Essay On Why College Athletes Should Be Paid

College athletes are taken advantage of and deserve to be compensated for their services while playing sports. These students are exploited and used to make money and out of everything that particular school makes, the athlete never given a penny of it. All of the hard works, blood, sweat and tears that they put into that

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.

A topic that is very controversial for everyone is, should student-athletes in college be compensated? There numerous evidence that supports in favor and many against the proposition of paying student- athletes who play sports for their university. As a college athlete, students are putting their bodies on the line each game they play. There’s possibility of suffering a traumatic brain injury or being paralyze after physical contact. These athletes are sacrificing their bodies and physical health at an opportunity to play a game which they love, and hopefully play it in the professional level. While that’s taking place, college football and basketball are big business that keep expanding. College sports bring in a large amount of revenues. The result is that many of them fail to graduate. Paying college athletes would not ruin amateur sport because even though most college athletes do get scholarship and should focus on their education it doesn’t help them if most of the time they are not attending classes to be in practice or games. College sports do make a high-income and athletes deserve a portion of the revenue they bring their programs.

Due to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules and regulations no college athlete is able to receive any compensation or endorsement while participating in college athletics. These rules have long been challenged, however no changes have been made by the NCAA. With universities grossing close to $200 million a year college athletics has turned into one of the top industries in the world. The NCAA is a governing body of college athletics, but without people questioning the NCAA and demanding changes to the monopoly that the NCAA is nothing will happen to the unfairness to college athletes like it is currently.

Athletes do, however, help to create substantial revenue for colleges, including indirectly through advertising money. One possible solution to this might be to allow athletes to have their own endorsement deals, personally. In this scenario, the money would flow to the athlete not from the college, but from a major corporation. This would be only slightly different in principle from a college

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.

For example, “[Peyton] Manning's earnings including $15 million in endorsements” (“The NFL Economy). The earnings that Peyton Manning makes from just endorsements is almost half of what he makes from his contract. Colleges make a great deal of money from endorsements because of the athletes the universities’ athletes winning records and ground breaking plays. The athletes do not receive money from the endorsements that the colleges get from companies. Therefore some student-athletes have to leave school early because they do not have enough money to continue, or to pay their bills and leaving school for a career in professional sports is an easy way of making money ( Should College Athletes Be Paid?). If colleges were to pay their athletes the college would have big advantage because the student-athletes that don’t have enough money to stay at the school could stay and play sports for the college,while also learning. On the other hand,the primary function of academic institutions is to educate, and not to hire student-athletes for their contributions on the basketball court or football field.( Should College Athletes Be Paid?) Going to college is mainly for the function of getting an education and the sports activities on campus is just a extra thing for student also the sports activities can help get students into the

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

If an employee earned millions of dollars for a company and received little to no compensation, many issues would arise, possibly even a riot. In contrast, when this same dilemma comes about for a collegiate athlete, the only people who believe that these athletes deserve this money are the athletes themselves. The definition of a full-time job is commonly considered to be a 35-40-hour work week, and these everyday employees get paid, so why do college athletes who work over 40 hours for their sport not get paid (Edelman, Marc)? During recent years, there has been a great debate that has arisen over whether these athletes deserve to be paid for their hard work, rather than simply receive scholarship money that the athletes never see. Many spectators wish to preserve the amateurism of the sport, filled with athletes that play because of their love for the game, not because of a paycheck. On the other hand, there are a growing number of proponents who firmly believe that

For this reason people are led to demand compensation for student athletes. Though the argument may be true, it does not mean they don’t already get paid. “Most people tend to overlook the fact that so many athletes are already paid monetarily in the form of scholarships. But looking past that, they are also paid in experience. It is the education they get that matters” (Welsh and Marshall).

While some athletes leave college early, others stay in school and finish their degrees before they pursue their dreams of professional sports. They patiently wait until they graduate from college before pursuing the professional level and for most athletes, this is the right path. “Other athletes have put their education first while still reaching the professional level” (Clary). Athletes need to make sure that they have a backup plan if their life’s athletic goal does not come true. If athletes are paid in college, there is a good chance they would stay in college to finish their degrees and make more mature money decisions.

USA Today writer Steve Siebold notes “It’s a flawed equation because everyone wins except for the very people responsible for it all” (Siebold). In addition, supporters argue that current academic scholarships are no longer sufficient for college athletes, especially those who will not earn large paychecks at the next level (Murphy and Pace 173). Siebold states that the players who don’t go on to play professionally still deserve compensation for the sacrifices they make in their college years.

For example, the school’s best athletes among their most popular sports should make the most money because they partake in more televised games and generate more fan support than any other sport. Some players are not fortunate enough to have their parents pay for everything in their lives. They may need this money for car payments, living expenses, gas for their vehicle, food, or just to go out and have some fun every now and then. If a college student invests his or her time in a sport that consumes much of their lives and time they could have free time, they should at least make what a minimum wage worker would make within a calendar year. The reason this should happen is most of these athletes would have a stable job if they had the time. Most of them simply do not have enough time to work and actually keep a job. Many of them could probably find jobs that make more money than minimum wage. McMullen asked this question, “Quick, who’s worth more: championship-winning Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa or Texas State third-string kicker Foster Hilborn?” He went on to state how obviously Tua Tagovailoa should have a better income than Foster Hilborn, and how there should definitely be a limit to how much each player can make. Those are several statements that explain how the money system should work for college

First, scholarships are not being benefited from due to the lack of time the athlete has. A reimbursement for students not using the scholarship to its full potential is pay. Second, student-athletes often end up with low paying jobs, so a pay rate in college can help them out after finishing school. Paying college athletes would help their future if they do end up with a bad job. Third, college sports have profited millions of dollars off of these student-athletes and they only receive a scholarship.

Another argument in favor of the extinction of the athletic scholarships is that athletes don’t get enough money to live decently. The financial aid money covers the tuition, fees, living and book expenses (Johnson & Acquaviva, n.d.). Even so research by the Collegiate Athletes Coalition (CAC), a non-profit group of parents interested in helping athletes study in higher education facilities fully sponsored, uncovered a gap of at least $2,000 between the expenses the school pays for and the total of what the student will need over the course of his or her academic life (Johnson & Acquaviva, n.d.). This led some to consider paying athletes. Johnson responded by presenting several options to improve the athletes’ lifestyle by giving them more money (Johnson & Acquaviva, n.d.).