Personal Statement: Why College Athletes Should Get Paid

The reason I think student athletes should be getting paid is because , enterprises gone mad with TV contracts and multi-million-dollar coaches who earn vastly more than the world’s best professors . The coach also noted that the university of michigan just signed a 66.5 million agreement granting adidas sole right to garb the school’s athletes and the NCAA last year signed a 14 year , 11 billion TV contract just to televise the basketball tournament. They don’t know whether universities should end the charade and switch to hired teams. But at least branch has raised an issue that should cause major debate in academia. College athletes should be paid because some coaches signed a 66.5 million agreement , sports universities should stop pretending
that athletes are students , billions of dollars are made from athletes each year .
In a major atlantic magazine report , civil rights historian taylor branch contends that big money sports universities should stop pretending that athletes are students, and should pay them cash. Universities and the national collegiate athletic association rake in billions from exuberant fans and TV contracts , branch wrote in an essay titled the shame of college sports and it’s unfair to base this financial empire on the bone-crushing sacrifice of players who get none of the proceeds.
The united states is the only country in the world that hosts big-time sports at institutions of higher learning he wrote. Ever since the U.S system began a century ago, schools have been caught repeatedly slipping money to star players to induce them to attend - and also faking grades so their academic incompetence show . Big time college sports are fully commercialized , branch wrote. Billions of dollars flow through them each year the NCAA makes money , and enables universities and corporations to make money , from the unpaid labor of athletes. Number one reason I think college athletes should get paid is because coaches get paid a lot of cash I know this because “The coach also noted that the university of michigan just signed a 66.5 million agreement granting adidas sole right to garb the school’s athletes and the NCAA last year signed a 14 year , 11 billion TV contract just to televise the basketball tournament” .
The average compensation for head football coaches at public universities , now more than 2 million , has grown 750 percent . That’s more than 20 times the cumulative 32 percent raise for college professors . For top basketball coaches , annual contracts now exceed 4 million , augmented by assorted bonuses , endorsements , country club memberships , the occasional private plane, and in some cases a negotiated percentage of ticket receipts . Growth of televised games spurred the bonanza. In 1984, a landmark U.S supreme court ruling let top football universities pursue TV contracts on their own, so the NCAA was left mostly with march madness basketball
. I also think college athletes get paid because “Last year , CBS sports and turner Broadcasting paid 771 million to the NCAA for television rights to the 2011 men’s basketball tournament alone”. He continued. That’s three quarters of a billion dollars built on the backs of amateurs on unpaid labor. The whole edifice depends on the players . If the whole edifice depends on the players I think they should be getting paid. Branch said the NCAA once was terrified by rumors that players of a major team planned to strike during March madness. It was unnerving to contemplate what hung on the consent of a few young volunteers several hundred million dollars in television revenue, countless livelihoods, the NCAA budget, and subsidies for sports at more than 1,000 schools. The crisis passed when the team lost earlys. Buy keeping athletes in the status of amateurs, the historian wrote, universities escape responsibility for those who are crippled or paralyzed by game injuries. Ben Simmons, one of the NCAA’s most famous recent “one and done” players, has become an outspoken critic of the NCAA’s model, which he believes pushes star players to drop out. “Everybody’s making money except the players,” Simmons lamented on. College athletics is big business. In fact, the state of Utah’s highest paid public official is Kyle Whittingham. Millions of dollars are spent updating stadiums, training facilities and other areas of athletic departments, all for “amateur” athletes to compete. Money is flooding into these athletic departments and the athletes benefit in many ways, but do athletes deserve to be paid for what they do? Two of the noble principles on which the NCAA justifies it’s existence amateurism and the student athlete are cynical hoaxes, legalistic confections propagated by the universities so they can exploit the skills and fame of young athlete .
The challenge that most college athletes face is that unlike most students, it is nearly impossible for them to have a job during the school year. The balance between school, sports, a personal life and a job would be too much to handle. So, many athletes can only work jobs during the summer if they’re not competing. Consequently, many college athletes leave school without having ever developed the skills necessary to handle their own accounts and affairs. College athletes should be paid because some coaches signed a 66.5 million agreement , sports universities should stop pretending that athletes are students , billions dollars are made from athlete each
year. The coach also noted that the university of michigan just signed a 66.5 million agreement granting adidas sole right to garb the school’s athletes and the NCAA last year signed a 14 year , 11 billion TV contract just to televise the basketball tournament. They don’t know whether universities should end the charade and switch to hired teams. But at least branch has raised an issue that should cause major debate in academia. College athletes should be paid because some coaches signed a 66.5 million agreement , sports universities should stop. But at least branch has raised an issue that should cause major debate in academia. College athletes should be paid because some coaches signed a 66.5 million agreement , sports universities should stop pretending that athletes are students , billions of dollars are made from athletes each year .
Sure, many of these athletes are on scholarship, which pays for their tuition and room and board in most cases, and we’ve covered the stipends, which average between $2,000 and $5,000 annually. Let’s get real. How many of us can live off of $2,000 a year? To put this in context, let’s say I work for a company that offers tuition assistance. Let’s say that this company offers to assist my whole tuition for being a full-time employee, but my paycheck every two weeks works out to be $77. Could I live off that? Even as a full-time employee with access to the employee cafeteria? I don’t think many of us could, yet we expect athletes to do so. The university makes money because of the athletes. Let’s talk for a second about Johnny Manziel. Yes, Johnny Football is definitely not the beacon model behavior for student-athletes, but there was an instance during his time at Texas A&M where he was suspended (albeit for a half against an inferior opponent) for allegedly selling merchandise with his autograph on it. According to NCAA bylaw 12.5.2.1, players are forbidden from permitting “the use of his or her name or picture to advertise, recommend or promote directly the sale or use of a commercial product or service of any kind. The coach also noted that the university of Michigan just signed a 66.5 million agreement granting Adidas sole right to garb the school’s athletes and the NCAA last year signed a 14 year , 11 billion TV contract just to televise the basketball tournament. They don’t know whether universities should end the charade and switch to hired teams. But at least branch has raised an issue that should cause major debate in academia. College athletes should be paid because some coaches signed a 66.5 million agreement , sports universities should stop. But at least branch has raised an issue that should cause major debate in academia. College athletes should be paid because some coaches signed a 66.5 million agreement , sports universities should stop pretending that athletes are students , billions of dollars are made from athletes each year .