Essay On Paying College Athletes

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.

With college basketball and football originating in the 1800’s, the game has had much time to adapt. Over the years, the sports have become more and more popular, gaining a bigger fan base, which has resulted in substantial profits from the sale of merchandise representing the teams and players. There is one thing that has not changed; all of the athletes are still not being paid. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, is an organization that regulates most aspects of

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) makes roughly $1 billion in income annually and the athletes do not receive any of it. This topic has been debated for many years and is still being debated. The debate dates back to the 1980s and now athletes are demanding that they deserve to be paid since profits are made off of them. Some athletes such as former and current basketball and football players came together with lawsuits to federal courts asking for rewards from profits NCAA makes gets of them. Research has opened several different opinions on this matter. There are many pros and cons for paying college athletes. College sports provide a huge source of the university’s income. The athletes, however, receive their scholarship

When people hear of college athletics, all they think of is a game. Most people do not realize that there is a million dollar industry going on around these athletes. Eric He, a sports fanatic who writes for the Daily Trojan, states, “The NCAA is a nonprofit, tax exempt organization that just happens to be a billion-dollar industry, raking in $740 million per year from March Madness alone” (par. 7). When the NCAA is generating that much money, how can it not go to the players? It is not the

Imagine a business that was bringing in millions of dollars every year in revenue solely off the employees, and the individuals who are working to bring in the money, do not see a cent of it. This is essentially how college athletes feel at their respective universities. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is seeing $11 billion dollars in revenue come through their doors annually, and not one penny goes back to the student athletes who, in reality, create that money. The money is passed down through the executives, directors and coaches, but none is given to the players. With putting in an average to 43 hours per week, which is more than the average work week, student athletes can be compared to

NCAA, short for National Collegiate Athletic Association, is a “non-profit” organization which over watch all the athletic related activities on college level. In the early 20th century, President Roosevelt created NCAA because he wanted to insured college athletes from injuries and even deaths. Despite the original purpose of the NCAA is not about money, it has become one of the most lucrative companies in the USA. According to Taylor Branch, “big-time college sports are fully commercialized. Billions of dollars flow through them each year. The NCAA makes money, and enables universities and corporations to make money, from the unpaid labor of young athletes” (Branch). Besides the tremendous fortune these college athletes made for the NCAA, it is also a vital source for university entertainment, enrollment, and money. Although these athletes generate great fortune and put up great shows for society, they do not receive proper pay back. To balance the current unfair compensation system to the athletes, in addition to free tuition, college athletes should be treated as workers in a business market system and paid depending on their own performance.

If the NCAA decided to pay college athletes, it would create more problems than solutions. For example, if student-athletes are offered a salary, most likely the cost of school tuition will go up because the money paid to the student-athletes must come from somewhere and the revenue from sporting events and memorabilia will not be enough to cover all student-athlete salaries as well as expenses to run all the college’s sports programs. In addition, not all college sports draw the same fan base and therefore, income is greatly varied between sports programs which in turn will create an unfair balance when determining the salary for each student-athlete. All student-athletes regardless of which sport they are participating would expect equal pay.

College athletes generate millions of dollars for their schools each year, yet they are not allowed to be compensated beyond a scholarship due to being considered amateurs. College athletes are some of the hardest working people in the nation, having to focus on both school courses and sports. Because athletics take so much time, these student-athletes are always busy. College football and basketball are multi-billion dollar businesses. The NCAA does not want to pay the athletes beyond scholarships, and it would be tough to work a new compensation program into the NCAA and university budgets. College athletes should be compensated in some form because they put in so much time and effort, generating huge amounts of revenue.

The main reasons fronted by the NCAA for lack of payment are that it wants to maintain its amateur status and that payment would compromise the integrity of intercollegiate athletics, or do they mean to say they want to keep their pockets full with other people 's money. I argue that paying athletes would promote wellness among students, because money will always be the main attraction. So, if college pay their athletes more students will be interested in playing different sports, making student fit and heather. Also the money would pave the way for students to pay off their loans.

The NCAA is a very well known college sports organization that is known for providing entertainment for college sports fans all around the country for example the march madness, the college baseball world series, and a variety of bowl games. Since the early 1900’s the controversy about paying college athletes has been ongoing with some people saying they should be paid and others saying they should not be paid. People believe that athletes do enough work that they should be paid for all they do. While that may be true and athletes put all they can into their sport, people going against it have a better argument. College athletes should not be paid because college is not a job but rather meant for learning, the NCAA is a non profit organization, and athletes will already have scholarships so they do not need money for loans.

Paying college players would benefit the university along with the athlete. Paying college athletes would prevent the "gifts” given that players often receive to attend a college that is bribing them to go there. This would be greatly appreciate by the university because they would not be labeled a “bad college” and would not be suspended from major tournaments and/or events. For example, if colleges were to pay a basketball player, the college could get suspended from the NCAA tournament, which will cause the college to lose money they would have gotten for participating in the tournament.

Paying college athletes can have a lot of positive effects, it can teach these young athletes how to handle money, it gives them some form of income especially if some of the athletes do not have job, during the football/ basketball season etc. And they can kind of see what it will be like in the pros as far as being paid to play, I’m not saying pay them like the pros like $5,000 a game but I’m saying like pay them $100 a game, just something, and a lot of people will say isn’t a scholarship enough, well sometimes it’s not. Most athletic scholarships only cover a portion of the cost and you are supposed to cover the rest on your own. And if you don’t have a job during the season or your barley are able to work, it can be hard for athletes to make ends meet obviously. Like in the case of this basketball player Shabazz Napier stated, "I don't feel student-athletes should get hundreds of thousands of dollars, but like I said, there are hungry nights that I go to bed and I'm starving,". I mean there are players that are really struggling just to be able to eat, and colleges want these same athletes to be at their very best at all times, but how can they, when they cannot even meet their own nutritional needs.

My opinion on this on this problem is that athletes should be paid because they work just as hard as all pro athletes. They deserve recognition for what they're doing. With the motivation to make this money they'll play harder and harder to collect their pay. You can get the most out of people if money is involved. They say money is the root of all evil but this can make money be the root success. More money being paid to them the more success they can have in their seasons.

Each university associated with the NCAA differ in size and budgeting. Some schools would have no problem paying each student athlete at their school only because of their profits from their ultimate money sports such a football and basketball, while other schools struggle now to even field enough teams to remain an NCAA school. This is why I find it intriguing to see where each school lies on how this situation could affect them. Athletes being paid could also affect high school and pro sports as well which interests me more to research this topic. High school athletics could improve by students pushing harder at the high school level to reach the college level because of pay, while pro sports could have many different affects such as students not leaving school early because of pay at the college level now.

Some of them being that education is money, there would be problems with payment, universities offer more than just an education, the athletic department has its role, and the athletes know the deal. A key point as to why the NCAA would not want to pay athletes is to maintain the amateur status that they uphold today. In the U.S. News and World Report Andrew Zimbalist provides a definition of amateur as “someone who engages in the activity for fun, not remuneration.” The NCAA does not want to change because the perception of college athletes will become completely different. If a college athlete gets paid, then they will no longer be considered amateur athletes and the NCAA will become something that it has never been before. College athletes shouldn’t get paid because almost all of them are lucky enough to be getting their school paid for at the same time. A scholarship is given to a college athlete who is recruited by the school with benefits. It includes free education and board, free meal plans, and free gear. They are given almost everything necessary for college survival, and it is all for free. Student athletes have time to study when they partake in study hall and even have tutors there to help them if they need help on a certain