Should College Athletes Be Paid?

The hot topic in amateur sports has been as to whether or not college athletes should be paid. The NCAA amateur rule states that an athlete in college sports cannot be paid other than their athletic scholarship. These athletes spend a tremendous amount of time at school practice and then working on schoolwork after practice. The NCAA is an organization that oversees all of the athletes that make up the basic unit of intercollegiate sports. The success of the NCAA whether it’s through the sale of merchandise, game day revenue or NCAA tournaments that each individual sports has, despite the absolute success of these tournaments these athletes receive any monetary compensation .Some of the main reasons why the NCAA lack of payments are that it wants to maintain its amateur status and

The grand debate of whether to pay college athletes continues today; yet, there are so many other amenities provided to the athletes that they are practically paid through those. College athletes are considered amateurs therefore they should not be paid. This debate has been going on for many years and there has not been a consensus on what to do.

Debating to pay college athletes for their time, effort, and the money the help generate for the school they attend has been an ongoing debate for countless years. This issue has become more prevalent in recent years because of the expense of living in today’s economy, and the fact that big-time college athletes contribute but do not receive any of the millions of dollars generated by their sports. Stanley Eitzen, a professor emeritus of sociology at Colorado State University, former president of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, and the author of Fair and Foul: Beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport, stands up for athletes and demands that society and the NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association], reconsider

Imagine, if you were in college, and a football player, spending all your time and energy playing football and you are being paid. You work your way up to the NFL tryouts and haven’t been picked . Wouldn’t you be devastated. Now you have nothing else to do. You should’ve focused on something to lean back on in case this would have happened. The article I read was, ‘Should College Athletes be Paid?’. The topic was that people are considering paying college football players. But I don’t beleive that should happen. I chose this considering that anything involving college has always been of interest. Especially on this problem, whether the college’s money should fund a sport.

There are a few things that separate professional athletes from college athletes. What separates them is that professionals receive money for their hard work and dedication to their specific sport. When you think about it, the professional athletes get paid for what they do best while the college athletes juggle academics, social life, jobs, etc. To me, that is absurd. However, college athletes are receiving pay for the time they spend playing their sports. The college athletes pay is actually an education. Therefore, despite the salaries of college coaches, the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) annual income, the responsibilities of

Growing up people loved watching and imitating athletes, wanting to be them, not knowing the struggle it takes to get there. It ponders to say the college athlete who risk life and limb just by going out on the field no matter if an amateur or a professional should get paid or not by colleges. The professionals get paid, why not on the collegiate level? Some feel by the student’s getting paid it will lose what some say is lost in “paid professional sports” today, playing just for the love of the game. Every college athlete should be rewarded with money for sacrificing their time, schedule, schoolwork, and their bodies.

How many college athletic events do you watch a year? Every time you turn on the television, chances are some type of college sport will be on. In the last decade a serious question has arisen: Should we pay college athletes? They provide entertainment in the same way professional athletes do when they are on the field, and they are familiarized with the pressures of professional athletes. But with this in question, there are numerous arguments. Some will argue that many athletes have their tuition paid in full so there is no need for additional money, while others will argue that they are at college for an education not a paycheck. According to an article on NCAA and college sports, “The college sports industry generates $11 billion in annual revenues. Fifty colleges report annual revenues that exceed $50 million. Meanwhile, five colleges report annual revenues that exceed $100 million” (Mitchell). These athletes devote the majority of their time to practicing their sport, and then put those talents on display for millions of people across the world to watch. I believe it is time we begin to compensate college athletes for the enormous amount of revenue they generate for the NCAA.

The world we live in, our every action is driven by some economics motivation. Every task we perform now has some kind of monetary value attached to it. While some may argue that has made us materialistic, others believe it’s just a way of acknowledging each other’s hard work. A similar trend is seen in sports; athletes and coaches are paid, highly to acknowledge them and show appreciation. However, when it comes to college sports, everyone’s views change and only the coaches are the ones being compensated. Today, I would like to argue against these double standards because, the effort college athletes put towards their sport and the commercialization of college level sports, justifies the notion of monetary compensation for college athletes.

When athletes begin playing on a professional level, they are drafted to a team. Whether it is a large amount or small amount they are signed to a contract. However, some of them use their money unwisely and find themselves in debt. In order to counter this they should be allowed a sum of money while attending school to enable them to be financially aware. Yes, some may argue that scholarships are enough to cover the student’s expenses when in reality it will not be enough to support them all 4 years.

One of the many debatable topics that has been rising to the surface is “Should college athletes be paid?”. This has become a burning question. The NCAA is a multibillion-dollar industry, that makes millions, if not billions, in revenue. Yet it’s still maintains the non-profit status meaning that the industry is not set on making a profit and none of the revenue that is made is distributed to its members, managers, or officers. While most players who play in college sports are under a scholarship, that pays for the college tuition, books, and housing, it’s simply not enough anymore in this day and age. Throughout this essay, I will discuss the ideas of why college athletes should be paid based on the following points. The athletes work on

Funding is also said to impact the particular athletes that agree to attend the university. As many athletes attending universities seek scholarship, because of the rising cost of tuition. For UC Irvine Track and Field, scholarships are stretched in an attempt to assist as many athletes the head coach feels should receive. The splitting of funding allows more athletes receive help. During Coach Carter’s years on the track team, she remembered only 1 of the 70+ athletes was given a full ride. According to the coaches, there was a time when the athletes had to purchase their own running shoes and sponsored gear, where many other programs are provide this.

Over the last few decades college athletics has gained immense popularity since the turn of the century. Many people even prefer collegiate sports to professional sports. Whether it is football or basketball, no matter the sport, college athletics bring large amounts of money to their respective Universities as well as increasing the popularity. Many Universities make millions of dollars off the games and the merchandise they sell. The only reason that the Universities make this kind of money is because the student-athletes fill the seats. Yet, even with the Universities making that kind of money off what the student-athletes do, the student-athletes aren’t paid, and there lies the problem. According to NCAA rules, “You are not eligible for participation in a sport if you have ever: Taken pay, or the promise of pay, for competing in that sport” (NCAA Regulations 1). So, that leaves the question “Should College Athletes Be Paid?”

There is a debate on whether college athletes should be paid. It has been known that the fewer scholarships given to student-athletes increase their competiveness on the field, which shows us that keeping money away from student-athletes makes them more competitive (Baird 2). There is also a case that student-athletes are being robbed because they are not receiving compensation for their own likeness (Holthaugh JR. 1). Television networks are paying millions for the rights to show big games on TV, which shows us that student-athletes are the entertainers with no compensation (Bowen 1). Allen Sack informs us that there have been cases where some athletes in the NCAA get injured before they finish their career and don’t make it to the pros due to the loss of their scholarship, which shows us that the NCAA is exploiting student-athletes Sack 2).The NCAA should require schools to pay for sports-related injuries in any serious injury, because it can determine if they will make it to the NFL (Huma 1). Athletes are accepting illegal pay, because they see the universities making all of the money, which shows us that poor student-athletes are in need of compensation (Porto 1). Adrian Peterson thinks that college athletes should be paid because he fought through injuries and did not make a penny from his years at Oklahoma, which shows us that student-athletes who make it to the NFL have injuries that they are fighting through during the combine (Haislop 2). Joe Theisman thinks that

College athletes do not have time to have a job to be able to provide for themselves the things that scholarships do not cover.

The idea that college level student athletes should be paid has been receiving close review in the last few years. Proponents to the idea of paying student athletes argue that competing at such a high level interferes with academics and that they deserve to be paid; however, the athletes themselves are the ones who decided to undertake the tremendous commitment that comes with playing sports in college. They should not be paid because they are already being paid in the form of scholarships, and paying student athletes would damage the integrity of the sport as a whole. Furthermore, paying athletes that participate in profitable sports may take away from other, less profitable sports.