Should Colledge Athletes Receive Compensation for Playing? Essay

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According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, there are over 400,000 student

athletes attending a university this year. Its a debate that has been going on for the last twenty years,

Should student-athletes receive compensation for playing? This argument has gone on for a while,

but recently received media attention, when the O’Bannon v. NCAA started taking place. Athletes

believed that they were being exploited on video games, and believed that they deserved compensation

for that. Now there are multiple sides to this debate, some may argue that they are already receiving

compensation, by receiving a free education, while others will debate that athletes work hard and deserve

to get paid for the time and effort they…show more content…
Many would agree that the

majority of student athletes grow up in middle to lower class families. Many athletes play sports just

to support their families. If student-athletes were to be paid, this would allow for them to take care

of their families, to make sure that they have a more safe and better environment to live in. With the

compensation of athletes, this would cause them to play harder, to work out more, to achieve their

maximum ability. This in turn would create better sports programs, due to the fact that everyone is

working harder to get their salary. This perspective differs from the first perspective due to the fact that

they do not believe it will “affect schooling, or teaching in the classroom”. They believe that if a student

athlete “knows he has to work hard in school, to keep his salary, then he or she will.” They believe that

favoritism will not take place, because those who care about their schooling, will work for their education.

Lastly, there are those who believe that students are already receiving compensation, illegally.

This, isn’t a theory in some cases, but a fact. There have been multiple NCAA investigations, on several

programs about whether or not students were receiving money to play at their schools. This act has been

taking place since 1981. One of the most talked about investigations, was Southern Methodist University.

The SMU Football program had reportedly been keeping a “stash

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