Why Student Athletes Should Be Paid

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 ).

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch (2011) describes how universities are focused on advancing and receiving money from major athletics and having star athletes, but how the universities are not caring for the “student athlete.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made college sports into an unmerited business. However, as years progress more athletes are getting smart and are taking the NCAA to court. The more students that challenges the rules by the NCAA and take them to court, the secrets and undermining values of the NCAA come out and the closer the NCAA comes to an end.

How much harder would athletes work if they were paid for their performance on the field, track, or court? College athletes are put to the test each and everyday, they risk their health to entertain millions day in and day out. College athletes deserve part of the money due to the revenue they bring in for their schools and for the NCAA, they deserve the money because they do not have time to get a job because they are practicing and training at least 40 hours a week, they should also get paid because they are used as marketing models for the ncaa and for their universities. College athletes also should not get paid because they are already getting paid in scholarship money. College athletes deserve to get paid because they are putting their bodies on the line just so the NCAA and their sponsors can make money.

Division 1 and Division 2 colleges provide over 2.9 billion dollars a year in scholarships to student athletes. Student athletes should not be compensated for participating in college sports. College athletes can receive full ride scholarships for playing their sport of choice. Is the 40,000 dollars they are receiving in scholarships not compensation; thus prompting the question is the top tier education they are being provided with, not compensation enough? Most of the thousands of students that participate in college sports compete for the love of the game, not for a paycheck. Furthermore, college athletes understand that they may not compete at the pro level, in fact, only 2 % of college athletes go on to play professionally. The main part of the term student-athletes is student. Students do not go to college expecting a check at the end of every month or to land a spot in the first round of the draft, instead the purpose is to receive an education. All things considered, student athletes should not receive compensation for playing sports in college because it would be almost financially impossible, some are already provided with money from scholarships , and finally they are being provided with an excellent higher education.

College athletes have much more responsibilities to worry about than pros, and scholarships don 't help athletes that much and they often don’t even finish college. The problem is college athletes don 't get paid when they have twice the responsibilities of pro athletes. college athletes have to juggle their sport practices and games, being on the road a lot of the time, going to classes everyday, and going to work so they can have money to eat. The solution would be to take out of all the money college athletes make from games, and memorabilia. NCAA is a billion dollar organization and they don 't pay the very people who make them the

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.

Student athletes in college are held to a higher standard than normal students since they are juggling a lot more in their lives. Student athletes have to set aside a lot of time for practice while still maintaining good grades and a social life. Some people believe that because of this demanding schedule that student athletes should be paid. Where on the other hand many believe that they shouldn’t since they choose to be on a sports team, this is a topic that is debated upon by many. One solution could be to lower the tuition for student athletes since they are offering their talents to the school. As long as the students stay on the team they will get some money off their college tuition every year.

I was asked to conduct an interview with someone who had knowledge about my research topic, to help provide me with information. My research topic is whether college athletes should receive pay, therefore, I conducted an interview, over email, with one of my high school coaches Mike Zarger. Not only is Mike a coach, he was also a student athlete at Penn State University. Zarger was a phenomenal athlete himself, striving in both cross country and track. He is also a father of two girls that went to West Virginia University and the other went to Virginia Tech University to run cross country. I decided to conduct my interview with Zarger because he was a college athlete, a coach, and not to mention a parent of two college athletes himself.

For many students, the college experience is measured by the success of their NCAA-sanctioned athletic programs. Without the experience and athletic performance the student athlete brings, most colleges would not reap the benefit of these significant revenue-generating activities. At best, current NCAA regulations need to be revisited to ensure all avenues are addressed to enable the success of athletic students both in the classroom and on the field or court of play. As stated previously, even though students receive full and partial scholarships determined by their athletic performance, in both instances

College is to provide you with education and to get you ready for the future. This goes to show you that student athletes are not professionals. The main idea of attending college is so that you can learn how life really works and how to get a professional job. The NCAA is a great experience to learn from especially for those students who hope to become a professional athlete. Athletes play in the NCAA and some of them will eventually take advantage of that experience in order to take the next step and get paid.

A child decides to join a tee-ball team. During the season, he sits on the ground and picks grass in the outfield. At the end of the season, this child gets an award: best flower picker! Some may say that this child just needed some self-esteem to help him get along. In reality, this child got a reward for doing nothing, even for not doing what he was supposed to. When children, such as this one, receive pointless awards, they assume all rewards come with no effort put in, they expect everything in life to come easily, and they don’t learn how to work diligently to earn rewards.

Over time, schools have had athlete’s raising money for the school without any benefit for himself. The students could be raising this money by using the student’s names on attire or other merchandise. The bill that we are advocating for requires institutions to do more for the students including insurance coverage, scholarships, life skills, and bargaining rights. Under the Intercollegiate Student Athletes Rights Act, Pennsylvania students will be able to receive fair and equal sharing of the revenue. The biggest issue with the current policy for student athlete not receiving pay is that the motto of The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The motto states that the values of the organization include fairness, integrity, respect

Sports can cause all kinds of injuries; that is why student athletes should have compensation. They are putting themselves at risk to entertain the people. While risking harm, student athletes are also trying to satisfy their imperious administrators. It can be very stressful on them with classes and sports while trying to please everyone. They should be paid because of the hard work they put in with stress, plus the colleges are making money from them. As Kenneth L. Shropshire once said “The conferences are getting all these millions, and players are not getting anything” (qut in “At Risk”).

There has been amplified debate on the treatment, education, training of the college athlete. To avoid exploitation of athletes, “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), formed in 1905, set bylaws requiring college student-athletes to be amateurs in order to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics competition” (Schneider n.p.). Intercollegiate athletics have dramatically changed over the last several decades. Currently, intercollegiate athletics generate tremendous amounts of revenue, remarkably in football and basketball. College sports in America is a