College Athletes Should Be Paid Analysis

The NCAA has been around and evolved since the beginning of college sports. This organization is a non-profitable organization, but ironically makes more than millions of profit per year. Branch states “that money comes from a combination of ticket sales, concession sales, merchandise, licensing fees, and other sources—but the great bulk of it comes from television contract”(pg. 228). Meanwhile, the student-athletes do not receive any of this money. This is the start of an unsubstantial business between universities built around amateurism.

It is the NCAA’s policy that no student athlete shall receive any special benefits or compensation in regard to their status as an athlete of a university. This basically means that no player can accept gifts or services with any special benefits from school or athletic personnel, or receive any benefits for outside entrepreneurship for reasons regarding their play. For example, a student athlete cannot sign a jersey with their number on it and exchange it for any type of compensation. However, over the past few years, many scandalous conspiracies of soliciting services to athletes for their commitment and play have surfaced. Due to the NCAA’s stance on this issue many of these violations have left athletics programs with sanctions that in reality are very unnecessary and hardly ever punish those who initially violated the rules. The fact is that the college athletics generates on average 10.5 billion dollars of revenue annually, and the NCAA organization alone, about 720 million annually. Of that 720 million that the NCAA accounts for, only 60 percent of that is returned to the Division I universities whose athletics accounted for almost all of it. The rest is dispersed into other funds such as championship games and the national office services, with a small amount being paid to division II and III schools. However, of that 60 percent paid back to the Division I schools, which amounts to approximately 430 million dollars, the majority is spent by the University on

The debate on whether college athletes should be paid to play is a sensitive controversy, with strong support on both sides. College athletics have been around for a long time and always been worth a good amount of money. This billion dollar industry continues to grow in popularity and net worth, while they continue to see more and more money come in. The student-athletes who they are making the money off of see absolutely none of this income. It is time that the student-athletes start to see some of this income he or she may by helping bring the National Collegiate Athletic Association. There are many people who do not think this is in the best interest of the student-athletes or Universities, but that being said there are also many

There are many people involved in the National College Athletic Association. Whether it is a manager, a coach, a student-athlete, or even a sales associate, those jobs make the NCAA happen. Without them, this association would not be where it is today. All jobs involved receive a pay-cheque, all but one; the student-athlete. The contract for the athletes indicate that they will receive a free education as well as free housing during their stay in the NCAA as a student-athlete; yet they don’t receive anything that is necessary for survival, such as food and water. The NCAA student-athletes deserve to receive some sort of fair payment for their hard work and dedication to their sport and organization.

The corruption expressed throughout the hour long documentary is endless examples of ethos which is the majority used in the documentary. Corruption in the NCAA is not only a current issue but has existed dating back to the 1940’s. In the 1940’s and 1950’s ivy league schools used to secretly pay players in order to attract top talent in the country. After more and more illegal salaries came into play, the scholarship was invented in order to stop the corrupt system and give the players more of a reward. The NCAA is technically a nonprofit organization, however generated billions of dollars each year, needless to say that it is and has always been a business.

All in all, the NCAA hasn’t been monitoring collegiate athletic programs as close as they should. Consequently, many student athletes continue to find themselves in the middle of unethical situations within their respective programs. With numerous issues arising, it would be in the best interest of the NCAA and the U.S. Government

Student athletes put in work day in and day out to be as skilled as they are, and to only get better. Nocera argues, “The coaches for these teams earn millions. Even the assistant coaches make hundreds of thousands,”(22), but the ones who actually do the labor to win do not get paid. These athletes’ talents are being broadcasted all over the television, “ Approximate amount ESPN is paying annually to broadcast college football playoffs is $600 million,” (Forbes 22), and do not get anything in return for their performance being blasted everywhere.

On July 21, 2009, Ed O’Bannon filled a lawsuit against the NCAA for profiting off of student athlete’s likeness. This lawsuit is still in the process of appeal to this day. However, as now (November 2, 2015), it appears O’Bannon has won the case. This is giving permission to universities to allow stipends to student athletes. A stipend is an allowance for players that is essentially paying players for playing college sports. Most division one programs are jumping on the ability to start paying their players because they do not want to fall behind the ability to bring in top athletes. The NCAA is still in the process of appealing the ruling to pay student athletes. One of the problems that O’Bannon is reaching out for college athletes is

As writer Jon Saraceno would say, “The NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] is a tax-exempt organization that operates as a monopoly, its rulebook denser than the New Testament” (Saraceno 38). He explains that the NCAA has various rules, and coaches and players do not know what is right or wrong. Others view that athletes are already receiving pay with scholarships. Athletes in higher revenue generating sports, comparable to basketball and football, are usually more likely to earn a full-ride scholarship. Full-ride scholarships allow an athlete to attend institutions at little to no cost. Without full-ride or partial scholarships, certain players could not afford to attend school. This is due to the poverty in areas where

In 1906, the NCAA was formed to protect student-athletes by incorporating a compliance approach to ethics which would ensure student-athletes are not being exploited or endangered by developing and enforcing rules that lay out three types of violations and their corresponding penalties in order to keep games fair and respectful of student-athlete rights. In today’s world of college football which has become more of a business, rather just a sport, that can bring in millions of dollars as well as thousands of college applications yearly to many universities, the NCAA is there to prevent unethical behavior by objectively setting and enforcing standards of conduct while encouraging universities to also set up their own systems of compliance.

The ethical dilemma that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) faced in this case was prioritizing the rights of the individual as opposed to prioritizing the revenues of the organization. This could also be interpreted as a stakeholder versus shareholder situation in which the stakeholders are the student athletes and the shareholders are the universities that expect to earn revenue from their athletics teams. The NCAA has a responsibility towards both groups. As a national organization, they would want to protect the rights of the individuals in order to defend student athletes from exploitation and from being taken advantage of. This meant that students could not be used for advertising or marketing purposes. However, the NCAA

Supporters express the amount of pressure put on college athletes consistently. Since they’re “top notch” athletes they are held to an extremely high standard and feel a chip on their shoulder to perform on a high level, night in and night out. Between practices, film, workouts, and meetings, supporters believe that a college athlete's daily schedule is very similar to one of a real employee's schedule; the only difference is that employees are being paid. Through all these responsibilities of college athletes “There are similarities to it being a job. There is a time allotment expected of you.” (Cooper 13). College athletes have many duties and responsibilities they have to complete during their career. What makes the tasks even harder is that they have to do school work as well, which supporters feel is as difficult as an actual job. Their is a big “business” aspect of college athletics too and at times supporters express how the NCAA is making money from the kids who just want to play sports. The NCAA seems to be “ trying to reconcile a multibillion-dollar industry while claiming it is really an amateur activity. That it is a huge moneymaking industry is beyond dispute." (Cooper 13). There is no question that the NCAA easily has enough money to pay college athletes, it’s just a matter of them actually realizing their workload and responsibilities they have to deal with on a daily

The NCAA and its student-athletes deal with much more than are seen by the general public. The coaches and players always have hidden agendas. Scandals or infractions are committed every year in collegiate sports and are left unnoticed. The NCAA does its best in trying to keep this under control but have difficulty doing so. Student-Athletes receiving improper benefits and breaking NCAA rules are a common group and information on these atrocities must be brought to light.

Collegiate athletics has experienced rapid financial gain over the last twenty years. With that known, student-athletes have demanded a larger piece of the pie due to the fact that without the athletes no one would be making any of this money. At the point this suit was filed in 2009 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) had refused to adopt policies that would allow for players to be compensated.

College athletes are not being paid for their labor, which schools profit from. “The NCAA (National College Athletics Association) earns about $4 billion in licensing fees each year. In 2010, the NCAA signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion contract with CBS and Turner Sports to have exclusive rights to show the men’s college basketball tournament, which takes place every year” (Miller). Student-athletes are being exploited by the NCAA and there’s nothing they can do about it. Exploitation happens when student-athletes, who are making large amounts of money for their schools, often are not receiving any kind of admissible, quality education. Another form a student-athlete is exploited, the value of