Really To Blame? Coaches Or Athletes?

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.

First, some say that college athletes should be paid because of the fact that the schools and the NCAA make billions. In an article from USA Today, it stated: “NCAA made more than $1 billion for the year” (Mama). On the other hand, they should not be paid because tons of the athletes get scholarships, they are rewarded with a free education, and they are technically getting around twenty-thousand dollars a year. First, in an article from Scholorshipstats.com in statistics from 2015 regarding the amount of scholarship money that was given out was nearly 2.2 billion dollars.

Robert and Amy McCormick, law professors at Michigan State University, believe that some student-athletes attend college to play sports and that due to scheduling conflicts between class and practices they do not have full choice as to what major they would like to take (Cooper, 12 – 13). “The way football and basketball players in Division I programs manage juggling sport and school, the McCormicks maintain, undermines the NCAA’s contention they are student-athletes.” (Cooper, 12-13).

In recent years mixed feeling have been discussed over college student athletes getting paid. Some feel that players should be rewarded for the huge amount of revenue generated on behalf of their play. Especially when coaches are receiving huge multi million dollar contracts. Currently, NCAA rules do not allow players to receive any compensation. The non-fiction article, “Should College Player get Paid?”, written by Michael Gonchar, explains how NCAA classifies Division I football players as amateurs, not professionals, student-athletes, not employees, which is how colleges get away with paying them nothing. With respect to how hard and how much time college athletes put in, college football players should not get paid due to scholarships, playing is a privilege not a job, and money allocation . They should how ever be compensated, such as

College sports are big money makers now a days. For most universities, the athletic department serves as one of the main sources of cash flow. Athletes are used to create millions of dollars for the NCAA and the schools that they participate in, and never receive a penny. If we are talking about profit, if all bonds with the university were removed, an athletic department representing itself could compete with some of the most successful companies. So, why does the most important parts of the machine, the players, do not receive any money for their training and participation? The answer lies in the NCAA which keeps all the money and their practice of keeping all the revenue for future use. College athletes should be paid for their

College sports is a multi-billion dollar industry. Each year thousands of high school students are recruited to play college sports, but under strict conditions. Students are required to do well in athletics while keeping up with their academics. College athletes spend up to forty five hours per week on practices, training, and games. In addition, they spend roughly forty hours on their academics. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) does not think it is necessary to pay these athletes because they want to maintain the “amateur sport” status. According to Stanley Eitzen in his “College Athletes should be Paid, “The universities and the NCAA claim their athletes in big-time sports programs

College sports have a big market on the major school levels. These major schools can bring in 30 to 40 million dollars per year to the school through the athletic programs. The players get none of this share of money even though they are the ones who have to put themselves at risk during these tough games that provide the school profit. You may say that these college athletes are getting a free education at their choice of university but some many say they should get paid. Today as much money that runs in and out of these schools there is a huge controversy to whether or not these student athletes should get rewarded for their hard work on and off the

One view point in this issue is the view point of the higher up people at universities and the NCAA. College athletics are fully commercialized and is also a huge money making business. The benefactors of this largely successful corporation are the

The ugly truth behind the money machine that is college sports is that, every year, college athletes are deceived by the institutions the compete for into making them millions of dollars, with relatively little in return. Athletes are said to be given a chance to attend college and to attain a free college degree. However, research has shown that this is not completely true for two reasons. For one, the student athlete will spend most of their time in preparation for competition. Secondly, what education the student athlete does receive hardly serves them outside of maintaining eligibility just so

We often forget that playing a sport is not the only way to earn a scholarship. Many students are accepted for exceptional grades, involvement in the band, clubs, or being well rounded. Most of these students just have to study to keep their scholarship, while the athletes have to work hard and be a student. In a competitive market, “workers” are paid according to the value of the output they produce (Heath). It does not seem right that the college journalist can sell their piece to a paper for extra cash, or the local band can play for a few dollars at the bar Saturday night, or the biology major that takes an internship at the school lab can be profitable yet college athletes cannot. Under the NCAA they are not allowed to make any money of their skill. Any college student should be able to endorse products (Wilbon). This is why the idea of going to school for free should not be an argument against paying athletes, because that is not the case and they have earned it.

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.

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

With that in mind, they should not be paid for choosing to do something enjoyable—something that should not be the main reason that a student-athlete is in college. The main reason that somebody is in school is to receive an education, not to play a sport. If somebody is truly passionate about a sport, they would be willing to work hard to achieve their potential in that sport without getting paid.

Do student athletes make the most of their opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education? Do they have the same academic success as those students that are not athletes? Are student athletes just “dumb jocks?” The answers to these questions might surprise you. Much research has been done to dispel the myth that athletes going to college are only there to play sports with little regard to their education. Programs have been created to assure that colleges and universities hold athletes to the same standards as the everyday student. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has decided that the “magic number” to put the “student” back into “student-athlete” is 925 (Hamilton).

Student athletes face a major problem that the NCAA holds them accountable. If any student athlete commits what is held as an NCAA violation they are forced to miss playing time or other consequences as well. NCAA violations have become a chronic problem in collegiate sports. When students violate the NCAA rules it can jeopardize their future career in whatever sport they are playing. Some of the rules don’t even make sense they are just useless. These rules need to be dealt with in order for the students to just be able to go along with their lives.