Should College Student Athletes Be Paid Essay

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 ).

Not only do different college sports bring in vastly different amounts of revenue, but different athletes on individual teams bring in vastly different amounts of revenue. Due to these differences, it is impossible to make a determination as to how funding would be allocated. William Jung Texas Christian University, 3 May 2013 explains Different athletes, even on the most profitable sports teams, bring in vastly different levels of revenue economics research articles have estimated the marginal revenue product (MRP) of a student-athlete in major college sports. The most recent study finds that the median MRP was about $44,000, which exceeds the average value of a scholarship, and that the mean MRP was over $91,000. For the best players, MRP exceeds $1,000,000. Dan Duggan New Jersey LLC., 10 March 2015 explains the impact of this which is Due to the necessity of providing equal pay for all players, it becomes logistically impossible to equitably compensate athletes. but as far as flat-out paying them, I just think that’s

The ugly truth behind the money machine that is college sports is that, every year, college athletes are deceived by the institutions the compete for into making them millions of dollars, with relatively little in return. Athletes are said to be given a chance to attend college and to attain a free college degree. However, research has shown that this is not completely true for two reasons. For one, the student athlete will spend most of their time in preparation for competition. Secondly, what education the student athlete does receive hardly serves them outside of maintaining eligibility just so

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.

Many believe that paying college athletes is wrong because they are amateurs, or students first and athletes second. With tuition continuing to raise the average athletic scholarships aren’t covering the costs anymore. There is a misconception that most college athletes on athletic scholarships are getting everything paid for, in reality that’s actually false. For example, a Division I basketball team is granted thirteen scholarships each year. Of those thirteen scholarships the University is allowed to split them up however they feel. These scholarships are for incoming students from high school and returning student athletes that had their scholarship picked up for another year. According to author Mark Kantrowitz, less than 20,000 students a year receive an entirely free ride to college (O’Shaughnessy, 2011). That number is students total, not student athletes, that is a very small number when you see that there were 453,347 NCAA student athletes in 2012-13 (Brown, 2013).

Although coaches and staff can make millions of dollars, student athletes are playing sports but are students first; therefore student athletes should not be paid. They already receive payment by receiving scholarships, in many cases were college is already paid for. Colleges in different financial situations might have more or less of the ability of actually paying their

College Athletes already receive significant amounts of money. Some people are aware enough to realize that student athletes on athletic scholarship are essentially paid already because they receive free tuition, room, meal plans, and some money for books and miscellaneous expenses (Dorfman). At the bigger, more successful universities, athletes also receive academic counseling, tutoring, life skill training, and even nutritional advice. Certainly, not all student athletes are on scholarship and not all are on full scholarships but the student athletes in the revenue sports are receiving compensation in the form of educational benefits and living expenses. Traveling around the world is another privilege these student-athletes are afforded. Many college athletes are being reimbursed with nearly as much money as the average American makes per year (Dirlam).

College athletes get scholarships, but the average scholarship goes for about ten-thousand-four-hundred-dollars, which makes people believe that money made by sports at colleges should go back to the players. Since the players are the ones bringing in the revenue of t-shirts, jerseys, tickets, and much more some money should go to them. College athletes should get paid because they need something to set them back on their feet after college, they also are not playing just for fun, and because of their dedication to their team.

There are many ways that student athletes could be paid besides flat out giving them salaries. A very one would be to allow the players to sign endorsement deals while in college. Signing contracts with large companies is prohibited by the NCAA but by allowing players to join brands they can earn money for themselves. In addition to this, the NCAA could allow boosters (mainly alumni who donate to the team) to give gifts to the athletes. For example if the athlete cannot afford a computer to do his school work the booster could lend the athlete one to use.

College sports are an important focus and part of universities today. The NCAA has been around and regulating college sports since 1906 (“National Collegiate Athletic Association”). Over the years, the National Collegiate Athletic

While not all student athletes are on scholarship, many are; particularly those who are playing for schools we see winning national championships. In addition to free tuition and room and board, these college athletes also often receive help towards books and other basic needs. This money does not have to be paid back. Most other students are not receiving these benefits, and will come out of school with a great big student loan debt. Student athletes already have it easier, financially, than most of the students at their school. That’s why some people answer the question “Should student athletes be paid?” with a firm no.

In trying to decide what research topic I wanted to use, I took many ideas into thought. I decided that the one idea that interests me most is whether student athletes should be paid or not. This is very intriguing to me since my master’s program is sports management. In order to do this research there must be many ways to use research as well as ideas from other people. This project is a very big topic in today’s discussion amongst sport fans, college administrators, and student athletes themselves. Media has recently put more pressure on this topic as well with the Northwestern decision to unionize as well as pointing out an athletic director gaining an $18,000 supplement for a wrestler at their school winning a national

Student athletes commonly go to school for one reason: their love for the sport they participate in. These student athletes get scholarships from large Division 1 schools, which means things such as schooling, board, and food will be paid for by the school so the student athletes do not have to pay for these benefits themselves (Patterson). If college athletes are to be paid, it will cause unfair compensation between players who are valued or played more than others. When student athletes are rewarded with a scholarship, they have nothing school related that they would need to pay for. This can lead them to blow all of their income on unnecessary or dangerous things such as drugs and alcohol which could get them removed from the team they

Even though college athletes aren’t able to receive any type of monetary compensation they receive thousands of dollars in scholarships

Opponents against paying student-athletes say that they should not be paid because through scholarships, they're already being paid. Yes, a scholarship is a form of payment. A scholarship is nice, but it is not enough. A scholarship will not pay the bills. Moreover, unlike ordinary students without athletics, student-athletes must also many times care for families and spouses. Actually, approximately 24% of student athletes are married, and of that 24%, about 62% have children. Of the students without their own spouses or children, many must care for parents and siblings.