Should College Athletes Be Paid?

Collegiate sports have turned into a billion dollar industry and are probably just as popular, if not more popular than professional sports. College athletes put their bodies on the line to play a sport they love, many with hopes and dreams to one day make it to the professional leagues. Athletic facilities are the major money makers for all universities. Colleges bring in billions of dollars in revenue annually, yet athletes do not get paid. Some fans believe athletes should not get paid due to their sports level being “amateurish.”; however, this is far from the truth. There is much more to being a college athlete than just practicing and playing games. These student-athletes must practice, weight lift, go to meetings, travel, go to tutoring and study groups, all the while maintaining sufficient grades. This is very tedious work and is very time consuming. College athletes have a high standard to live up to (Frederick Web; Huma Web; Patterson Web ).

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch (2011) describes how universities are focused on advancing and receiving money from major athletics and having star athletes, but how the universities are not caring for the “student athlete.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made college sports into an unmerited business. However, as years progress more athletes are getting smart and are taking the NCAA to court. The more students that challenges the rules by the NCAA and take them to court, the secrets and undermining values of the NCAA come out and the closer the NCAA comes to an end.

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,

One of the biggest challenges paying college athletes is the legal power of the term student-athlete. When President Roosevelt created the NCAA to protect young athletes, he also emphasized that the NCAA would “serve a secondary purpose in ensuring ―no student shall represent a college or university in any intercollegiate game . .

One of the many controversial issues regarding college sports is whether athletes should be paid or not. The argument against paying college athletes is often that they are already paid in the form of full ride scholarships for a free education, for one, and two that college is for amateurs and to pay them would mean that they are professionals and not student-athletes. But as a college student myself I can tell you a scholarship does not cover all the expenses of college. College sports is big business there is no question about it, but how is a non-profit able to generate billions of dollars on the backs of athletes who never see that money? Karl Marx would call this an exploitation of labor. The essential issue here is that, given the measure of cash that is put into school sports and the enormous benefits that big time college athletics create, would we be able to truly say that the players are amateurs? Or are they just slaves working for the universities? In Dorfman 's article, Pay College Athletes? They 're Already Paid Up To $125,000 Per Year, he supports that athletes should not be paid. On the other hand, in Nocera 's article, Here 's How TO Pay Up Now, he defends that athletes deserve to be paid as well as Taylor Branch’s article in The Atlantic titled The Shame of College Sports. In this essay a connection will be made between Karl Marx 's views and their implications on college athletics.

Many people know the NCAA in its current state, but do people know about the NCAA before intercollegiate sports were so popular? When the NCAA was first created, it wasn’t even called the NCAA. Originally, the NCAA was known as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (IAA) and was started in 1906 (Smith, 2000). The biggest concern came from college football in 1905 where there were over 18 deaths and 100 major injuries (Smith, 2000). Their main goal was to create rules and regulations to help ensure the safety of student athletes (Smith, 2000). Although an issue not exactly

The competitive athletics programs of member institutions are designed to be a vital part of the educational system. A basic purpose of this Association is to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body and, by so doing, retain a clear line of demarcation between intercollegiate athletics and professional sports (NCAA, 2011).

One of the most controversial subjects we as individuals hear about this day in age is whether or not college athletes deserve to be paid. Many people argue that these athletes do intact, deserve to be paid for their time and hard work. NCAA athletes create a name for themselves by playing and performing well on their college teams. The better these athletes perform, the more publicity the school revives. This then leads to higher ticket sales and stores around campus selling jerseys and other clothing items with athletes names and numbers on the back. NCAA schools have become comfortable with using athletes’ names to bring in a revenue for the school, and yet the athletes never see any of that money. On the other hand, many people believe that these athletes do not deserve, nor should they expect to receive payment in return. They believe that these scholarships and the education are payment in itself. Some even bring up the question on if it is affordable or even realistic to pay college athletes.

According to Smith (2000), in its early years, the NCAA did not venture outside of its role as a rules committee except creating national champions in various sports. Much like today, college

In summary, H.R. Bill 275 has been proposed by Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush in an attempt to reinstate the principles in which the NCAA was founded on. While the bill itself is quite complex, the purpose it serves is quite simple; to appoint a committee of seventeen members consisting of sports experts and members of the legislative branch. The duties of these members are to review, analyze and report on topics including, but not limited to: interaction between collegiate athletics and academics, the financing of athletic programs, the recruitment of student athletes, and the health and safety protections concerning student athletes. While the bill may have great intentions, it has its fair share of flaws.

One question that needs to be answered first is, what is the NCAA? The NCAA or (National Collegiate Athletic Association) are the members that make the rules for college sports at most colleges and

NCAA division 1 sports are what many student-athletes aim to achieve whether it be for Track, Football, Basketball, etc. It's a goal that these students try to achieve to either play professional or to perform on the olympic level. Almost every student-athlete that plays sports in the NCAA level puts their body in serious harm from torn ACL’s, serious head injuries, or any type

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a non- profit association which regulates college athletics. The NCAA is member- led and is dedicated to the success of the college athlete. The members of the NCAA consist of 1,121 post-secondary institutions, voting athletics conferences and 39 affiliated

For as long as second-level institutions have sponsored sports teams to represent their universities, there have been regulations (both official and unofficial) on the athletes, including their safety and benefits. This led to the formation of the NCAA in 1906. The NCAA 's formation in the beginning was to preserve the sport itself in a time when the sport was perceived as too dangerous to be played. United States President Theodore Roosevelt actually inadvertently set the NCAA in motion when he convened thirteen "football representatives" (Treadway,

There has been amplified debate on the treatment, education, training of the college athlete. To avoid exploitation of athletes, “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), formed in 1905, set bylaws requiring college student-athletes to be amateurs in order to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics competition” (Schneider n.p.). Intercollegiate athletics have dramatically changed over the last several decades. Currently, intercollegiate athletics generate tremendous amounts of revenue, remarkably in football and basketball. College sports in America is a