In recent news, “The U-Conn. Huskies” star guard, Shabazz Napier, told reporters that sometimes he goes to bed “starving” because he can’t afford food. Although Napier was likely just craving a late night snack, a student athlete at the top of his game just being named most outstanding player should get the late night snack that he craves. Napier summarizes it very well in this statement “Napier told reporters: “We as students athletes get utilized for what we do so well, and we’re definitely blessed to get a scholarship to our universities. But at the end of the day, that doesn’t cover everything. We do have hungry nights that we don’t have enough money to get food in. Sometimes money is needed.” Being a college student myself I understand that sometimes after the dining hall closes you sometimes still crave food or were unable to get in to eat while it was open. The revenue that athletes bring in for both their universities and the broadcasters is a huge sum of money. I think college athletes should be able to see some of that money that everyone else seems to be making off of them. US News writes, “The NCAA basketball tournaments, or "March Madness," have become a huge business. As Forbes ' Chris Smith wrote, CBS and Turner Broadcasting make more than $1 billion off the games, "thanks in part to a $700,000 ad rate for a 30-second spot during the Final Four." Athletic conferences receive millions of dollars in payouts from the NCAA when their teams advance deep
College sports are a phenomenon that keeps viewers coming back for more. Stated in an article on Money Nation the NCAA makes an estimated $1 billion per year and this number is still growing. What really is insane is that all that money is made off of college athletes, who don’t get a penny from that total number. The debate on whether or not college athletes should be paid has been around for decades and probably will still be here for years to come. Paying college athletes would make the teams unfair, change how hard players will work to get better, affect the amateurism of college sports, and lastly influence the athlete's willingness to participate in college sports.
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
College sports have a big market on the major school levels. These major schools can bring in 30 to 40 million dollars per year to the school through the athletic programs. The players get none of this share of money even though they are the ones who have to put themselves at risk during these tough games that provide the school profit. You may say that these college athletes are getting a free education at their choice of university but some many say they should get paid. Today as much money that runs in and out of these schools there is a huge controversy to whether or not these student athletes should get rewarded for their hard work on and off the
College athletes should receive some sort of payment for playing for their college. Many people believe that college athletes should be paid financially, because they are considered to be taken advantage of by the NCAA and most other school systems, because they should receive pay. Most college athletes are the main reason for huge profits from many merchandise sales; live events such as the game itself, and media and live coverage also provide sales increases. Differently from the professional sports, the athletes don’t get any type of cut. College teams may not have the same national expectations as the professional ones, but they are just as important, if not, even more important than professional athletes. Millions of dollars of merchandise,
If the NCAA decided to pay college athletes, it would create more problems than solutions. For example, if student-athletes are offered a salary, most likely the cost of school tuition will go up because the money paid to the student-athletes must come from somewhere and the revenue from sporting events and memorabilia will not be enough to cover all student-athlete salaries as well as expenses to run all the college’s sports programs. In addition, not all college sports draw the same fan base and therefore, income is greatly varied between sports programs which in turn will create an unfair balance when determining the salary for each student-athlete. All student-athletes regardless of which sport they are participating would expect equal pay.
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.
Top collegiate athletes should be able to get paid. Schools are making millions in ticket sales, selling jerseys and other venues that help out of school. However, college athletes make all the money for the college. College athletes should deserve to to get paid. “The college sports industry generates $11 Billion in annual revenues.”(Text 1, line 1) the college sports industry generates so much money, that they need to share the money and that it's selfish. Scholarship athletes should be getting paid.
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.
The idea of paying college athletes to compete is not new, unlike most people think. This debate has been around since the 1800’s. The college sports industry makes about $11 billion in annual revenues. Fifty colleges report annual revenues that exceed $50 million. Nationally in 2010-11, the top 15 college basketball programs generated roughly $293 million, less than a third of what the top 15 football programs generated, baseball makes very little money compare to basketball and football according to Jeffrey Dorfman. These revenues are coming from multiple sources, such as ticket sales, sponsorship, and broadcasting rights. The National Collegiate Athletic Association recently sold broadcast rights to its annual men 's basketball tournament for upwards of $770 million per season. At the University of Alabama, the head football coach, Nick Saban, recently signed a contract paying him $7 million per year; more than 91 times the average wage of an Orange County public school teacher. However, the facts I have mentioned so far concerns football only. Football and basketball are the biggest sources of athletic revenues in the majority of universities. So with all this money involved, should student athletes get a percentage of the revenue their sport brings to the university?
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.
In a country who prides itself on a capitalist economy based on private ownership, trade, competitive markets, and wealth accumulation there are still many places where it can be seen that this type of economic system is not allowed for everyone. One of those places is at the NCAA who brings in extreme amounts of money through selling the broadcasting rights to athletic events and selling tickets at the championships. An example of this is the TBS deal to broadcast march madness from 2011-2024 which only lasts 3 weeks each year signed for a staggering $10.8 billion (Wilbon 1). With that type of money being made off of just one deal and plenty more to go around the question should then be asked why are college athletes not getting more compensation than just their scholarships with all the money that is being made off of them? This question has brought up intense debates due to college athletics’ being considered amateur sports and because of the complexity it seems it would take to actually be able to pay all athletes fairly. However, living in an economic system based solely on supply and demand and with the clear abundance of funds in the NCAA, college athletes deserve to be paid.
First, some say that college athletes should be paid because of the fact that the schools and the NCAA make billions. In an article from USA Today, it stated: “NCAA made more than $1 billion for the year” (Mama). On the other hand, they should not be paid because tons of the athletes get scholarships, they are rewarded with a free education, and they are technically getting around twenty-thousand dollars a year. First, in an article from Scholorshipstats.com in statistics from 2015 regarding the amount of scholarship money that was given out was nearly 2.2 billion dollars.
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
College athletes should not be paid money to participate in the sports they play. Many of the athletes are attending because of scholarships that pay for tuition and other fees that come with going to higher tier colleges. A majority of the only have to pay for meals and items they need like toiletries. My first reason on why they should not be getting paid is the school doesn't have money for everyone. According to theatlantic.com, “The average FBS athletic program ran a 9.44 million dollar operating deficit.” Schools cannot be paying for the athletes that attend their classes and play on their sport teams. With most colleges now having many sports programs and many athletes attending they can't all get what they want.
“Shabazz Napier is one of the biggest stars of a college basketball team in the national championship game, yet he claims there have been nights where he's "starving" because he doesn't have money to buy food” (Zucker). This is where the topic of food for athletes took off. Although the topic of unlimited meals and snacks has been lingering since Napier’s comment, it should not have been shoved aside for several years by the legislative board. Napier is not the only athlete that has gone to sleep starving, but after his comments, he raised awareness and change came about.(Indubitably, college athletes that are disregarded from this law are deprived of the benefits of a healthy lifestyle which ultimately damages the athletes’ performance and