why college athletes should be paid

Why Should Scholarship Athletes Be Paid? Recently in the news, there was a report on the five University of Kentucky basketball players that decided to enter the NBA draft after only their freshmen season. Sure, they were told of the millions of dollars they could make in professional sports, but were they given the odds of them even reaching that big payday? From picks 5-10 in the draft, the success rate of the player becoming a league average starter is about 30%, then for the rest of the first round, picks 11-30 have around a 10% chance (Thread:15 year Basketball Analysis). But even after given the odds, most of the players will choose to enter the draft because if they continue to play and attend college, they could hurt themselves and lose out on all the money. But what happens when the athlete doesn’t make it? Then he becomes just another person in his early 20s without a college degree, looking for a job. But what if colleges were to offer the players an added incentive to stay, promise a type of salary so the athlete could make some extra money to help with his tuition cost, maintain a social life, and stay in school to finish his degree? Because even on a full scholarship, it does not cover the entire cost, the IRS taxes the scholarship leaving the player about $3,200-$3,500 short a year. This is why paying college athletes makes sense, because it will help keep young adults in school to finish their degrees and help them financially to achieve a better future. College athletes deserve to be paid because sports take up about 40 hours a week, which could translate to a full time job. So why should the players not get paid for doing his job? That is the question that is keeping most student-athletes from completing their education and chancing not only professional sports, but their futures as well. Michael Wilbon, a featured columnist for ESPN.com, wrote in one of his articles that at first he sided with the NCAA, saying that scholarships should be