College Athletes Should Be Paid

Kyler Campie
Mrs. Blomme
Comp 1
17 October 2014
Should College Athletes Be Paid? The NCAA makes billions of dollars every year off of college sports (Johnson). Last year the NCAA men's basketball tournament made nearly 1.15 billion dollars just off of the television ads ran during the tournament (Johnson). Athletes should be paid for their time and efforts put into the sport. They are making a ton of money for other people and they don’t get to see any of it. There are many reasons that college athletes should be paid, they make the colleges money, they need money for their expenses, they are risking injury every time they participate in their sport and they could earn substantially more money playing professional sports. The NCAA and
Athletes would be able to choose a college based on their desires instead of the perks that colleges offer them. If every player was compensated equally, it would eliminate some of the recruiting practices that are in place today. Colleges are already paying players to play, they know they need to convince players to come play for them and they often times give gifts to players to try and convince them to come to their school. If colleges were able to pay their athletes the same amount, many athletes would stay in college longer. Having the same pay for each player would eliminate larger, wealthier schools from becoming dominant by paying quality players more money. Students should be paid based on the revenue their sport generates. Major sports like basketball and football bring in more money, therefore those athletes should be compensated at a higher level than the less popular
There are some people that believe that student athletes should not be paid for many different reasons. One reason is that they think that the athletes will focus more on earning money instead of the real reason they are there, which is to get an education (Paying College Athletes Pros and Cons). This is unrealistic because many athletes are at college as a stepping stone to the professional leagues. They really don’t have a desire to gain an education; they are just waiting for their chance into the professional leagues. These athletes would choose to go directly to the pros if they were able. They would rather earn money right away and not play at the college level. College athletes rarely get the education they deserve because they are too busy playing their sport. They become a money maker for the college and the college puts their sport over their education. Another reason is that if the athletes are paid it will take away the amateur aspect of college sports (Paying College Athletes Pros and Cons). Some people debate that college sports don't exist for the athlete's to gain income. They feel that college athletics should promote the real meaning of sportsmanship between schools and students. If money is involved, many people think the spirit of college athletics will be lost (Paying College Athletes Pros and