletes from receiving payment in any way, even when sports are not involved. When discussing this issue, Craig T. Greenlee states the case of Darnell Autry, “In the summer of ’96, Autry, a theatre major who also played football for Northwestern University, was prohibited by NCAA rules from getting paid to appear in a movie shot in Italy” (67). The NCAA does allow student athletes to make money in any way. A debate has ensued. One side says these rules are outdated and need to be changed. Should NCAA student athletes receive compensation for their contributions to their universities?

More and more it’s discussed daily on whether if college athletes should finally be paid, or remain unpaid, this topic is very important because college sports are very popular in the United States. College athletes should remain unpaid because it wouldn’t be fair to the other less watch sports that don’t bring in a lot of revenue, it wouldn’t be fair to the female athletes they wouldn’t be paid equally, college athletes already have advantages and receive benefits, and paying the athletes would only benefit the big named universities and not the smaller schools. College athletes were all recruited out of high school to play a sport for a university of their choosing, if the athletes were good enough they would receive a scholarship, that comes with a free education, free housing, and a free meal plan. A discussed topic is should college athletes be paid because of all the hard work and revenue that they bring towards their universities, or should they remain unpaid because they are already receiving enough. In the article “Pay to play: should college athletes be paid?” Many get scholarships, which help pay for their tuition, supplies, housing, and sporting equipment. According to the NCAA, college athletes often receive grants worth more than $100,000”. (Birkenses & Bagaria Par. 8) A free education is already enough, college athletes get to go to school for free just because of their athletic abilities, which also

Now granted college student athletes usually have scholarships which covers tuition, housing, fees, and course related books. That’s what a lot of people argue about, when someone says “college students should get paid.” College student athletes don’t have time for a job at all. The schedule of an average college student athlete consists of going to classes, practicing for 2-3 hours, going to a mandatory study hall to do homework or study. These athletes spend up to 44.8 per week on their sports (Hartnell) . It's almost nearly impossible for college athletes to even have time to have a good paying job. Colleges should pay their athletes' in some payment, not saying that they should get $1 million but $2500 wouldn't kill anything. People claim that the NCAA couldn't afford to pay college student athletes, but the NCAA is a multi-billion company. Nevertheless college student athletes need some extra pocket change to help them make things meet, and to help college athletes learn to manage their

College athletes should not be paid. “ They argue that the main purpose of going to college is to get a education, not to make money” (“Should college”...1). College is not a job, it is a place to learn. Also many college athletes receive scholarships to attend that school. “The value of the scholarships athletes receive during four years of college can be well over $250,000” (Weiss et al.1). Therefore, athletes

As of today, there are over 460,000 NCAA student-athletes that compete in 24 different sports while in college throughout the United States (NCAA). Over the past couple decades, the argument for paying these college athletes has gained steam and is a hot topic in the sports community. However, paying these college athletes is not feasible because most universities do not generate enough revenue to provide them with a salary and some even lose money from the sports programs. These collegiate student-athletes are amateurs and paying them would ruin the meaning of college athletics. Also, playing college sports is a choice and a privilege with no mention or guarantee of a salary besides a full-ride scholarship. Although some argue that

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

15). They were able to receive more than that amount of money, but payment beyond that point was fully a decision that was up to the presidents of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and/or the particular college university the athletes were enrolled at. This money could not be placed directly into the hands of the college players; it had to be put in savings accounts for those eligible college athletes until they were older, graduated from college, and out on their own. After that point, they could access the profit for anything they desired or needed to use it for (Majerol, et al., 2014 p. 15). Still, some players were not satisfied with the small amount of money they were scheduled to receive. As a result, some athletes decided to “sell their services” to any college team that would pay them to play, whether they attended the college classes or not. This method would only work if the athlete had an outstanding, eye-catching talent. (Majerol, et al., 2014 p.

Over the last few decades, the empire of college sports has become one of the all-time great ventures. Division I college football programs typically generate between $40 and $80 million in profits a year, even after paying coaches multimillion-dollar salaries. With so much money, many people -- including the press -- fear these powerful college programs because of their ability and size over the smaller organizations. The NCAA, however, does not. No matter how powerful a program or how popular or important an athlete or coach might seem, the NCAA regularly sanctions athletes, coaches and programs that break the rules. Since the 1950’s, there have been numerous scandals produced by college athletes and coaches including Derek Rose, Jerry

Dawn breaks and the headlines read, “Another College Player Caught!” The collegiate football league’s top scorer has been caught accepting money for his performance in last week’s game. According to league rules, he faces serious consequences for violating the league’s amateur clause. As a famous and talented collegiate athlete, why did he feel need to break the rules and jeopardize his future playing time by accepting the money? This careless behavior is a prime example of the issues the National Collegiate Athletic Association encounters on a daily basis. Although most collegiate athletes are fully provided for throughout their college experience and there are legal restrictions preventing payment, some athletes believe they should

One elite professional athlete that is the perfect example that can be talked about making a ridiculous amount of money is Tom Brady. He is the New England Patriots quarterback in the National Football League. He uses to play college for the University of Michigan before he was drafted in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL Draft. He is a four time Super Bowl champion XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, and XLIX. He is a three time Super Bowl MVP. He has won more playoff games than any other quarterback, and has appeared in more playoff games than any player at any position. As stated, “Tom Brady and his

College athletes should be rewarded monetarily for their arduous work, to ensure that all their needs are supplied, and so they can enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Athletes are human-beings who labor just as tirelessly as others do, they should be treated like individuals not emotionless commodities. It must be remembered that student-athletes have desiderata for themselves and sometimes even for their families, it is appropriate that their hard work and dedication be recompensed. Their wages don’t have to be ridiculously high, but they should be sufficient to meet the needs of the athletes for the quality of their services. At the end of the day, it is not about paying them millions of dollars nor is it about not paying coaches, schools,

Stated in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) constitution, “student-athletes shall be amateurs… and should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises,” yet every single college and university in the United States, which participates in inter-collegiate athletics, is the blood-sucking, hording creature that manipulates the its own laborer, the athlete (NCAA). These rules also include receiving any type of benefits such as receiving money, accepting “gifts”, and selling memorabilia, to name a few. One instance in particular, A.J. Green, ex-wide receiver for the Georgia Bulldogs, was found guilty of selling his jersey just before the start of the