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Should College Athletes Be Paid?

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During the 2014 fiscal year, the NCAA, also known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, had total revenue of nearly $1 Billion. How much of that went to the 460,000 NCAA student-athletes, you may ask? Zero dollars and zero cents. The debate on whether or not student-athletes should be paid, specifically college football players, continues to grow. With this, it becomes increasingly more difficult to deny the fact that college sports are a multi-billion industry and coaches are being paid out multi-million dollar contracts over several years as a result of whether or not their players succeed on the field. College football is a necessary evil. If you want to go to the NFL, there are no loopholes, shortcuts, or ways around playing at the collegiate level first. The current rule prevents players fewer than three years removed from high school from entering the NFL Draft. Is three years too removed from high school too long to have to wait until being able to declare for the draft? Well, that’s an entirely different issue. However, during that three-year gap, collegiate athletes are prohibited from accepting any monetary gifts of any kind. An 18, 19, or 20-year-old is denied the right to receive compensation for his skills, abilities, and talents. Or, an even better question, is a college education, with the possibility of a future professional career, sufficient enough compensation for an athlete that risks their body and well-being on a weekly basis to

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