Smart Athletes

If the college is making money from their athletes’ performance, those athletes just be getting money as well.

They house you, feed you, clothe you, educate you, give you a living stipend, and you get to travel the world. These opportunities are priceless”. Most scholarships to universities provide you with every necessity, if not more, so what else could you possibly need? The athletes obtain their compensation with the benefits they already received from the scholarship, so allowing the players to be paid more than what the scholarship contributes may lead to mismanagement and the students trying to negotiate separate deals with the NCAA.

These are all questions that need to be asked. The money given to an athlete is not just pulled out of a hat. It has to come from somewhere. Bigger budget universities say that they can use the excess money earned the profit of ticket sales and profit from sports networks for the team. In an U.S. News article, they say, “There is a misconception that athletic programs in general are profitable and institutions are making money hand-over-fist. The truth is that only a fraction of the programs are profitable and most operate at a cost to the university” (Mitchell). “Northwestern University football players have been trying to unionize” (Morganteen). This could possibly work out for a high budget Division-1 football team such as Northwestern yet hundreds of other universities could not make this possible. Nicholls State among hundreds more universities could make this possible. “They are not what some people are arguing they should become, unionized employees of the university” (Morganteen). Consequently, the idea of creating contracts and signing-deals with salaries for college athletes is not a smart move and should not be made.

The 1920s was a prosperous and extravagant time for the United States. It was full of luxury, art, and entertainment. These things along with other contributing factors, like the economy, led to this time being known as the Roaring Twenties. The economy at the time was a great one, one full of higher pay for less work, more goods for less money, and you could even just pay with credit. With all this ‘extra’ money laying around the employment rate was also able to slightly increase, causing us to have one of our lowest unemployment rates in the 1900s. Along with the employment rate, the extra money allowed people to have more time for leisure which caused quite a boom in the entertainment industry. More people were going out to watch movies,

Everyone seems to benefit off these college athletes except for the athletes themselves. Student athletes should be able to make money off themselves because it's hard for college athletes to live and sustain themselves without money. As well as NCAA athletes should be able to profit off themselves because people exploit them. The NCAA shouldn’t limit financial opportunities for students because it takes away from them. Lastly, students aspire and have hobbies that they should enjoy if it also involves making money so be it.

Whether or not student-athletes should be paid has been a hotly debated topic since the 1900s. College athletes spend just as much time, if not more time, practicing and devoting time and energy to sports as they do academics. For this, many athletes are rewarded with scholarship money. However, many people believe it is not enough. Should we pay student-athletes a slice of the wealth or is a full-ride scholarship enough? (Business Insider). What if the athlete gets injured? Where does the money come out of to support each athlete’s salary? The huge amount of money being generated from college sports has led some people to think that the athletes are entitled to some of that revenue. While, some think that student-athletes should be paid, others disagree for various reasons.

Athletes do, however, help to create substantial revenue for colleges, including indirectly through advertising money. One possible solution to this might be to allow athletes to have their own endorsement deals, personally. In this scenario, the money would flow to the athlete not from the college, but from a major corporation. This would be only slightly different in principle from a college

Now, paying these athletes doesn’t have to be for everyone. Only the high caliber, D1 athletes. The D1 athletes put in all this time and effort to get a scholarship, but don’t see any money. Now that’s not right. These D1 caliber players don’t come around all the time. There are not many of them. Plus the schools that do have these players are super rich. “These teams not only provide their supporters with a steady source of entertainment, but their performance also helps bring notoriety and pride to the universities they represent. College athletics, especially the so-called "revenue sports" of men 's basketball and football, is now a multi-million dollar business that is marketed, packaged, and sold in the same manner as other commercial products” (Acain).

By only increasing the value of athletes’ scholarships you maintain the integrity of the game while not putting too much extra financial stress on schools. This extra cash also allows athletes to truly and fully have their college expenses taken care of.

After high school, some students decide to make the decision to go to college to further their education, earn a degree, have fun, and some, to play sports. College sporting events bring in money through tickets, jerseys, shirts, and other gear. The money made for all of these items and expenses go to paying coaches, the school, charities, utilities, and other expenses a school has to pay to have a sports team. Most college athletes are given scholarships to allow them not to have to pay for college or anything that comes with the college experience. Some athletes, that are good enough athletically, do not ever pay for tuition, living expenses, meal plans, books, and everything else a normal student would have to pay for. For some college athletes that is not enough. Some college athletes believe that they should get a paycheck based on the money that the school makes on putting on sporting events that these athletes are participating in. Other college athletes are satisfied with the scholarship given to them and do not seek additional money.

College athletes don’t have to worry about paying for books, meals, or the sport equipment they use to work out with. They don’t need money to throw away on food because they possibly have a certain meal plan provided by their athletic trainers. College athletes still have time to get a job during the off-season. Many people have to pay for college and student athletes with scholarships are the lucky ones who

Most student-athletes playing a sport in college are there on an athletic scholarship. The scholarship is granted to them by their respective schools and is worth anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000. According to Edelman, the football program alone at University of Alabama brought in roughly 143.3 million dollars of revenue. In perspective, that’s about 2 million per player. Even though Alabama is an elite program and brings in more than the average football program, the NCAA brought in nearly $845 billion in 2011 per Sonny. Now it is obvious there many ways a university brings in revenue, but it is safe to say that a player is worth more than that $100,000 scholarship. In fact, a substantial share of college sports’ revenues stay in the hands of a select few administrators, athletic directors, and coaches. Now think about what college athletics would be without the world class athletes it has today, or without any athletes at all. If a school didn’t “award” athletes these scholarships, there would be

What most people don’t is that not all athletes get the full-ride scholarships that people think of. Most collegiate sports don’t even offer full-ride scholarships; instead they have a set amount of money that they can do whatever to give scholarships. According to a U.S. News article, “The average athletic scholarship is about $10,400. Only four sports offer full rides to all athletes who receive scholarships: football, men’s and women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball” (O'Shaughnessy). Just to put this into perspective, there are twenty-four total college sports, and only these 4 offer full scholarships. This showcases the rarity of a full-ride in college athletes. Looking into it even more, most of those college athletes come from low income families, “86 percent of college athletes come from below the poverty line” (Hayes 1). A college athlete's schedule is also very hectic. In an article showing the schedule of a football player, it lists, “6am-7am: Wake up,

There are many good athletes in professional sports today. There are many good athletes in college sports today also. Some of the biggest names in sports are Mark McGwire, Steve Young, Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, and so on. Now, imagine if all of those players never made it to the pros. What would happen to professional sports? Why are they in the pros now? To make it into professional sports you need more than just talent. You need opportunity. College scholarships not only give athletes the opportunity to reach the professional ranks, but also give the chance for many players to earn a degree in higher education.

College scholarships, the attraction of every devoted sports player out there. Earning scholarships brings players together not only to step up their game, but to be enthusiastic about exceeding their academic goals. Colleges put down an amount of money to attract top athletes from high schools all over their state. Athletic meaning all sports, like golf, fencing, and water polo. Tons of schools and families support the aid colleges grant in their athletic scholarship programs, while others are against it, saying that it has too few people who are accepted and that it takes away money that everyone else has to pay for their classes. They don’t realize that players will be encouraged to do great academically, so that they may do great