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Should Student Athletes Be Paid Essay

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When you’re watching the College Football Playoffs or March Madness, are you wondering if the players on the television should be considered slaves? It sounds like a ridiculous question, but there are some people out there who would say that is exactly what they are. In the past few years, the debate about whether or not student-athletes should be paid for the sports they play in college has grown insurmountable. This is an issue that sheds light on the fairness of college athletics and is important for not only student-athletes, but anyone who enjoys watching. I, personally, believe student-athletes should not be paid because they are already awarded generous compensation, there are far too many of them with no way to determine who should get paid what, and it would take away from the value of university academics. …show more content…

Chris Webber, retired NBA all-star, was quoted last year by TMZ saying, “Bill Russell told me any system that gets free labor is slavery” (Bellware). This is a fallacy that many people are falling in line with nowadays. Though I enjoy college athletics just as much as the next person, Chris Webber, and those who agree with him, are sadly mistaken. When I say that student-athletes already receive generous compensation, I mean it. In October of 2014, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit made a ruling in a case against the National Collegiate Athletic Association stating that the NCAA is not immune to antitrust regulation and that they were required to increase scholarship payouts to cover the full cost of college attendance (Yankah). The NCAA had permitted this option to schools previously, but this ruling made it a mandatory process. What does a scholarship look like that covers the full cost of college attendance? Allow me to

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