Essay Why College Athletes Should Be Paid

Rebecca Lobo once said“Athletes who take to the classroom naturally or are encouraged to focus on grades should be able to do well in the classroom. I believe the reason you go to college is to get your degree. It's not a minor league or an audition for the pros.” many athletes should read these and apply it to their life because college isn't about trying to play in the pros if you're an athlete sure you can have a dream, but you need to also get a degree that should be the main focus not getting a tryout or an audition for the pros. Every year around one hundred seventy-seven thousand athletic scholarships is given out to those that stood out in their sport, whether it was basketball, football, or even baseball. The kids receiving these scholarships are given a free

Nearly $1 billion dollars is what the NCAA made in 2014 off of sports events and merchandise, and they still will not provide the players with an income. Some say that given the player an education is enough, but it's not anymore because they are making too much money off theses players. Paying college athletes is the right thing to do because it is their money that is being collected, if a player is hurt during a college game then it could make it to where they can’t play professional, or they should be able to take endorsement deals.

Why College Athletes Should Be Paid “Common decency demands that NCAA athletes be paid.” These are words from the great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Obviously if someone who is well past their college days still thinks college athletes need to be paid, this subject is the real deal. Whether college athletes should be paid or not is one of the most, if not the most, controversial topics in college sports over the last few decades. Especially amongst the athletes of Men’s football and basketball.

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.

College athletes should be paid because the NCAA and the colleges that the athletes attend collect an extremely large amount of money from the athletes bringing in revenue. According to, Stephanie Boyd, the NCAA makes approximately $10.8 billion annually (9). The athletes are the number one reason the NCAA is a multi

What Is More Important? ”Money is flooding into these athletic departments and the athletes benefit in many ways, but do athletes deserve to be paid for what they do?” (Walch). It is hard to make a living out of football in college because the athletes devotes their time and body to the sport, but aren’t getting money which is needed to make a living. The college athletes are the ones who bring in the money, but they don’t get any of it (Meshefejian).

Not paying college athletes is by far the right decision. This has been largely debated for years and both hold valid arguments for each side. The majority of the people who want to see them get paid are the players and those on the other side of the argument are those who are not involved in the sport. The reason they should not be paid is the money will ruin the game if it gets involved. It is highly likely players will focus more about money than winning and could easily be distracted.

about getting a part time job. So they would have more time working on their sport and would have energy for classes. The athletes would not have to worry where they would get their money if the NCAA paid its athletes. If the athletes do not have to worry where they are going to get their money from, then could could spend more time perfecting their game and would also help them have more energy to do well in their classes too (“Top 10 Reasons College…”). These would also lead them to be more competitive towards whatever sport they are playing because they have more energy to work for it. When someone have been working all day one something, they usually tired right? Well this is the exact scenario for college athletes every single day. The

I believe college athletes should be able to be paid more than just a scholarship for different reasons. College athletics have gained immensely in popularity among many different Americans over the past couple of decades. Most of these athletes work countless hours all year around for these colleges with different off season workouts. Which means it’s more than just a part-time job for these athletes. Fans must understand that college sports is big business and the business is booming for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). If the NCAA didn't have these top elite athletes on the field or on the court nobody would come to the games and there will not be such an increased revenues for the NCAA. College athletes should get paid because they work countless hours and with making the National Collegiate Athletic Association close to billions each year that they don't see any of besides in scholarships.

Some may say that paying college athletes is a poor idea considering they have the reputation for being cheaters or only interested in what they want. “...The argument against allowing pay to student athletes arises mainly from greed and self-interest” (Text 1 lines 41-42). Regardless this is not always the case as some students need money and that the greedy ones are actually the coaches. Scholarships can be taken away, forcing students to look for jobs and struggle to find a balance between school and work. Last, The NCAA has an awful reputation for going against the law and not giving financial assistance to students for impractical reasons. It should be noted that by these reasons athletes should be paid for their participation in sports.

Your dream has come true; you're at college playing the sport you love, and at what cost? None. You are free to live your college life worry free and have been given the opportunity to continue your sports career. After you have completed your college education you can get a job, with no college loans that you have to pay off. You are also able to start making money right out of graduation. You get to experience this less stressful college life. The lives of athletes that walk-on and athletes not on a scholarship are stressful ones with many different things to worry about. Those athletes have to worry about how to pay for college and the loans they will have to pay back after graduation. They will have to pay for all their meals, books and the cost for dorms. But what got you here? There were many factors, but one that helped you the most was that you were a diverse athlete.

Whether or not college athletes should be paid is a topic that is much debated recently. Some athletes even want to form unions so they can have the rights to complain about working conditions and their pay, or lack of pay. While some people believe college athletes should be paid, it would be a grave mistake to pay college athletes. Athletes play when they’re just little kids with a dream and it is their job to make that dream come true. They do this by being the best they can, by vigorously training almost every day. They play through middle school and through high school so they can ultimately show their talents and get into great intellectual and athletic schools. You should graduate in whatever field of school you are interested in. that is their duty to themselves, they work to get the pay checks later on in life. If I paid an elementary school student to play for me they wouldn’t want to go to high school, and if I paid a high school student they wouldn’t want to go to college, if I paid a college student to play for me they wouldn’t want to go and become a professional.

But why should a student athlete be paid in the first place? Their just athletes right? They go to school just like everyone else? What makes them so special? What makes a college athlete different than the average student is the amount of revenue that they help bring to their selected colleges. This type of revenue is made up from ticket sales, merchandise, media rights and contributions. “USA today” reported that the University of Texas generated $167.7 million dollars from their athletic programs, and that’s just one school. With this in mind, imagine just how much money other colleges are making from their athletics. Sure one can make the argument that they should not be paid because they are not professionals, but one can’t ignore the fact that they are bringing in millions of dollars and seeing none of it.

College athletes should be paid because of the hard work, dedication and effort they put into their respective sports. These athletes are a major source of income for their schools and they are not receiving a penny for it. These college athletes deserved to be paid, colleges are using these athletes to get money and they are never given anything but a pat on the back and a good job. College athletes work and train extremely hard to perform at the highest level possible. In most cases, they spend more time training and preparing for their sport than they actually do learning and studying. They put so much on the line to play and they get nothing in return. These college athletes literally make their schools millions of dollars every

According to the NCAA, 81% of its money comes from televised games. This means that they are making 81% of all of their money because they signed a 10.8 billion dollar contract with CBS sports and Turner Broadcasting. All this to say that the NCAA is making billions of dollars to showcase their best athletes and they don’t share a single dime of that money with their “beloved” athletes. I believe that not only the schools should be paying the athletes, but the NCAA should be paying their athletes because they are the ones making all of their money and they aren’t even the ones who are giving scholarship money to the athletes. “The fair market value for the average FBS football player is $137,357 per year, and the fair market value for the average men's basketball player is $289,031 per year. Right now the average player earns just $23,204 in scholarship money” (Manfred). According to the official ESPN website, the university that brought in the most money in 2008 was the Alabama Crimson Tide bringing in a total revenue of $123,769,841 just from their athletics. This is including ticket sales, student fees, playing away games, donations, university subsidies, media rights, and branding deals. However, the average scholarship to an NCAA division 1 school is only worth $14,270 (Scholarship). So, according to those two sources, it is safe to say that college athletes are not getting paid what they deserve. The school are bringing in well over $100,000,000 and the athletes that are bringing in most of this money are making not even 1/100 of