Essay On College Athletes Should Be Paid

$9,139 is the average cost of college for a student to go attend an in-state four year public university (“College Costs”). This amount does not include housing, food, books, or supplies; this can end up totaling near $10,000, but imagine if both of these figures were paid for you. This would mean you would pay nothing to attend a four year college, and this is the reality for many individuals today; these people are commonly known as student-athletes. Many student-athletes receive full scholarships to schools covering their room, board, tuition, books and any other expenses they may incur because they are playing a sport at the institution. Not to mention many of these individuals will receive stipends to use at their own will. However, these same students feel like these benefits are not enough (“Here’s”). Some students feel like they are being cheated out of their talents because NCAA uses them in media and in other profitable ventures but they are not paid. Others just feel that the role of a college athlete should include receiving payment since they are like professional athletes and see their sport as their only profession. Student- athletes may have a similar role to professional athletes, but do not deserve the same compensation because they are receiving their payment through a school scholarship.

College athletes generate millions of dollars for their schools each year, yet they are not allowed to be compensated beyond a scholarship due to being considered amateurs. College athletes are some of the hardest working people in the nation, having to focus on both school courses and sports. Because athletics take so much time, these student-athletes are always busy. College football and basketball are multi-billion dollar businesses. The NCAA does not want to pay the athletes beyond scholarships, and it would be tough to work a new compensation program into the NCAA and university budgets. College athletes should be compensated in some form because they put in so much time and effort, generating huge amounts of revenue.

Proponents emphasize that college athletics is a billion-dollar industry that generates significant revenue for its institutions and these institutions should share this revenue with their student-athletes. The NCAA generated over $845 billion dollars in 2012 from their college athletes’ performances at the highest level. This can be compared to a for-profit corporation that makes a lot of money but doesn’t have to pay its employees. (Why College Athletes Should Be Paid). According to a September 2011 study, for each NCAA Division I institution, their average football player generates $120,000 and their average men’s basketball play generates $265,000, annually for athletic department.

Should college student-athletes be paid has become a much debated topic. The incentive for a student-athlete to play a college sport should not be for money, but for the love of the game. It has been argued that colleges are making money and therefore the student-athlete should be compensated. When contemplating college income from sporting events and memorabilia from popular sports, such as football and basketball, it must not be forgotten that colleges do incur tremendous expense for all their sports programs. If income from sports is the driving factor to pay student-athletes, several major problems arise from such a decision. One problem is who gets a salary and the second problem is how much should they be paid. Also, if the income

“In the 2013 NCAA tournament Louisville player Kevin Ware suffered a horrific injury to his lower right leg while attempting to block an opposing player’s shot. Six months later, Ware was healed and back to practicing. He was lucky (Patterson)”. Over the years in college, college athletes are going into debt on behalf of them not being paid to play in sports events. College athletes are in need for money when they don’t have enough to pay for food or clothes.

College sports specifically basketball and football are the most electrifying sports in America. When it comes to March Madness or bowl games america goes nuts it’s as if a preview of the super bowl or NBA championship begun. Head coaches are well paid at the college level where students are given the burden of meeting academic standards and elevate their “game”.

How much money do college sports teams bring in each year? How many endless hours of practice, do both the players and the coaches put in every week, so that they are prepared for the upcoming challenges in the games to come? Throughout the decades, college sports have played a major role in people’s lives. Each sport requires athletes to have excellent physical skill and a competitive drive that urges them to win and succeed. The competition between schools continues to grow making the possibility to play a sport in college very difficult. College sports range from being a runner in track to a Division I football player or a swimmer. Schools treat their athletes like kings and queens because they play an important role in the school in the way they contribute financially and academically. The young athletes learn leadership, time management, and how to work well with others to reach a common goal. Because of how important college athletics have become, many players have grown greedy and want more money than they already receive. However, Athletes are in college to earn a degree not a salary. College athletes who receive scholarship money and other personal benefits, such as a living expense budget on a stipend, should not be paid to play sports.

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.

There is an on-going debate over whether college athletes should be compensated for their athletic participation at universities. Under current NCAA policy, college athletes are compensated via scholarships. Scholarships are payments that are placed towards a student’s education. These provide athlete’s food, board, and cover all education expenses. The NCAA provides approximately 1380,000 scholarships to Division I and II sports each year (US News).The majority of athletic scholarships must be renewed each year. In other words, colleges can drop an athlete’s scholarship after the academic year. This puts pressure on students to not only perform well in their sport, but also academically. Also, college athletes must perform well on the

College sports can determine a person’s lifestyle. Determines whether or not they can go pro or get a job. Paying athletes can give them a better sense of money. They can learn how to save their money up, learn how to spend it correctly, and a great sense of financial awareness. The problem is that many

The word “college” is defined by Dictionay.com (2014) as “an indepdant institution of higher learning”. This definition is focused around education and the higher learning that individuals receive when they attend a college institution. It is not centered around, nor does it mention athletics. College athletes should not be paid a salary for their participation in college sports, the purpose of college is education and not athletics.

Many people enjoy the competitiveness of collegiate athletics and the universities themselves love the amount of revenue it brings in each year. With the crowd going wild throughout the game and the passion athletes show, it’s a pastime that is rarely boring. A common discussion is if college athletes should be paid. College football and basketball generates 6 billion dollars annually. Which in total is more than the National Basketball Association (Brill 1). These athletes are practically working full time to improve in and out of season. They are putting their bodies on the line during game time too often to later in life compensated. Major injuries aren’t always the ones you get immediately. Down the road when athletes are adults their

Joe Posnanski, a sports journalist and former columnist for Sports Illustrated, weighed in on the controversial issue of college athletes receiving money as a service of their play. “College Athletes Should Not Be Paid” published 2011 from the Norton Sampler starts off by introducing one of his main arguments that “College athletics are not about the players” (Posnanski 585) but instead are about the alumni and the colleges themselves that people support. If player on a team left and made their own team would that colleges alumni now support their semi-pro team, no chance. College Supporters love the youthful feeling and the how close they feel too it. He shows how big time college athletes do get paid in tuition, room and board, food,

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.

“The NCAA is a private, non profit association consisting of over 1000 members” (Goldman). The NCAA was founded in 1906 and is a large association representing bigger schools and universities (“What’s the Difference…”). NCAA schools are organized into three divisions, D1, D2, and D3 (“What’s the Difference…”). Division 1 schools are typically the largest, division 2 schools are smaller than D1 schools, and division 3 schools are the smallest of the NCAA institutions (“What’s the Difference…”). You cannot pay the more talented players on the team more money. This will cause strikes amongst the other teams and other very valuable players. If certain players are paid differently, it can also potentially change the athletes’ attitudes. When you pay one athlete more money than another athlete, the higher paid athlete becomes more of an individual and less of a team member. However, individualizing team members is not the purpose of any team sport. Paying more talented players more money will teach that player bad habits with their teammates and could eventually lead the player to think they are superior to their team. The only factor that could really determine different pay between athletes would be the different divisions of the NCAA: Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3. One might think that a Division 1 school would pay their student athletes more than a Division 2 or 3 school because it is a larger school. This leads to