College Athletes Should Be Paid

There has been much debate over the past year or so as to if college athletes should be paid, independently of their scholarship, for their hard work and dedication to their school and team. The life as a student-athlete is not easy because of the time dedicated to athletics and the time they need to dedicate to their studies. For example, the life of a Division 1 athlete might include waking up, going to class, going to workout and practice, staying after for film sessions, and then only getting to do their homework. This commitment is huge. Based upon that type of true dedication, it is a legitimate request that the college athletes should be paid for their work. College athletes should be paid because the NCAA and the universities are unfair
According to Chris Isidore (2014) the average amount of practice hours put in by a college football player is a little over thirty-six hours per week. That is just four hours below the average work amount of work for a full time job in a week. So if a collegiate athlete is practicing for thirty-six hours a week, goes to class, does homework, and gets little amounts of sleep, that sounds more like a full time job than an extracurricular activity. The life of a college student is stressful enough with all the classes they have to take, homework, and sometimes extra employment, but the life as a student-athlete is ten times worse. With all the different responsibilities of a college athlete, there is no time for the student-athletes to get a job. Another tough thing of an athlete's job is the responsibilities that come along with the commitments. The athletes are expected to have good grades, stay out of trouble, and be good role models that represent their school in a positive manner. This is a tough task for some of the athletes because they grew up in a very tough and harsh environment. Again, there are multiple reason why the $100-$150 allowance would be helpful to the student-athletes because since they have no time for an actual job, they still have some money for their
The commitment is huge because of all that is expected of the athletes from their coaches and the universities. The life of athlete is very different than the life of a college student because if one would think about all that goes into being an athlete, these student-athletes work hard to get a good education and to work hard enough with their athletics that they might be good enough to make the professional leagues. With all of the income that the NCAA and the universities make off of the student-athletes, what reason is left for not paying the