Should College Athletes Deserve To Be Paid

A Call for College Athletes to Be Paid The NCAA makes an estimate of nine hundred and eighty nine million dollars annually. The NCAA is able to make this gigantic profit while paying its employees absolutely nothing. If this situation would happen with a large employer paying its employees nothing, the company would get into serious legal trouble. However, since they are college athletes, society thinks it is okay. While many people say that receiving an education is enough of a privilege and paying college athletes would ruin the spirit of the game, college athletes should nevertheless be able to use their names for monetary gain because, everyone else in the business gets paid, college athletes train like professional athletes and athletes produce millions for their college but are paid nothing. First of all, some of the people who are opposed to paying college athletes say that educational scholarships are sufficient enough, paying athletes would devalue the purpose of education. The idea of paying college athletes is not devaluing the importance of education, however for many college athletes, college is just a stepping stone towards their professional careers. Many college athletes never use what they learned in the classroom. For example, according to the
Washington Post 68 basketball players left college after their freshman year to declare to the NBA draft. Also, not only can their education be pointless but it can be fraudulent as well. In the University of North Carolina, a study found that the university was setting up classes that would guarente star athletes A’s so that their GPA would be high enough to compete in sports. This shows that free college may be a great privilege however a college education is not why some athletes are attending college. Others who argue against paying collegiate athletes state that it would ruin the spirit and atmosphere of the game because larger more profitable schools would amass all the good players, but in reality it would not change much. In almost every college sport there are college powerhouses that dominate the recruiting process even without paying college athletes. This is because the best athletes will always go to the best schools for their sports. To show, the university of Kentucky basketball team had six players drafted in the 2015 NBA draft, while most colleges are lucky if they have one. Also, the University of Connecticut’s female basketball team had won the national championship four four straight years in 2013-2016. The point is, college sports will always be dominated by certain schools, and paying students athletes would not change it. Everyone else gets paid in the college athletics business, it is un american for athletes to not be able to use their own name for a profit. Top men’s football and basketball programs make more than $140 million a year from TV contracts, advertising, merchandising, ticket sales, and licensing. Head coaches at top programs earn more than $4 million a year (Gale). For example, Nick Saban, the head coach of the University of Alabama football team is paid more than five million dollars annually, while all his players receive nothing. America is based off of capitalism, and being able to use your own name for a company or sponsorship should fall under that. However, the NCAA restricts players from selling autographs or clothing to make a profit. The idea of not paying athletes or letting them use their own names for business is old-fashioned and tyrannical. While head coaches are making millions of dollars, athletes are stuck having to deal with no income. College athletes train like pro athletes and have the struggle of school and athletics, so they should be compensated. An investigation by Sports Illustrated found evidence of memorabilia-trading violations by more than two dozen Ohio State players, dating back to 2002. Many of those found guilty denied the allegations, but former defensive end Robert Rose acknowledged and defended the practice. “I was struggling, my mom was struggling,” Rose was quoted as saying. “It was just something that I had to do.” (Karaim). As mentioned above, many athletes struggle financially because most of their time is taken up by sports and many don’t have wealthy families to lean on. Athletes not only have to balance school and sports, but most of they them have to stay on a tight budget. Being a college athlete is at least the equivalent of working a full time job, not allowing athletes to get paid is inhumane. College athletes produce millions of dollars of profit for their colleges but are paid nothing. In the introductory paragraph, is was stated that the NCAA make nine hundred and eighty nine million dollars in 2016. All of this revenue was produced by the athletes, however the athletes receive absolutely no share of it. The universities and the NCAA classify these players as students in an attempt to avoid paying them what they are worth (Salim). The NCAA makes millions off of television deals with ESPN and CBS, clothing and ticket sales. Not paying the athletes or not even allowing them to use their own name is taking advantage of young adults who have little voice against a giant corporation. Athletes in the United States do not really have a choice, but to play for the NCAA if they want to become a professional athlete. Thus allowing the NCAA time and time again to take advantage of the athletes and use them to make millions while paying the athletes nothing. All in all, the NCAA restricts athletes ability to make money for themselves.
Doing so is unamerican and selfish because athletes deserve to be paid. College athletes deserve the right to use their name for a profit and receive financial compensation because, everyone else in the business gets paid, being an athlete is like a full time job, and they are the ones who produce the revenue. Even though a small percentage of people are college athletes, one day you or someone you know might become a collegiate athlete and have to struggle with this unjust situation. Because of this, there needs to be spreading awareness through media discussion for college athletes to be paid around the United
States.