College Athletes Should Get Paid Essay

Collegiate sports have turned into a billion dollar industry and are probably just as popular, if not more popular than professional sports. College athletes put their bodies on the line to play a sport they love, many with hopes and dreams to one day make it to the professional leagues. Athletic facilities are the major money makers for all universities. Colleges bring in billions of dollars in revenue annually, yet athletes do not get paid. Some fans believe athletes should not get paid due to their sports level being “amateurish.”; however, this is far from the truth. There is much more to being a college athlete than just practicing and playing games. These student-athletes must practice, weight lift, go to meetings, travel, go to tutoring and study groups, all the while maintaining sufficient grades. This is very tedious work and is very time consuming. College athletes have a high standard to live up to (Frederick Web; Huma Web; Patterson Web ).

college football player? Or do you have a future as a college athlete but is not familiar with the life style, time planning, and financial support ? Surveys show that college athletes have around the range of 3 hours of free time and are not provided any money. This shows that students rarely have any time and are left with no money. So as common sense would have most people wondering, “Why would they not just get a job to help take care of themselves?” Well student athletes are not allowed to have personal jobs, which supports the opinion of several thousand athletes that they should be provided with a certain amount of money every month due to personal needs, along with the payment of their tuition.This allowance can also help for food, clothing, and even personal items.

If you paid a college athlete and they got hurt they would have money to travel with the team and if they get hurt real bad they will have money from college and they wouldn’t have to get a job if they have a plan set. Paying college athletes would get them prepared for the pros, they can put money in the bank in case they don’t go pro they will have extra money put away to support themselves in the

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.

I understand that the main priority of all colleges is to educate its students and allow them to graduate and start a career. I agree that education is the most important thing in college, but people believe if these athletes were to get paid, that they would worry less about studying for their next test and more about the big game coming up. This is not the case because if these students had even just a little extra financial benefits for playing a sport and being talented, then it would help them in life by allowing them to stay in school and further their education. These students are putting their bodies on the line just to participate in something they enjoy that requires many long hours away from studying and still force them to get passing grades in their

As the article states, students who are committed to the game at the college level, are earning their school a lot of money. And while the schools are getting money, the athletes get nothing. “In-season, it’s understood that we don’t perform well [during games] when we’re dead tired,” Agbuke said, meaning coaches know not to push athletes too hard during workouts and practice, a concern that isn’t as pressing during the off-season. These athletes dedicate their life to their sport putting in 40+ hours a week, but for what? To say that they played a college sport? The fact is, these athletes are not getting paid, but pouring their heart into the game for their school.

Another argument in the case for college athletes to be paid would be that the scholarships that are offered to athletes aren’t enough to cover the lost wages they would gain from working a job. Even though some athletes are offered full ride scholarships to great universities, they aren’t enough to pay their rent and other bills that they have. With athletes committing so much time for sports they do not have the time to get a job and pay for their bills and other things they need. This puts more strain on the athletes and can cause them to drop out of their respective sports and when that happens they ultimately lose their scholarships. College athletics are more demanding than a full-time job should pay their athletes for their services provided to the university they play for. The wages lost by athletes at universities are even greater than those working typical eight-hour days. Since athletes, football in particular, commit an immense amount of time to their sports they could be obtaining a wage far greater than the amount of the scholarship they obtained for attending and participating in sports at a university. Another point to be made would be that only a small portion of the people associated with college athletics receive full scholarships. This means that not only are athletes committing so much time and effort for sports, they must pay out of pocket for the portion that their respective

College life is not always easy for athletes who get accepted into a school. Especially if they do not receive an academic or athletic scholarship. Housing, meal plans, books, etc. Are a lot of things that add stress to a student-athlete. Tuition for college isn't going to decrease to help these students out either. Universities will acquire their money one way or another.

In the article “Pay to Play” by Adele Birkenes and Akash Bagaria, they debate that college athletes should get a piece of the money, considering how

Now you might be thinking, well if the players get paid it’s gonna ruin college sports, but it would actually make the NCAA more competitive. As listed on ListLand.com “ If the NCAA paid its athletes, the students would not have to add extra stress worrying about where they will get their money from.” These student athletes would no longer have to worry about getting part time jobs and put more effort and energy into their sport to become better competitors.

Now, what would be better than that? Playing a sport you love, while getting paid and having somewhat of your schooling if not all be paid for. In this past year, there has been many arguments about whether or not college athletes should be paid. A CollegeXpress Student Writer says, “People who think college student-athletes should be paid often say the students’ names and images are used on products and in advertising, among other things, so they should receive some of the profits. Those who say college student-athletes should not be paid argue that they receive scholarships as a form of payment for their talents” ( Martinez). College athletes put in the same amount of physical work that professional athletes do, on top of earning their college degree. Being a student athlete is a full time job, so why shouldn’t they be paid for doing their

Athletes in college have to determine if they are willing to put all their effort into the sport they love for no compensation. Participating in a sport is one of the most time consuming activities a student could do in college. On average, the college athlete will spend more hours competing and training than a person will work in a week with out pay. Now athletes are trying to be compensated for their work when they qualify for plenty of scholarships, have access to free benefits, and the equality of the individuals.

Athletes would also possibly stay longer if they were paid. This could be beneficial to both the player and the college. If an athlete is good enough to play a pro sport, then they are more likely to only play one year in college due to the one and done rule. The one and done rule states that a professional athlete must play at least one year, in college or overseas, before they are able to play a professional sport. Since athletes aren’t getting paid in college, some athletes leave after their first year in order to support their families. Jadeveon Clowney

The athletes would be trying to prove that they deserve more money than the guy they are playing against. Also, others say that athletes work 43.3 hours each week on their sport. They also put in ten hours of class work each day, which reflects into about ninety hours of work each week for a student-athlete. The NCAA is an eleven billion dollar organizations (“Should”). There are also other arguments saying that the athletes bring in the revenue. College sports are a business, every person that buys a ticket to go either to a football game or a field hockey game generates money (“Paid”). The athletes put their bodies on the line every time they go to practice or a game. Fitzpatrick said, “Players are entitled to some compensation because of the revenue they bring in and the risk of injury they face.” Mike Wilbon said, “If a music student goes out in the summer and earns fifty grand, who objects? Who even knows? The student-musician is no less a college student because he struck a lucrative deal” (Tinker).

Those who argue for paying college athletes all point to a common reason: the hypocrisy of the term “student-athlete”. Although the NCAA repeatedly states that they are students first, this is simply not the case in Division I athletics. As an NCAA Division I athlete—especially in the “big” sports like basketball and football—a student-athlete has to schedule everything around their sport. It is difficult for the athlete to schedule the necessary classes for their major, because they have to find class times that do not interfere with their practices, workouts, and meetings throughout the day. On top of that, Division I athletes often have to miss classes because of games, especially games that are far away and require an overnight stay. Consider the famed “March Madness”. Those basketball players are hardly ever in class during that time. Imagine the players on the teams who make it all the way to the Final Four or championship. They are gone for three straight “weekends” from Thursday through Sunday, not including travel times, and the rest of the days are filled with intensive practices to prepare for the next rounds of the tournament. Too often, they are hardly students at