Paying NCAA Athletes Essay

Allowing universities to pay students athletes to participate in sports would require a complete overhaul of the NCAA rule book. At this stage, too many questions need to be answered: how much would athletes get paid? Where

I believe that college sports should be considered a profession. Athletes deserve to be paid for their work. College athletics are a critical part of America’s culture and economy. At the present time, student-athletes are considered amateurs. College is a stepping-stone to

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.

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.

Should college student-athletes be paid has become a much debated topic. The incentive for a student-athlete to play a college sport should not be for money, but for the love of the game. It has been argued that colleges are making money and therefore the student-athlete should be compensated. When contemplating college income from sporting events and memorabilia from popular sports, such as football and basketball, it must not be forgotten that colleges do incur tremendous expense for all their sports programs. If income from sports is the driving factor to pay student-athletes, several major problems arise from such a decision. One problem is who gets a salary and the second problem is how much should they be paid. Also, if the income

Throughout the years college sports have been about the love of the game, filled with adrenaline moments. However, the following question still remains: Should college athletes get paid to play sports in college? Seemingly, this debate has been endless, yet the questions have gone unanswered. The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) plays a vital role in this debate. The NCAA is a billion dollar industry, but yet sees that the athlete should get paid for their hard work and dedication.

This paper debates whether Division 1 athletes should be paid or not. I explain the situation to the readers that do not have much background knowledge of the topic. I go on to say that Division 1 players should be paid because they do not have much money to buy necessities. The NCAA does not allow players to get jobs due to the workload required for their particular sport. The athletes also cannot sell their items or autographed items for revenue. My next reason athletes should be paid is because they are the core of the collegiate sports. Without the players, there would be no revenue period. My next point is that the scholarships are not enough to compensate or the time the athletes put into their sport. Although the

There are over 100 college sports programs in the nation that are run by the NCAA football and basketball, among other sports. The NCAA makes money through merchandise, sales, and television broadcasts which increases each year. The NCAA makes about $1 billion dollars a month, $12 billion annually (Wilbon). A portion of the money then gets distributed to the schools to pay for the rights of the schools. In addition, the NCAA also has deals with multiple television companies that generates an additional $11.3 billion dollars (“College Athletes Should be Compensated”).

Anderson, Dave. "Top 10 Reasons College Athletes Should Be Paid." Top 10 Lists | ListLand.com. N.p., 09 July 2016. Web. 28 Feb. 2017. With college comes responsibilities, and getting a job would be one of them, but playing a sport is a privilege. Dave Anderson, columnist, states that, “There is just no fair way to pay college athletes.” There are many sports programs that bring in different amounts of money. Is it fair to only pay for basketball and football programs, but not lacrosse, tennis, or volleyball? How do you begin to rate who gets paid and how much they get paid? Many college athletes say that they do not get enough funding for new materials and practice gear. On the contrary, most of the time when athletes ask for new gear they receive it through donors or college

Who would be responsible for paying the students in this case? And what system will be used; do athletes with better performance get more pay than other members of the team? These things and a lot more only would result to many complexities, and thus, paying college athletes might indeed just deviate the students from what they went to their respective institutions in the first place, that is, to get a degree, not to gain a salary.” (http://www.youniversitytv.com/college-tips/pros-cons-paying-college-athletes/) There has been numerous college athletes that said they want to paid.

As of today, there are over 460,000 NCAA student-athletes that compete in 24 different sports while in college throughout the United States (NCAA). Over the past couple decades, the argument for paying these college athletes has gained steam and is a hot topic in the sports community. However, paying these college athletes is not feasible because most universities do not generate enough revenue to provide them with a salary and some even lose money from the sports programs. These collegiate student-athletes are amateurs and paying them would ruin the meaning of college athletics. Also, playing college sports is a choice and a privilege with no mention or guarantee of a salary besides a full-ride scholarship. Although some argue that

For over a decade, there has been an ongoing debate for and against paying college athletes. Those in favor quickly point out the benefits to players. Those against this practice concentrate on the possible detriment to both the educational and athletic systems currently in place at institutions of higher learning. Merit can be found in both arguments; however, the changes that would be necessary to put the payment practice into place would take years to implement.

"Elite College Athletes Should Be Paid: Economists." Vanderbilt Research. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2015. .

ll. College Athletes are inherently better off with accepting scholarships versus a salary while participating in sports.

The NCAA’s greatest fear about paying student athletes is the money itself. They worry it will be spread thin between all the sports departments, but with all the money circulating around the college sports industry, they should not have any concerns. The two most popular college sports, football and men’s basketball, generate over $6 billion in annual revenue combined; more than the amount the National