Essay Why College 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 ).

The NCAA is a money-generating monster that disregards college athletes’ financial well being. How can we stand back and let the NCAA steal money from the hard working athletes that provide it? Take this for example: Philip is a landscaper that works hard day in and day out mowing yards. He is not always perfect, and makes the occasional mistake. Even though he make mistakes, he is good at what he does. Now imagine if Philip earned a very small amount of the total money made. The rest of the money goes straight to his advisor who sits around and does nothing all day. This is what collegiate sports have come to. Collegiate athletes are working hard by earning money for the NCAA. The NCAA is

The price for college is a huge sacrifice that many families end up taking for their child. For athletes, many receive scholarships or are granted money to attend college, but the sacrifice they have to deal with is much larger than money itself. However, many of these athletes’ superiors argue that it's their choice to sacrifice their bodies, and that they’re just student athletes they don’t deserve to be paid. The people who end up stating these claims are the people who end up making millions off of them and who pay their coaches millions in return. Of course they’re college athletes, but college sports have never fell from the public eye and are just as popular as professional sports, and just as profitable. The problem with college sports

As a college student, one must attend classes, complete work specific to their degree requirements and maintain a minimum grade point average as sanctioned by the NCAA to participate in athletics. The NCAA is an “organization dedicated to safeguarding the well-being of student-athletes and equipping them with the skills to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom and throughout life”. The NCAA has put in place a set of rules to assure fair and safe competition at the collegiate level. Arguably one the most debatable topics is the NCAA rule that states “College athletes are not to be paid, not to cash in on their prominence, never to cross any kind of line of professionalism.”

Student athletes are unable to obtain steady income because they are so busy with sporting activities and community service activities and are unable to get a job to support themselves. College athletes cannot pick up a side job that earns over $2,000 per year or accept money from their coach to buy food from any local grocery store. These are issues that make supporters question whether the NCAA is treating college athletes like employees or if they really are student athletes. In a survey organized by the Big 12 Conference, players stated that they feel that juggling athletics and course work during the season is expectedly difficult, but athletes often feel just as overworked in the off-season and the off-season can be more draining than the in-season itself. In a 2010 NCAA survey, more than three-quarters of Division I baseball players reported spending “as much or more time on athletic activities” during the off-season as during the competitive season. About 70 percent of men’s basketball players reported the same, as did 70 percent of football players. It was a similar picture for the remaining men’s sports.(New). Student athletes may not be able to get a job but are still treated like employees.

Your dream has come true; you're at college playing the sport you love, and at what cost? None. You are free to live your college life worry free and have been given the opportunity to continue your sports career. After you have completed your college education you can get a job, with no college loans that you have to pay off. You are also able to start making money right out of graduation. You get to experience this less stressful college life. The lives of athletes that walk-on and athletes not on a scholarship are stressful ones with many different things to worry about. Those athletes have to worry about how to pay for college and the loans they will have to pay back after graduation. They will have to pay for all their meals, books and the cost for dorms. But what got you here? There were many factors, but one that helped you the most was that you were a diverse athlete.

College athletes arguably possess a similar and often equivalent skill set to that of a professional athlete and may even train just as hard as a professional athlete. However, a college students relationship to athletics is no different than a high school student who participates in their schools athletics program. These young athletes participate in their chosen sport without any expectation of monetary compensation in return. In fact, many athletes at non-professional levels pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars annually to participate in their chosen extracurricular sporting activities (Alderman, 2013). This is their choice and they are not financially compensated for it. These athletes play for the joy of the sport, life lessons and in some cases, the hopes of one day becoming a professional athlete.

College athletes have always been worked beyond imagine, and it is ridiculous to think that even in today’s society, college athletes are not paid. Unlike regular college students, student athletes are not able to work jobs or make extra money because they put over forty hours a week in to their respective sport. More often than not college athletes are taken advantage of because they put their bodies at risk for injury and have no insurance or income to make it worthwhile. Of course, some college athletes do go on to make millions of dollars, but that is only the case for a small percentage of college athletes, and since college sports brings in billions of dollars a year, college athletes should earn at least a small profit. Furthermore,

As Vardaan Gupta from Minnesota said “Playing a college sport can be like working a full-time job. College athletes sometimes put in 40-60 hours each week for practices, travel and games. They definitely deserve to be paid for all the hard work they are doing”(Gupta 1). Playing a college sport and attending class is not as easy as it seems. College athletes prepare vigorously every week to perform at their peak, and they deserve to be paid for that.

Dr. Brené Brown, a writer, researcher, and educator was quoted as saying, “what separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.” By focusing in on today’s society, ethics has taken a backseat to making an extra buck. While Division One Universities are making upward from seven to nine figures in revenue each year off of their athletics department, athletes on athletic scholarships are starting to get intolerant to not receiving any incentives for playing the game they love. These athletes are becoming so disheartened by the system that they are now speaking out to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) about how they deserve to receive cash incentives for the performance and time they devote to their athletics for the University. However, why should these athletes be entitled to additional money? They should be grateful for the privileges and opportunities they receive at the University and reap the benefits that are intangible to them. Division One athletes should not be able to receive payment in order to participate in their Universities Athletic programs.

Americans have become consumed by the world of college athletics. This excitement can be seen all around us. Here at the University of Florida, we experience the energy of division I college sports every day. Whether we choose to participate on football game days, wear Gator athletic apparel, or make conversation every day revolving around topics such as “Tebow’s non-existent NFL career” or “that one basketball player that kept us out of the championship”, the star athletes of our universities become household names across the country. Although it seems to be a life of fame and fortune for these individuals that live the life of a star student athlete, it comes at a cost. Today, college athletes are exploited because of the lack of

From the outside looking in, collegiate athletes live a life of luxury. They have the opportunity to perform the sport they love in front of massive crowds, and some are provided an opportunity for free schooling. Although this is undoubtedly true, outsiders are not capable of comprehending the true hardships associated with college athletics. Although they are granted acceptance and often a scholarship to their school of choice, they are not truly granted the opportunity to utilize their school’s academic resources to their fullest potential due to the immense amount of time that they are expected and required to devote to their sport. These activities include film review and playbook studies, team meals, traveling to and from games or

“Were the public to view college football as mainly a business, it might start asking questions. For instance: why are these enterprises that have nothing to do with education and everything to do with profits exempt from paying taxes? Or why don’t they pay their employees? This is maybe the oddest aspect of the college football business. Everyone associated with it is getting rich except the people whose labor creates the value” (Lewis,

Intercollegiate athletics are no longer just a sport, it has turned into a big business. The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) currently has an operating budget of approximately $530 million in unrestricted assets. The NCAA had generated a total revenue of nearly $1 billion during its 2014 fiscal year from member schools. With all those facts about the revenue that NCAA is generating, the situation of student athletes getting paid rises up. Student athletes who are on a full scholarship receive tuition fees for regular classes, summer schools, books, room and board, and some medical cost. Time is very limited during the day for student athletes to get a job. Most of the time coaches will not allow the student athletes to

While such changes have impacted revenues in the affected programs, the shifting focus on college campuses toward intercollegiate sports has also had problems for academics. Students who once went to school only for an education and participated in these kinds of competitions in their free time now often attend these same universities solely for the purpose of participating in sports. In most situations, they end up putting hundreds of hours to sports-related activities and end up becoming athletes first and students second. The end result is a system that uses students to generate millions of dollars for both the NCAA and its universities.