Should College Students Face College Debt

College sports can determine a person’s lifestyle. Determines whether or not they can go pro or get a job. Paying athletes can give them a better sense of money. They can learn how to save their money up, learn how to spend it correctly, and a great sense of financial awareness. The problem is that many

A topic that is very controversial for everyone is, should student-athletes in college be compensated? There numerous evidence that supports in favor and many against the proposition of paying student- athletes who play sports for their university. As a college athlete, students are putting their bodies on the line each game they play. There’s possibility of suffering a traumatic brain injury or being paralyze after physical contact. These athletes are sacrificing their bodies and physical health at an opportunity to play a game which they love, and hopefully play it in the professional level. While that’s taking place, college football and basketball are big business that keep expanding. College sports bring in a large amount of revenues. The result is that many of them fail to graduate. Paying college athletes would not ruin amateur sport because even though most college athletes do get scholarship and should focus on their education it doesn’t help them if most of the time they are not attending classes to be in practice or games. College sports do make a high-income and athletes deserve a portion of the revenue they bring their programs.

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.

Lower classes families will be able to send their children to college which will give them an opportunity they would never have had.

It is true stories like Heather Van Norman’s that make people wish there was more help provided to the hardworking young adults in the college atmosphere. There has to be some way for the colleges to offer more support than they do. Crazy as it may seem, the colleges do not always produce what they say they are going to, whether it be by means of financial support, scholarship promises, or guarantees for professional sports careers. Thus, it should be implemented that college athletes should be paid for participation in college-level athletics or at least receive a voucher to attain a degree upon completion of their four-year (minimum) careers as students.

There is currently a major issue in today’s college athletics. Universities and the NCAA make billions of dollars while some student-athletes go hungry. There is a huge debate over whether or not student-athletes should be paid as employees of their respective colleges. Personally, I don’t believe players should receive full-time salaries, but Universities and the NCAA should be required to increase the value of the scholarships that they award to student-athletes. By requiring that colleges provide athletes with an additional $2,000 per semester as part of their scholarship you can greatly increase the well-being (welfare) of the students.

David Frank, who writes for an informational site that explains scholarships, wrote an interesting article titled, “Facts About Full-Ride Scholarships.” Within this article, Frank describes exactly what people should know when it comes to the benefits student athletes are already receiving when schools grant them scholarships. Frank states, “Full-ride scholarships essentially enable recipients to attend college at little cost. Tuition, room and board, books, and certain fees related are covered” (Frank). To build upon the ideas of Frank, Tamar Lewin provided the opposite end of the spectrum that should be taken into account as well. In her article, “College Graduates’ Debt Burden Grew, Yet Again, in 2010,” she discusses the problems with debt that college graduates are being forced to deal with when they enter the real world. Lewin explains, “Students who graduated from college in 2010 with student loans owed an average of $25,250, up 5 percent from the previous year” (Lewin 1). Therefore, both sources open the conversation that these college athletes that graduate college will not face near the amount of debt that regular students will. Just because another student can shoot a basketball better, or catch a football, or run fast, does not mean they should be allowed to receive extra benefits. College athletes at

In 2013, postsecondary universities spent $499 billion dollars (“U.S.News”). A great deal of colleges today in America are in debt for the heavy spending they do to make their university the best place to receive an education. College athletes, who receive a scholarship to represent a college in a sport, go to college for free and obtain many benefits normal college students would not get. Paying college athletes would be unfair to students who go through college with debt up to their neck along with not being able to receive sport scholarships. Paying college athletes would put colleges into more debt as well as would start a crisis across America because college sports performers and students would not be treated as equals. The rising opinion that college athletes should be paid can be stifled by aggressive media campaigns, investigations, and strict enforcement of rules.

The hot topic amongst people entering college is student loan debt. With the average debt at tens of thousands of dollars, many people shy away from college, or at least do not get a full degree. As a result, many politicians have preached plans to make college free, and thus bring an end to student loan debt. However, those on the other end of the spectrum find themselves hindered in jumping aboard the free college mania, because, after all, nothing is free, everything comes at a price. And as they soon learned, what a price indeed. In fact, in order for the universities to pay staff and accommodate the student body without tuition being on the shoulders of the students, state taxes would have to be increased on the entire taxpaying population.

According to Students Borrowing: Debt, Default, and Repayment 2015, written by Lance Lochner, explains that $1.26 trillion dollars in the cumulative student debt in the U.S. of student loans for U.S. college students. In addition, 44.2 million Americans have student loan debt. As a college athlete, most to all of college expenses are paid for a scholarship. With the help of their athletic ability and the scholarships they have obtained, they are not like the other 44.2 million people who have to pay

Most people would agree that getting a degree would make life easier as opposed to ending education with a high school diploma. With the shortage of career opportunities, jobs are becoming more competitive and most require higher education. College has become necessary and so consequently, it has become more expensive. While loans have made it possible for nearly anyone to attend college, because they are given too easily, the costs of college has increased even more. A cycle of giving loans and raising tuition is created and as a result college students are burdened with a colossal amount of debt. The issues of student debt go beyond affecting graduates’ lives and begin to cripple many areas of the economy, as well as hinder forward mobility.

The debate over college athletes being paid is primarily argued in NCAA Division I athletics, because that is the highest level of college athletics. However, that just strengthens the argument as to why college athletes should not be paid. At the Division I level, athletic departments are allowed to award student-athletes full-ride athletic scholarships. That pays for tuition, room and board, additional school fees, and—because of the pressure to pay athletes—certain cash allowances for food. The financial advantage earned by athletic ability alone is tremendous. With student loan debt rising to historic levels, every student would love to have that much financial assistance. The vast majority of college athletes will not play a professional sport. The scholarships that they earn give them an advantage by allowing them to receive an education without having thousands of dollars worth of debt to pay off. It is often said that education is the key to success, but the necessary education normally comes with years of

On the field or court, college athletes look like they have it easy or are “living the high life”, while in reality 86% of college athletes come from families that are not very wealthy. The average college tuition during the 2017-2018 school year was $50,900, and the families that are not very wealthy cannot pay that immense sum of money. Although it may seem like college athletes get paid through a scholarship, the actual scholarship they are receiving is around $11,000, that still leaves $39,900 to still need to be paid by the family. If college athletes were compensated, then they would be able to provide more money towards their tuition.

College is where you go to get higher sources of education. Many high school students dream of attending college in order to attain more knowledge, yet so many people fail to realize the cost of college. Attending college, currently, is nearly impossible to do without being in some sort of financial debt or seeking out government help. According to the American Association of University Professors, “two-thirds of American college students graduate with substantial debt, averaging nearly $30,000 (if one includes charge cards) in 2008 and rising.” (AAUP, 2012) Although going to college is beneficial, there is an argument on whether or not going to college is worth the possible debt incurred. The goal

Only 30% of Division 1 basketball players who accepted scholarships will graduate college, and only 40% of football players with scholarships will get a degree. Just how well spent would the money be that college athletes were to receive if over half of these student-athletes do not care enough to graduate college even with scholarships? Schools would spend millions of dollars a year paying these athletes and it is very probable that much of it would be spent irresponsibly. We have seen many examples of college athletes spending money given to them in careless ways in the history of college athletics. Scholarship athletes competing at the collegiate level should not get compensated because they are amateur athletes, many of them are already receiving compensation in the form of scholarships, and paying every college athlete would ultimately be a costly burden to taxpayers and fans.