College Athletes Should Be Paid

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.

Whether or not student-athletes should be paid has been a hotly debated topic since the 1900s. College athletes spend just as much time, if not more time, practicing and devoting time and energy to sports as they do academics. For this, many athletes are rewarded with scholarship money. However, many people believe it is not enough. Should we pay student-athletes a slice of the wealth or is a full-ride scholarship enough? (Business Insider). What if the athlete gets injured? Where does the money come out of to support each athlete’s salary? The huge amount of money being generated from college sports has led some people to think that the athletes are entitled to some of that revenue. While, some think that student-athletes should be paid, others disagree for various reasons.

Another reason the athletes should receive pay is because, they never really had had financial experience before they enter professional sports. If schools were to begin paying players, they could help the students deal with this situation. This would allow them to be experienced, these students to financial investors who had their best interests in mind. Whether or not these college athletes went on to play professionally, they would at least have some type of financial literacy to carry with them into whatever path they choose. This would set them up a better financial

Paying college athletes would be good for students, they wouldn't have to be worrying about anything. College athletes put their bodies on the line each game they play, paying college athletes would help to begin creating a sense of financial awareness, some athletes don't have enough money to pay for food or stuff they need. If you're willing to help student athletes in college help me make a difference in the world and make these college athletes have a nice time In college by not having to worry to be paying stuff on

First, paying the college athletes would make intercollege athletic sports more competitive. When these students in the

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.

Student athletes should not be paid. A misconception is that all athletic programs in the NCAA make head-over-toe profit. There are three divisions of intercollegiate athletics, and frankly division three athletic programs don’t make as much or have a profit when compared to division one programs. “Critics of paying college athletes note that only a small number of them compete in sports or on teams that actually generate revenue”. (Paying College Athletes) The truth is only a fraction of athletic programs are actually profitable, while most pose a cost to the institution. The question arises primarily in division one programs and typically in the sports of basketball and football. The argument is made that these institutions receive millions of dollars from their student athletes’ performance, in return they should be paid.

If college athletes were to start being paid, many questions would start to surface. The big question that would pop up first is, “What sports get paid?” Statistics show that football and basketball are the major revenue sports that actually make money for their universities, while most other college sports do not. While football brings in on average the most revenue, basketball is close to second. Another question that may be asked is, “How will the money be split?” Like many others, the writer believes that the biggest question lies in which areas of competition would get paid. Famous Fab Five member Jalen Rose states that, “Every student athlete should be paid $2000 a year” (Salvador). However, if you do that, in fairness, would one pay a star football player and a star rowing team member the same amount of money? Or would a woman athlete get paid just as much as a male athlete? If this not the case then it becomes extremely unfair and would just cause controversy. Fairness is important when coming to this, especially the fairness between females and males. There are several different questions that need to be reviewed and that proves why college athletes should not be paid. It would cause absolute chaos and a plethora

Paying athletes would change the whole aspect of recruiting a great deal. Whatever school has the most money available would likely get the recruit. College athletes are not professionals, so they should not be treated accordingly. If the athletes were paid, it would turn the whole objective of a college upside down. Because of these reasons, college athletes should not be paid.

First and foremost, college athletes are still students. They are very young and are likely to be pretty irresponsible with their money, which means they could easily get into trouble if they began getting paid in college. Another major aspect of a college athlete that could potentially be affected by money is their drive and motivation. As of now, players in college do not get paid, so they push themselves and play as hard as they can to try to get to the professional level where they will get paid. Paying them in college could completely destroy this drive for success, making them complacent.

Lastly, if colleges aren’t going to pay players to play, they should let them use their talents to bring in money to players and the school. Agreements can be made if both sides would listen to each other. College athletes should be paid because their names bring money to the school and anyone associated with the school and keep athletes who can’t pay for school in school longer. The school and

College athletes should not be paid. “ They argue that the main purpose of going to college is to get a education, not to make money” (“Should college”...1). College is not a job, it is a place to learn. Also many college athletes receive scholarships to attend that school. “The value of the scholarships athletes receive during four years of college can be well over $250,000” (Weiss et al.1). Therefore, athletes

Paying college athletes would not be fair to regular students and it can distract them from learning. A student athlete is someone who is able to get their education because of their skill in a particular sport. Paying college athletes would entice people to come to college to get paid and not to learn. Student athletes should view their talents in sports as a way to achieve a better education

Another argument in the case for college athletes to be paid would be that the scholarships that are offered to athletes aren’t enough to cover the lost wages they would gain from working a job. Even though some athletes are offered full ride scholarships to great universities, they aren’t enough to pay their rent and other bills that they have. With athletes committing so much time for sports they do not have the time to get a job and pay for their bills and other things they need. This puts more strain on the athletes and can cause them to drop out of their respective sports and when that happens they ultimately lose their scholarships. College athletics are more demanding than a full-time job should pay their athletes for their services provided to the university they play for. The wages lost by athletes at universities are even greater than those working typical eight-hour days. Since athletes, football in particular, commit an immense amount of time to their sports they could be obtaining a wage far greater than the amount of the scholarship they obtained for attending and participating in sports at a university. Another point to be made would be that only a small portion of the people associated with college athletics receive full scholarships. This means that not only are athletes committing so much time and effort for sports, they must pay out of pocket for the portion that their respective

While the idea of paying college athletes sounds more than a possibility to some, there are also potential negative aspects of this decision. An article from Forbes Magazine asked the question of where the source of money going to come from. Followed by statistical data that stated, “the NCAA released data showing that only 14 programs are turning a profit without having to rely on institutional support” (Dosh, 2011). This is a negative due to the fact that some schools would not have the financial ability to provide