The Hypocrisy Of A Student Athlete

But why should a student athlete be paid in the first place? Their just athletes right? They go to school just like everyone else? What makes them so special? What makes a college athlete different than the average student is the amount of revenue that they help bring to their selected colleges. This type of revenue is made up from ticket sales, merchandise, media rights and contributions. “USA today” reported that the University of Texas generated $167.7 million dollars from their athletic programs, and that’s just one school. With this in mind, imagine just how much money other colleges are making from their athletics. Sure one can make the argument that they should not be paid because they are not professionals, but one can’t ignore the fact that they are bringing in millions of dollars and seeing none of it.

Student athletes should not be paid. A misconception is that all athletic programs in the NCAA make head-over-toe profit. There are three divisions of intercollegiate athletics, and frankly division three athletic programs don’t make as much or have a profit when compared to division one programs. “Critics of paying college athletes note that only a small number of them compete in sports or on teams that actually generate revenue”. (Paying College Athletes) The truth is only a fraction of athletic programs are actually profitable, while most pose a cost to the institution. The question arises primarily in division one programs and typically in the sports of basketball and football. The argument is made that these institutions receive millions of dollars from their student athletes’ performance, in return they should be paid.

Both sides of this argument have a strong case for why student athletes should, or should not be compensated. The problem might not be what it looks like at first. The main problem is the amount being spent on college athletes and the rising tuition costs for these universities. Duke University 's golf team spent an estimated $20,405 per player (Branstetter). The amount of money being spent on one player on their golf team is represented in the insane amount of tuition which is 60,000 dollars a year at Duke. This is a huge reason as to why colleges are so eager to get a cut of a 60 billion dollar industry. The issue of paying student athletes is not so one sided as athletes work very hard between school and sports, or that

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.

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) makes over $871 million dollars a year on college athletics. Some studies estimate as much as one billion dollars each year. A college university can make anywhere from several million dollars up to $120 million from their athletic programs. A college athlete gets paid nothing and yet a majority of their time and schedule is dictated by the sport they play. In the book Student Athlete’s Guide to College, author Hillary Abramson says, “If you’ve gotten to the college athletic level, you 're accustomed to making sacrifices to benefit your athletic career. In college these sacrifices only get harder.” (Abramson 8). In Dominic Alessi’s 5 Reasons Why NCAA Athletes Should be Paid, he points out that student athletes schedules are much harder than regular students schedules. “By late afternoon they have already put in a 10 hour work day.” (Alessi). Even though they are considered student athletes, the NCAA actually has rules which allow the athletes to miss class in order to fulfill their team obligations. College athletes should be paid because they spend a majority of their time with their sport, many colleges in the NCAA make a large amount of income from the sports programs, and it would help many athletes learn to be financially stable and help them in the real world as only a small fraction of college athletes turn professional and make a career

One of the biggest debates in sports right now is whether or not college athletes should be paid. They spend an extensive amount of time between classes, workouts, practices, and games. As an NCAA Division III athlete, I can relate to having a demanding schedule. Everybody has to go to their classes and practice every day. In addition, we have skill workouts between classes depending on the day, as well as lifting four days per week in the offseason and two days per week during the season. It is important to keep in mind that the schedule of a Division I athlete would be even more strenuous. On top of that, a school’s athletic teams are the face of the school. For many people, the only

Throughout history the big question surrounding the college athletic industry is if college athletes should get paid for the participation in the sport. It has recently over the past few years been brought up as a huge topic in college athletics, a lot of people have their views in if they should or shouldn’t. The big picture everyone has to look at and get an understanding to be the economic aspect of it. There are a lot of factors that people fail to realize that involve paying these athletes such as the supply, demand elasticity, taxes and equity vs efficiency, all of these play a minor role in the impact of the answer people are waiting to get. In my opinion I feel as an athlete myself I feel we should get paid for playing sports. But

"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

To add onto this argument, college athletes also get many exquisite privileges that the common college student does not get. These privileges range from world-class professional training, being showcased in front of prospective employers, free medical care, free head-to-toe Nike or Adidas gear, free traveling, hotel rooms, and many other privileges (Jenkins 2011). They get all of these free things, privileges, and scholarships for just playing a sport. That is a lot more than any of college student. Overall, people do not want to pay college athletes because they already get paid through scholarships and all the privileges they receive for playing

Some may say that paying college athletes is a poor idea considering they have the reputation for being cheaters or only interested in what they want. “...The argument against allowing pay to student athletes arises mainly from greed and self-interest” (Text 1 lines 41-42). Regardless this is not always the case as some students need money and that the greedy ones are actually the coaches. Scholarships can be taken away, forcing students to look for jobs and struggle to find a balance between school and work. Last, The NCAA has an awful reputation for going against the law and not giving financial assistance to students for impractical reasons. It should be noted that by these reasons athletes should be paid for their participation in sports.

Almost every kid grows up with some sort of dream of playing a professional sport. Some of these kids have worked hard every day, week, and year from elementary school to the end of high school. All of this hard work could possibly lead to a Division 1 college scholarship, which in most cases is one step before the fame and glory of professional sports. Today, sports are no longer fun and games; sports are a business, and college sports are no different. Paying College athletes would result in improved student life, removal of the double standards athletes face, and fair compensation to the athletes for the money they generate.

If you have ever wondered why college athletes are not paid, you are not alone. If you are a sports nut, then you may have even gotten into arguments over the topic. Economic experts do not seem to agree either. If you listen to each side of the argument the answer seems gray, but if you look at the evidence the answer may become clearer. The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) should pay Division I student-athletes who participate in men’s basketball and football, because of the amount of money they accumulate for the school and NCAA, because the sport they are a part of is a full time job, and also because many student-athletes struggle financially.

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

Athletes who compete in a college sport should get paid a small amount of cash for all they do. When a student is involved in a college sport, it consumes much of their life, and they do not have much time to do anything else. Since these athletes are not supposed to be paid, when they are paid athletes suffer great consequences that hurt the rest of their careers. It should be the college’s choice whether they want to pay a player to come play at their school or not. This would help many of these players who do not have enough time for a job. Almost all of these athletes’ time has something to do with the sport they are involved in, whether it is practice, games, or film. Many teams make their athletes go out and be involved with their community.