College Athletes : National Collegiate Athletic Association

With the universities pulling in more than twelve billion dollars, the rate of growth for college athletics surpasses companies like McDonalds and Chevron (Finkel, 2013). The athletes claim they are making all the money, but do not see a dime of this revenue. The age-old notion that the collegiate athletes are amateurs and students, binds them into not being paid by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). This pay for play discussion has been talked about since the early 1900s but recently large steps are being made to actually make a change. There are many perspectives on the payment of collegiate student athletes coming from the NCAA, the athletes themselves, and the university officials.

The argument of whether or not the NCAA should pay its athletes has been debated for around 8 years now, and right when it seems like there may be a breakthrough another reason comes up for the issue to be put on hold. College athletic programs are multimillion dollar programs and the athletes who make this revenue possible are getting the bare minimum to make it by in these college programs. Last year the Texas A&M athletic program was at the top of the NCAA revenue list bringing in $192,608,876. A third of that revenue comes from ticket sales alone, which leaves the rest to television rights, licensing and other donations. In the NCAA there are 26 colleges which are bringing in over 100 million dollars in NCAA revenue (USA Today 1). But still, Horace claims that “there is a misconception that athletic programs in general are profitable and are making hand-over fist. While truly most operate at a cost to the institution”.

Proponents emphasize that college athletics is a billion-dollar industry that generates significant revenue for its institutions and these institutions should share this revenue with their student-athletes. The NCAA generated over $845 billion dollars in 2012 from their college athletes’ performances at the highest level. This can be compared to a for-profit corporation that makes a lot of money but doesn’t have to pay its employees. (Why College Athletes Should Be Paid). According to a September 2011 study, for each NCAA Division I institution, their average football player generates $120,000 and their average men’s basketball play generates $265,000, annually for athletic department.

Since the 1950’s the NCAA has promoted an idea that student athletes that are given a full scholarships are receiving a free ride for their education. In this article Ramogi Huma, and Ellen Staurowsky highlight controversial issues about how college athletics are run. In the article it is noted that 45% of football, and 52% of basketball players do not graduate. The two programs that revenue the most money for an athletic program are Men’s Football, and Men’s Basketball. The article debates that the NCAA uses the money that athletes in men’s football and basketball generate from their play to assist in funding other programs in the athletic department. While athletes are generating millions of dollars for their universities, the athlete spends on average of $3,222 in out of pocket expenses. While attending these universities these athletes live at or under the poverty line. If these athletes were allowed access to the fair market like the professional athletes, the average FBS football and basketball player would be “worth approximately $121,048 and $265,027 respectively (not counting individual commercial endorsement deals)” (Huma). The NCAA maintains that these athletes are amateurs and to keep their eligibility to participate in college athletics they can receive zero compensation for their talent. By maintaining this view point the NCAA allows athletes to only receive grant-in-aid’s which reward the athlete with free tuition, and room and board and can receive no other

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

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) makes millions of dollars in revenue from broadcasting and advertising student-athletes. If you take the revenue of the NCAA (all one dollar bills) and stacked them on top of each other, they would easily exceed thirty-five stories in height, which would be the equivalent to the RSA Battle House Tower in the state of Alabama. Meanwhile, the NCAA is sitting on this expansive “lump of cash” and does not have any idea what to do with it, and by no means wants to share their revenue with athletes. The NCAA needs to use this “lump of cash” to, in a sense, pay their employees. Student-athletes work day and night to enhance their on-field abilities to provide high quality performances for their

The NCAA’s annual income of over 900 million dollars is a considerable amount of revenue, however, the players themselves do not deserve to receive any portion of this cash (Thellin). If payment is given to just a certain sport or a certain gender of sports, such as Division 1 men’s football or basketball, players of other divisions and sports will most certainly want a share of that as well. This would also create a monopoly-type of business in collegiate sports, causing players to be drawn to certain colleges who will pay out the most. Paying athletes would undermine the primary role of universities which is to offer education. The experiences and education that athletes receive while in college cannot be equated to the amount they would receive were they to be paid.

The question has been posed as to why does the National Collegiate Athletic Association or NCAA exist? In the early 1900s the game of football became extremely dangerous by becoming more physical and less controlled. Safety of the sport started a movement that has last through today. The 1905 season saw over a dozen deaths and more than one hundred other injuries related to the sport. Not only was safety of the sport an issue, but the issues of competitive balance by allowing anyone to play was getting out of hand. Institutions took charge and banned the game from their schools. A rules committee was formed at the capital in 1906 and coined the name Intercollegiate Athletics Association. The name was later changed to what we know it today, NCAA. This association’s initial formation was to protect the young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletic practices of the time (NCAA). Currently those very principles that the NCAA was created on, is one of the most discussed topics of sport world.

College sports are one of the largest and fastest growing markets in today’s culture. With some college sports games attracting more viewers than their professional counterparts, the NCAA is one of the most profiting organizations in America. Recently there has been controversy in the world of college sports as to whether the college athletes that are making their universities and the NCAA money should receive payment while they are playing their respective sport. Many believe that these athletes should be paid. Others argue that they are already receiving numerous benefits for playing that sport from their universities. Many of the proponents of paying college athletes are current or former college athletes who believe their hard work and hours put into practice and competing go under appreciated. They feel that while the athletes are making the university money, the athletes do not receive any cut of these profits. Opponents feel that athletes already receive numerous perks and should not receive extra compensation on top of the perks they already receive.

Most student-athletes playing a sport in college are there on an athletic scholarship. The scholarship is granted to them by their respective schools and is worth anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000. According to Edelman, the football program alone at University of Alabama brought in roughly 143.3 million dollars of revenue. In perspective, that’s about 2 million per player. Even though Alabama is an elite program and brings in more than the average football program, the NCAA brought in nearly $845 billion in 2011 per Sonny. Now it is obvious there many ways a university brings in revenue, but it is safe to say that a player is worth more than that $100,000 scholarship. In fact, a substantial share of college sports’ revenues stay in the hands of a select few administrators, athletic directors, and coaches. Now think about what college athletics would be without the world class athletes it has today, or without any athletes at all. If a school didn’t “award” athletes these scholarships, there would be

The issue at stake in this particular paper is the situation of college athletes and the treatment they receive from the NCAA. The NCAA is currently financially and academically exploiting college athletes at very young age. The NCAA generates billions of dollars though the hard work of the student athletes, and the athletes are given no monetary compensation. The NCAA also expects college athletes to fully participate in academics, but with the rigor of the athletic

Right now in sports, there is a huge debate on whether or not college athletes should be paid. For years now college athletes have gone out and performed on national television, working hard to make it to the next level. They have given it there all, and not only that, the athletes bring in about $11 billion in annual revenue from college sports. Now days, sports is a business, and college sports are the same. Division 1 college sports provide a lot of income for the universities. Many athletes receive scholarships and a little more. While the prospect of receiving a free college education is something few would complain about, when the issue is more closely examined it becomes clear that it is not enough. Many people think that college athletes shouldn’t be paid, or already are by scholarships and benefits. College athletes should be paid for participating in college sports to help them financially, give them the money they played hard to earn, and to eliminate under the table payments.

As citizens of the United States of America we all have the freedom to be able to choose what we want to do with our lives. Everyone has the right to the pursuit of happiness. So why is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) able to force high school basketball players to attend college for at least one year before they are able to enter the National Basketball Association (NBA) draft? If the athlete wants to enter the draft out of high school then should be able to do so. It is their life and they should be able to make choices based on what think is the best for themselves. There should not be a rule implementing that athletes must attend college. We would never allow this if a male or female did not want to go to college to

College sports are big business. For many universities, the athletic program serves as a cash-generating machine. Exploited athletes generate millions of dollars for the NCAA and their schools, and never see a dime. In terms of profit, if all ties with the university were eliminated, an athletic program acting as its own separate entity could compete with some fortune 500 companies. So, why do the vital pieces of the machine, the players, fail to receive any compensation for their performance? The answer lies in the money-hungry NCAA and their practice of hoarding all the revenue. College athletes should receive payment for their play to make their college experience more bearable because they create huge profits and

College athletes are not being paid for their labor, which schools profit from. “The NCAA (National College Athletics Association) earns about $4 billion in licensing fees each year. In 2010, the NCAA signed a 14-year, $10.8 billion contract with CBS and Turner Sports to have exclusive rights to show the men’s college basketball tournament, which takes place every year” (Miller). Student-athletes are being exploited by the NCAA and there’s nothing they can do about it. Exploitation happens when student-athletes, who are making large amounts of money for their schools, often are not receiving any kind of admissible, quality education. Another form a student-athlete is exploited, the value of