Student Athlete Compensation

College sports are a phenomenon that keeps viewers coming back for more. Stated in an article on Money Nation the NCAA makes an estimated $1 billion per year and this number is still growing. What really is insane is that all that money is made off of college athletes, who don’t get a penny from that total number. The debate on whether or not college athletes should be paid has been around for decades and probably will still be here for years to come. Paying college athletes would make the teams unfair, change how hard players will work to get better, affect the amateurism of college sports, and lastly influence the athlete's willingness to participate in college sports.

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 ).

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

Many student-athletes can have their whole career, their passion, and love of their respected sport taken away from them with just 1 play. The student-athletes are representing their respective school and making the school more popular and more students will want to enroll there and the student-athletes are making the NCAA millions of dollars, but the NCAA will not give the student-athletes just a little allowance because it will “ruin the integrity of college sports”. Student athletes-athletes should get paid because students could get hurt in one play, the NCAA makes millions of dollars on the the players, and it will make the players do smarter things with their money.

The NCAA states that the student athletes are paid in the form of an education, but this is not always true. There have been many instances in which student-athletes have graduated with grade school reading levels or never graduated because they were not directed to pursue any specific degree path (Marquette sports law journal). The emphases of winning in collegiate sports use to be for moral. College sports now are a very lucrative business and a lot of it comes from being on television and through sponsorship. Nike is going to endorse the teams that win over the teams that lose. College athletics has been estimated to be a $60 billion industry (McCormick). Universities are all too willing to try and get a piece of this huge industry.

In contrast, college athletes simply give up too much to not be compensated. On average, college athletes spend on average 40 hours a week either practicing, or playing. Even with all of this time and effort given, it appears as not enough to be compensated for. In addition, the annual NCAA men 's basketball tournament referred to as “March Madness” affects more than six days of classes, which affects their learning in the classroom. Plus, everyday, every practice and every game athletes give up their bodies and health to play their sports. Everyday they live with the chance to get injured, which could even end some careers. And when athletes do get seriously injured, they have to pay for it, not the university. Equally important is the fact of recognizing college athletes as employees. At most schools, college coaches regulate student athlete speech on various social media websites, even when their sport is not in session. Treating them like employees, unpaid employees. In an article from TheSportster, it is stated that “Getting paid in college would help teach these players some responsibility before they are

College sports are something that everyone has thought about, and many question whether or not they should get paid for it. Many Americans question whether or not it is right or wrong to pay college athletes to play sports. College athletes deal with a lot, from balancing classes to long practices in the evening. College is supposed to be a time when some individual figures out what he or she wants to do, but not for athletes. Most college athletes go to college on scholarships, giving them a full ride, but coaches think athletes are supposed to dedicate their life over to sports. I think college athletes should get paid because college is hard enough, and juggling a sport can add more stress to an athlete’s life. College athletes do more work than the people in the NFL and NBA. Being a college athlete is like being on a full-time job, because they dedicate their time and effort to that sport just like any person would on a job. College athletes should be paid because a sport is a full-time job, they devote so much time to it, and schools earn a lot of money off college athletes.

There has been many different arguments discussing whether or not college athletes should be paid or not. I’m not saying that any of them are exactly correct, however, in my opinion, they should. College athletes have put thousands of hours in their youth to get to where they are, and they don’t make a single dollar. The most money that a college athlete can make is in the form of scholarships to their university and through working their own jobs which none of them have time for. For me, I believe that college athletes should be paid because they spent their whole lives to get to where they are and because the student-athletes bring in tons of money for the schools.

Every morning, millions of people around the world get up and go to their jobs in hopes of a paycheck to support themselves and their families. Full time or part time, where there is work to be done, there are money and benefits to be earned. Collegiate athletes not only work to excel in the classroom but are also expected to train and perform like professional athletes. College athletes participating in the NCAA should get paid because a scholarship does not cover all college athlete expenses, the return on investment received by the college or university is large enough to do so, and with money as motivation, the level of play could significantly improve.

Imagine putting in hours of work and putting yourself at risk of injury at your job and not getting paid for it. That is what college athletes are dealing with. I and many other basketball/football fans think It is unfair that college athletes are not getting paid, just like how there are many people who think they should not get paid to compete even though they put in many hours and hard work to entertain us. Some people think it would not be fair, that they would not be smart with their money, and that it would kill the players will to work hard and compete at their fullest, which I decided to look into to see if these were true.

"College Athletes Should Not Be Paid due to Post-Eligibility ). But this downplays the exploitation. The athletes in major football and men’s basketball programs are disproportionately black, many from poor and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. For many of the college athletes this is the ¨only game in town¨. Paying College Athletes is a huge mistake because it is a quote on quote ¨misdiagnoses the disease but because it suggests that the only cure is to put the patient out of his misery.¨ It fails, to recognize the value of sports as a part of education. This can be seen in the numerous student athletes, from basketball to tennis players, who pour so much time into training and playing games with no hope of going to a major league level. Many of these kids, in even the biggest sports show dedication and determination for long periods of time after it is clear to them that they will never be on the professional level. ¨At many of America's largest colleges and universities, athletics has become overemphasized at great financial, academic, and moral costs. As average for the entire period of 2004-2006, only 16 teams broke even. ¨ ( NCAA Division I Institutions:

College athletes are spending a significant amount of time working hard on a sport, however they are not getting enough credit. College coaches are receiving a numerous amount of money for what the players are doing out on the court or field. Also, some athletes feel they need to excel more in the sport then in the classroom, which can jeopardize their future. Student-athletes have other costs they need to pay for, but they have no time for a job due to practices, workouts, and games. College athletes should be paid for playing at the collegiate level, because they would focus more on academic studies, have an easier time paying for extra costs, and the colleges earn enough money from the NCAA and the sports

Another argument in the case for college athletes to be paid would be that the scholarships that are offered to athletes aren’t enough to cover the lost wages they would gain from working a job. Even though some athletes are offered full ride scholarships to great universities, they aren’t enough to pay their rent and other bills that they have. With athletes committing so much time for sports they do not have the time to get a job and pay for their bills and other things they need. This puts more strain on the athletes and can cause them to drop out of their respective sports and when that happens they ultimately lose their scholarships. College athletics are more demanding than a full-time job should pay their athletes for their services provided to the university they play for. The wages lost by athletes at universities are even greater than those working typical eight-hour days. Since athletes, football in particular, commit an immense amount of time to their sports they could be obtaining a wage far greater than the amount of the scholarship they obtained for attending and participating in sports at a university. Another point to be made would be that only a small portion of the people associated with college athletics receive full scholarships. This means that not only are athletes committing so much time and effort for sports, they must pay out of pocket for the portion that their respective

In the professional leagues or sporting activities, sportsmen get pay for their efforts and talents in entertaining the public. Sports acts as a source of income to the participants in the league. It is a different scenario when it comes to NCAA management league. Students do not obtain pay for their services, efforts, talents, and entertainment show to the public. College athletes display their talents to the entire public who enjoy watching them perform. Some scholars argue that students should obtain pay for their efforts and talents while others maintain that college athletes should be contented with what they have as participants. College athletes are not gaining payment for participation in the NCAA league because of benefits they acquire from colleges, the act would add to issues in the budget that colleges would not be able to afford.

The problem with this is that some college athletes like football players are spending 40 hours a week practicing with the team, team meetings and other team activities. Athletes also have to travel for away games which makes the idea of having a job impossible. Between classes, 40 hours of team activities during the week and weekends spent on the road the athletes have schedule is full (Cooper 12). Robert McCormick who was a attorney for the National Labor Relations Board and he said "These young men are laboring under very strict and arduous conditions, so they really are laborers in terms of the physical demands on them while they're also trying to go to school and being required to go to school."(Cooper ). Also if an athlete has a quiz the same day as practice the athlete has to miss the quiz and take it another time. A lot of athletes are afraid that their hectic schedule will negatively affect their grades so a lot time they take easy classes that don't require a lot of work. I also believe that if college athletes were paid then it would incentivize them to finish their degrees most of the top college basketball players go to school for one year and enter the NBA draft. A lot of students can't afford to stay in school because they come from a poor background. Just this past year a student from Auburn left school early to enter the NFl because his mother was homeless.