NCAA Athletes Should Not Be Paid

Should NCAA athletes be paid? The NCAA makes six billion dollars annually(Frederick). Davis points out the SEC recently surpassed the $1 billion mark for football receipts. The Big Ten is close behind at $905 million. He reminds us that the football programs at Texas, Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Penn State earn between $40 million and $80 million each year in profits. The NCAA received $771 million from CBS and Turner to broadcast last year's basketball tournament (Davis). The athletes get none of the money that comes in from their sports. The NCAA says that athletes should not be paid because the majority of the time the athletes have scholarships and exposure to professional teams (Frederick). Almost all coaches are against the
idea of paying athletes because pay cuts for themselves. "In 40 of the 50 U.S.
states, the highest paid public official is currently the head coach of a state university's football or men's basketball team", said Marc Edelman. Players argue that colleges can definitely afford to pay players because they are non-profits. Colleges spend money right when it comes in the door because they are non-profits. The NCAA has enforced stipends to players to help cover expenses. Stipends range from 2,000 dollars to 5,000 dollars depending on the sport that the athlete is playing and school that the athlete is attending. The NCAA enforced this because players complained about going to bed hungry at night and not being able to perform to the best of their ability because the lack of food that they were able to get (Isidore). NCAA athletes think they should be paid because the physical risk they take for their teams. Football players commonly get hurt and can not play in the NFL (Keolanui). The athletes also think they should be paid because the profit
the NCAA makes of their names. The athletes play for people watching on tv and the NCAA profits off the tv time (Frederick). The NCAA mostly gets money from tv sponsors Lastly, there are impacts to the athlete's future lives. Some athletes are paralyzed and others do not get degrees, which can impact their future lives (Myerberg). Without a college degree, it is a lot harder to get a job (Edelman). NCAA athletes should be paid because the physical risk they take, the profit the NCAA makes using their names, and the impacts to their future lives. NCAA athletes should be paid because the physical risk they take for their teams.
Many NCAA athletes are injured and cannot play again (Frederick). Also, many of them sustain injuries that can impact their personal life like getting paralyzed (Keolanui). Lastly, many NCAA athletes sustain brain injuries. 96 percent of former division I NCAA football players sustain injuries (Edelman). Many NCAA athletes are injured and can not play again. They should get paid because they give up their bodies for their school. For example, Kevin Ware snapped his leg in half and might not be able to play again. This happened during an elite game in a NCAA tournament basketball game. The game that this injury happened in, the NCAA received over 600,000 dollars (Frederick). They need to be payed in college, because sports careers can be short and sometimes players can't get jobs after if they are hurt. The players get none of the six billion dollars that the NCAA gets
annually. Many NCAA athletes sustain injuries that can impact their personal life like getting paralyzed. Many colleges abandon their injured athletes. The colleges do not help pay for healthcare, for the injuries the athletes have sustained while playing for their college. Their are over 400 pages for mandates for the NCAA, but less than one for the athletes healthcare (Walsh). Many athletes are paralyzed for life and have to have assisted living care for the rest of their life's. For example, a Rutgers football player named Eric LeGrand was paralyzed for life. On a kick off, he was hit hard in the head and paralyzed (Walsh). That is why they should be paid as NCAA athletes.