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College Athlete Compensation : College Athletes

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COLLEGE ATHLETE COMPENSATION When the topic of college comes up, many things come to mind. Those are the glory days for most of us. The college parties, the struggle to find a balance between having fun and maintaining a good GPA, and not to mention the amazing athletic departments that colleges offer. Everyone enjoys sports but does anyone ever stop to wonder how much goes into preparing for those games? There’s very much work that goes in the preparation of a student athlete other than just showing up for practice. It’s definitely a lot more work than your average college student which is why the question whether or not college athletes should get paid comes up. Football alone brings in millions of dollars a year; and with all that cash …show more content…

Not to mention that practice is a requirement; if somebody misses too many practices, there’s a high chance they will get kicked off the team. The equivalent to a job someone could say that they are being fired. Along with attempting to be the best at the sport an athlete performs, comes the struggle of maintaining a high enough grade point average to actually play. This means adding on another 10-20 hours a week of studying, not to mention the time spent in class. The usual college football team, requires a minimum of a 2.0 grade point average. Now, that might not seem like too hard of a challenge, but add in the exhaustion from said sport and the temptation of wanting to have a social life. Another thing t to mention is that certain sports require student-athletes to miss class for away games. For example, the NCAA championship required Florida State University (FSU) football players to miss the first day of Spring Classes. When comparing the workload and pay between a coach and a collegiate athlete, the difference is absurd. At the moment, these students are only compensated with free tuition, free room, and free board. In the event that times change and college students begin to earn an hourly minimum wage, the estimated amount of money they would receive is 330 dollars a week, not including the local and federal taxes taken out. Universities refuse to acknowledge the thought of a minimum wage. According to them

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