College Athletes Should Not Be Paid

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) makes roughly $1 billion in income annually and the athletes do not receive any of it. This topic has been debated for many years and is still being debated. The debate dates back to the 1980s and now athletes are demanding that they deserve to be paid since profits are made off of them. Some athletes such as former and current basketball and football players came together with lawsuits to federal courts asking for rewards from profits NCAA makes gets of them. Research has opened several different opinions on this matter. There are many pros and cons for paying college athletes. College sports provide a huge source of the university’s income. The athletes, however, receive their scholarship

College athletes are fun and exciting to watch each and every time we watch them. The only problem with college athletes are that they are not getting paid like they should be. Athletes give it their all each and every time they go out on the court or the field. The NCAA makes billions of dollars each and every year from championship games or the NCAA March Madness, but none of that money is sent to the players. College athletes have the right to be paid by the NCAA and the universities because they represent the product that both are selling.

Jameis Winston, Dwayne Wade, Giancarlo Stanton, and Dalvin Cook all are very big people in Florida’s sports market. They all are important to their team’s success and considered leaders on their teams. The major difference between the four players is that 3 of them are compensated for their work, but on the other hand, one which is a college student receiving a free education, isn’t paid for nearly doing the same kind of work. Many people would argue that it’s not fair that college athletes aren’t being paid for bringing in millions of dollars to the institution they play for, putting their lives in danger to play the sports, and missing tons of class to prepare for their sports games without being paid. Those who argue against the compensation of athletes would say that most college and universities don’t make nearly enough revenue to pay all the college athletes as well as saying college athletes already receive a free education with scholarships and that should be the real reason to be in college. This issue has been a debate for many years among players, the National Collegiate Athletic Association & even outside influences like celebrities and law officials.

Now, paying these athletes doesn’t have to be for everyone. Only the high caliber, D1 athletes. The D1 athletes put in all this time and effort to get a scholarship, but don’t see any money. Now that’s not right. These D1 caliber players don’t come around all the time. There are not many of them. Plus the schools that do have these players are super rich. “These teams not only provide their supporters with a steady source of entertainment, but their performance also helps bring notoriety and pride to the universities they represent. College athletics, especially the so-called "revenue sports" of men 's basketball and football, is now a multi-million dollar business that is marketed, packaged, and sold in the same manner as other commercial products” (Acain).

College sports is a multi-billion dollar industry. Each year thousands of high school students are recruited to play college sports, but under strict conditions. Students are required to do well in athletics while keeping up with their academics. College athletes spend up to forty five hours per week on practices, training, and games. In addition, they spend roughly forty hours on their academics. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) does not think it is necessary to pay these athletes because they want to maintain the “amateur sport” status. According to Stanley Eitzen in his “College Athletes should be Paid, “The universities and the NCAA claim their athletes in big-time sports programs

Whether or not student-athletes should be paid has been a hotly debated topic since the 1900s. College athletes spend just as much time, if not more time, practicing and devoting time and energy to sports as they do academics. For this, many athletes are rewarded with scholarship money. However, many people believe it is not enough. Should we pay student-athletes a slice of the wealth or is a full-ride scholarship enough? (Business Insider). What if the athlete gets injured? Where does the money come out of to support each athlete’s salary? The huge amount of money being generated from college sports has led some people to think that the athletes are entitled to some of that revenue. While, some think that student-athletes should be paid, others disagree for various reasons.

“College athletes are being educated, not exploited”(Ackerman, Scott). Some people believe that college athletes are being exploited because the colleges don't pay their athletes. People think that the players should get paid since the colleges make so much money. However the money that the colleges makes shouldn't play a factor in the athletes getting paid because the athletes receive so many benefits from their college already. College athletes do not deserve to get paid from their colleges that they play for. Most of the athletes have gotten scholarships to play for that college team. The scholarships that the athletes receive include books, tuition, food, gas, fees and other college related needs. So they have no need for a paycheck from their college when all of their needs are paid for. College athletes just don't deserve to get paid because they are not professional athletes yet (CNN News) (Daily local News).

Imagine college athletes getting paid to play a sport, but technically they are not considered a “professional” athlete. It would be a terrible idea to pay college athletes to do what they are going to school for. Most college athletes get some or all of their college paid for, but they want to get paid in money too? It’s not right. They could spend the money unwisely and they could lose focus on what college is meant for and that is to learn to be able to obtain a job. I understand that college athletes have a risk of getting injured and they should get compensated for that risk. Nobody wants a student to get hurt on the field or court and lose their ability to compete and lose their scholarship, but they shouldn’t get paid to play for

Should NCAA Athletes be paid? Getting paid to compete in collegiate sports has become a hot topic of debate for the world of sports. Many sports analyst would argue that without athletes, the big money in college sports disappears. Some sports analyst would say that college athletes are already paid when athletes receive an education. Both sides of the argument have valid points. Is there a price for education? Should athletes benefit from revenue generated from games?

With another academic school year passing by, college football fans were able to join another out the seat nail-biting highlighted NCAA football season. Majority of the people would agree that college football is just as competitive and popular as the NFL. The annual revenue of the top 25 college football teams can reflect that assumption by grossing over 1.2 billion dollars alone. There is one major difference between the two associations which is NFL players are paid off the money they help bring in and college student athletes are not. Providing scholarships to the athletes isn’t enough anymore if the NCAA Football wants to perceive themselves as a money making competitor, and not reward the athletes that helped bring in that type of money.

College Athletes Should Be Paid One of the biggest controversial topics in NCAA sports is whether student-athletes should be paid or not. Many people would say this is a bad idea, but more people think the rules should be changed. ESPN analysts have given many situations in which both sides, the players and the schools, can make it a win-win situation. One example would be to pay the athletes up front to play, other than original scholarships. Another is letting college athletes have their own endorsement deals if the school itself is not comfortable paying the players up front.

Collegiate athletes attend college to master their craft before going professional, and should not be paid. This also does not factor in other things such as injury and other issues that could arise. Colleges paying students to perform is not merited and would only cause more problems. Scholarships are important because they allow a student who could not usually attend college for free with the only requirement being that they play on the football team. That is why student athletes should not get paid, because they are already receiving a free education. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) of college football would be nothing without its players. The NCAA is broken up into three divisions, going from best known and talented universities in division one to the least known and talented universities in division three. Depending on the talent of the high school player he can pick from any of the three divisions. If that same player reaches the ultimate goal of a college football player, which is to be recruited to the Nation Football League (NFL) then that player is known as a Premium college player. Universities that would pay college football players would set a precedent that sports are more important than an education, which is why they should not get paid.

In the spring of 2014, the Northwestern University Football Team did something that has never been done before in the history of college sports. Many scholarship players voted on whether the team should unionize. These same players believe that they should be compensated for their play on the athletic field. Many collegiate sports fans also believe that collegiate athletes from around the country should be compensated for playing sports; however, paying college athletes would cause multiple problems in college athletics. College athletes should not be paid because schools do not have the money to pay student athletes, it would not be fair for athletes who do not play football or basketball, and they have athletic scholarships that allow them to receive a free education.

The debate on whether college athletes should or should not be paid is a very controversial issue. Some believe that the rules college athletes must obey are unfair. These people believe that they deserve a slice of the money they bring in. For example, in a 2010 Department of Education figure on Penn State football, the football team brought in 73 million and of that spent 19.5 million on the athletes (Pappano 594). Pappano explains that they use those millions of dollars to support 29

There has been a recent debate on whether or not college athletes should be paid. Many people believe they should get paid, but many others believe they should not be paid. College athletes should not be paid because the students should worry about their education, it is an extracurricular activity, and the Ncaa does not approve of it.