Why Should Student Athletes Be Paid?

Around the country, college athletic programs are pushing their athletes more and more every day. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is an association set up to

The NCAA has been around and evolved since the beginning of college sports. This organization is a non-profitable organization, but ironically makes more than millions of profit per year. Branch states “that money comes from a combination of ticket sales, concession sales, merchandise, licensing fees, and other sources—but the great bulk of it comes from television contract”(pg. 228). Meanwhile, the student-athletes do not receive any of this money. This is the start of an unsubstantial business between universities built around amateurism.

It is mid-February and for college athletes and fans everywhere that means that the College Football “Bowl” season is over and “March Madness” is around the corner. The “Bowl” Season is a series of college football games from the elite teams, sponsored by various corporations and “March Madness” is a 68 team single elimination tournament to decide who the best team in college basketball is. For the students involved they get a chance to have their legacy live on forever and for some it is a chance to show professional teams they have what it takes to compete on the next level, but for the universities it is a chance to bring in millions of dollars in revenue. As a student-athlete, and a volunteer basketball coach, I believe that it is unfair that student athletes across the country have decided to give their lives to these sports in hopes that they get lucky and “win the lottery” by making in into professional sports. I believe that student athletes have earned the right to be compensated for their hard work, dedication and commitment to these universities across the country.

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.

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.

In the United States, college athletics are growing larger by the minute. College athletics contribute not only to the recognition of colleges and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), it also contributes to the income of colleges and the NCAA. Without student athletes, these colleges and the NCAA would not reap the benefits of college athletics, such as: increased awareness of colleges, higher application rates, and of course the revenue brought in from game and event tickets, apparel, and contracts for licensing and television rights. Since the student athletes, who devote a great deal of time to their sport, are the cog in the machine that is the NCAA and college athletics, they deserve the fair and rightful compensation that they certainly do not currently receive. Here is exactly why student athletes in the NCAA should be compensated for what they do for their colleges, on and off the field of play.

As college athletic programs expanded, they began to become more diverse making the NCAA create structures that recognized different levels of importance. The association divided the memberships into three different competitive divisions. In 1978 division I members voted to make subdivisions. The NCAA has not always been the organization it is today.

Well, some of you might ask,” What is NCAA?” The NCAA or the National Collegiate Athletic Association was founded by President Theodore Roosevelt. It was made to set rules for recruiting and eligibility of student athletes. There are many different sports in the NCAA too. Some sports include basketball, football, soccer, tennis,

480,000 athletes; 19,000 teams; 3 divisions; 1 association (NCAA, n.d.) This is a description of the NCAA today. In the early 1900’s, President Roosevelt got together with Harvard, Princeton and Yale to ban the flying wedge (a very dangerous play in football that caused 18 deaths the previous year.) (Demars, 2016). This was the commencement of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, formally known as the NCAA. The NCAA is an organization that was created to improve collegiate sports, and while it has expanded and done so, there have been challenges and controversy along the way.

According to Smith (2000), in its early years, the NCAA did not venture outside of its role as a rules committee except creating national champions in various sports. Much like today, college

hold drafts in which teams in these organizations are allowed to select players for their team. The percentage of college athletes to go to professional are very low. Very many college athletes after college most likely never to play that sport in a competitive nature. If the NCAA or four year institution paid a college athlete for his/her time for playing the sport and competing for them, it would not cost that much for the schools. More than 480,000 athletes compete in the NCAA; however, only a few move on to the next level to earn the money they deserve.

But why haven’t the athletes been able to see some of that extra revenue? After all, without the players there wouldn’t be any revenue. The thought that college sports can be so extremely profitable, especially for the NCAA seems a little ridiculous. Why are they able to keep this much money while also finding a way around paying the athletes who actually bring in the revenue? It is a question that doesn’t seem to have an answer. Athletes are making money and the NCAA doesn’t want to share. One stance that the NCAA has is the argument that “They (college athletes) are students receiving access to a college education through their participation in sports, for which they earn scholarships to pay tuition, fees, room and board, and other allowable expenses. Collegiate sports is not a career or profession. It is the students ' vehicle to a higher education degree”. (Mitchell) It is an easy stance to have when the NCAA doesn’t have to pay for the free education, the universities do.

The “NCAA is a voluntary, unincorporated association of colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher learning.” Roughly half of the member institutions of the NCAA are either state or federally supported. NCAA members are divided into three divisions: Division I, Division II, and Division III. All three divisions of the NCAA maintain separate rules and regulations governing the recruitment of student athletes. The goal of the NCAA is to “govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education.” To effect these goals, the NCAA provides a number of services to its member institutions, among the most important of which is regulating the recruitment of student athletes.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a non- profit association which regulates college athletics. The NCAA is member- led and is dedicated to the success of the college athlete. The members of the NCAA consist of 1,121 post-secondary institutions, voting athletics conferences and 39 affiliated

Since the NCAA was formed in 1906, the strides it has made have been remarkable. The association originated to enforce health improvement. A handful of participating schools turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. To clarify, the NCAA has 3 divisions; Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3. The financial problems pertain primarily to the 3 branches of Division 1 because Division 1 programs bring in the better athletes, greater revenue, and are more popular to the public. Today, collegiate sporting events are televised more professional sporting events, thus generate a combined larger profit than the profits