Essay On Why Student Athletes Should Be Paid

Actions towards paying athletes are being taken and according to the TCU Daily Skiff, “There’s a legislation being passed around in the Big 12 states to provide athletes with an extra stipend in addition to their all-expenses paid education. The idea is that these students are producing truckloads of revenue for the university and should see some of the fruits of their labor.” (Jennings, par. 2) Because athletes aren’t paid for producing such money, supporters feel some of the money made should go towards helping with extra expenses. An average student athlete has to pay for phone bills, transportation, entertainment, laundry, toiletries and other things. While the typical college student has the opportunity to work, athletes don’t. Some students in college receive academic full ride scholarships, which are the same as athletic full rides, but they have time to earn extra money on the side. If these students are receiving a full ride scholarship and have the opportunity to work then an athlete should be paid a compensation for his or her efforts on the playing field.

Many can argue that college student athletes should be paid money for anything involving them. I'm here to tell you why i believe paying college athletes is the right thing to do. Universities have long benefited from student athletes, all whilst the only compensation those athletes got a full scholarship, and some only receive partial.

Being an athlete is hard enough but when you add the “student” it gets twice as difficult that’s why they need extra money so they don’t need a separate job and have more time for school.

Athletes are giving it there all both on the field and in the classroom. College athletes are brought to the school on scholarships to play sports. These athletes are giving it there all going back and forth from classes, to the weight room, to studying, and to practices. But they mostly spend a lot of time practicing rather than going to classes. ““These young men are laboring under very strict and arduous conditions, so they really are laborers in terms of the physical demands on them while there also trying to go to school and being required to go to school.” Says Robert McCormick (2011, Kenneth J. Cooper). What Robert means is that these students have a huge amount of work load on them while also being required to go to school at the same time. These athletes aren’t like every other students. Even before the school year starts, athletes have to come to schools weeks early. Having a summer off is what normal college students have

Being a student athlete is hard wherever you go. With practice, games, team activities, and not to mention school there is always a lot on your plate. Being a student athlete, especially at a Division 1 level, is considered a job based on how much time is invested in it. As an athletic training student, I can relate to these problems. Since it is a job, why not pay the clients who

“They need to have some real money to walk around with that they can live off of.” Student athletes are not allowed to work much under NCAA regulations, and those who are in favor of paying them often point to that rule as a reason college athletes need money. But that reason isn’t enough for all coaches to share O’Brien’s views toward paying student athletes. Wrestling coach Russ Hellickson answered the same question: Should student athletes be paid? He came up with a very different response. “No, but they should be able to get what, say, a Presidential Scholar gets,” he said in an e-mail. “This should be an educational experience.” Presidential Scholars receive full in-state tuition, room and board, book allowances and miscellaneous expenses — a total that OSU media relations estimates to be $12,483 per year for in-state students. That is nearly $2,000 more than an in-state athlete receives, even if they are awarded a full scholarship. Most of that $2,000 falls under the category of miscellaneous expenses, something athletes do not receive money for. The extra scholarship money is to be used for “athletic tickets, book costs, bus passes; anything that students need for living,” said Amy Murray, OSU spokeswoman. Some coaches are in favor of keeping things exactly as they are, without raising scholarship levels. Softball coach Linda Kalafatis said she did not feel well

Students in college have to balance many activities: school, friends, work, health, and everything in between. Being a student athlete adds a whole new workload. Not only do student athletes have to balance class, studying, and homework, but they also have workouts, meetings, events, games, and of course, practice. Not even mentioning a social life, a student athlete 's daily schedule is already packed full. Typically, a student athlete wakes up, goes to a workout that is followed by classes, then another workout, and finally time for studying and homework.

Student athletes in college are held to a higher standard than normal students since they are juggling a lot more in their lives. Student athletes have to set aside a lot of time for practice while still maintaining good grades and a social life. Some people believe that because of this demanding schedule that student athletes should be paid. Where on the other hand many believe that they shouldn’t since they choose to be on a sports team, this is a topic that is debated upon by many. One solution could be to lower the tuition for student athletes since they are offering their talents to the school. As long as the students stay on the team they will get some money off their college tuition every year.

This leaves basically give no time to earn money. The way life is for a student athlete is very different from what a regular student’s life is. A student-athlete is required to attend practice for 10 to 20 hours per week which is around 4 hours a day, traveling to games everywhere throughout the season, and at the same time, having to deal with the same amount of academic work as regular students. Everyone who is against paying student-athletes rely on the fact that they get paid through scholarships, so apparently they're already getting paid. Yes, a scholarship indeed is a form of compensation. A scholarship is good to have, but it is not enough to go through life as a student-athlete. A scholarship will not cover the bills. Not only that but, unlike regular students without athletics, student-athletes must also most of the time take care of their families and spouses. Believe it or not many student athletes are married, and most of the athletes married have children. The students which don’t have spouses or children, most of them have to care for parents and siblings.

Even though an additional $2,000 a semester does not seem like a lot of money, for some smaller market colleges this extra expense may create problems. That is why I suggest either requiring the NCAA itself to provide the extra money to the players or allowing the players to make money off of jersey sales, autograph signings, etc. By potentially taking this financial burden away from the schools and transferring it the NCAA you avoid putting undo stress on smaller schools and instead ask the NCAA, a multi-billion dollar industry, to barely dip into their huge expanse of funding/profit. Furthermore, the NCAA itself is considered a non-profit organization so instead of hoarding the billions of dollars a year that it earns it should be giving money back to the student-athletes who have made the NCAA what it is today (SOURCE). Even though many schools would not be able to pay student athletes the extra scholarship money many larger schools could easily provide this additional scholarship money. For instance, some schools already pay their head football coaches millions of dollars a year. One specific example of this is Alabama Head Football coach Nick Saban. Saban makes six million dollars a year and also receives other

Many believe that paying college athletes is wrong because they are amateurs, or students first and athletes second. With tuition continuing to raise the average athletic scholarships aren’t covering the costs anymore. There is a misconception that most college athletes on athletic scholarships are getting everything paid for, in reality that’s actually false. For example, a Division I basketball team is granted thirteen scholarships each year. Of those thirteen scholarships the University is allowed to split them up however they feel. These scholarships are for incoming students from high school and returning student athletes that had their scholarship picked up for another year. According to author Mark Kantrowitz, less than 20,000 students a year receive an entirely free ride to college (O’Shaughnessy, 2011). That number is students total, not student athletes, that is a very small number when you see that there were 453,347 NCAA student athletes in 2012-13 (Brown, 2013).

Waking up before the sunrise is a daily routine. Early morning film sessions, class, then practice, which dominates the day. There are few moments in between for food and socializing, but the life of a student athlete is anything but ordinary. Sleep, eat, practice and school are all an athlete knows, and with the pressures of campus life it becomes even more difficult. No time for much of anything, let alone getting a job. Like most students, these athletes need money, but do not have a spare moment to work. Without any source of income, athletes are put at a major disadvantage. Their full-time job is athletics, in addition to rigorous college-level courses. The possibility of becoming a professional athlete and making millions

(Attention Getter) What if I told you that for decades, students have worked over 40 hours a week and received absolutely no pay. College athletes are expected to balance the immense workload of school work and represent their school well in athletics.

Athletes spend more than 40 hours a week practicing, leaving little time to keep up with academic commitments. For NCAA executives, administrators and support staff who start feeling the burn around hour 42, they should remember that their student-athletes’ jobs are not only intellectually demanding but brings them to the limits of their physical endurance as well. If this situation was on any other job, it would take the world by its throat. College is when students look for their first to support them for four, or more, long years. On top of working for that long, they travel across the country almost twice a week. That takes a lot of strength off your body and to replenish their energy they constantly need proper meals. A 250 pound, 6 foot football player is not going to live off ramen for their health and to stay fit to perform at their fullest capability for the school to

     One rule that the NCAA maintains, is that while its athletes are playing a school sport, they are not allowed to use their talents playing for paying teams. To many this seems unfair as students who participate in things such as the band or a singing group can use their talents in jobs such as lessons or paid gigs that are available. However, student athletes are often offered jobs by the school to participate as trainers or instructors in summer camps. The fact that they are already talented in the sport that they are asked to instruct gives them an edge on others who may be looking to get the same job, and therefore offers these students summer jobs without the hassle that others face finding work.