Category: Paying College Athletes

Introduction

Did you know that college football is one of the main sources of income of universities? In fact, the highest paid college football teams can generate over 200 million dollars in revenue. This is why student athletes are very respected and why most of them receive scholarships and awards. I extensively researched this topic and I am here to tell you that. Student athletes should be paid salaries to participate in their university’s football teams in order to become more dedicated and enthusiastic to winning.

Body

The main reason for paying athletes salaries are their contribution to their university and their undivided focus on the game.

Argument 1: Just like employees, they are allowing their organization to generate a significant amount of revenue. They invest their blood, tears and sweat to engage in competitive games that attract large audiences. As a result, universities earn revenue by selling tickets, receiving sponsorships, getting airtime on television and selling souvenirs from the team. According to Jung (2015)’s book, strong college football teams attract more donors and grants to the university and also enable the academic institution to benefit from a stronger reputation (Jung, 2015). So they should receive wages in return just like employees who actively contribute to profitability and reputation of their institution.

Argument 2: In Addition, granting salaries to student athletes will enable them to concentrate on their athleticism and avoid seeking demanding external jobs. Many players come from humble backgrounds and are unable to pay from their fundamental physiological needs.Hence, despite the fact that they are talented athletically, they need to find another source of revenue to afford their dorms, their food and their clothes. This is why many of them seek jobs off-campus.

However, this negatively affects the time they have to practice and invest in the game. Also, it subjects them to unnecessary stressors that can also hamper their performance during the game. Paying these athletes modest wages could, thus, remove the pressure of seeking an off-campus job, as it would allow them to afford their basic necessities while focusing on the game.

Counter-argument: However, critics argue that college athletes should only receive scholarships in return for their contribution, and not cash wages. Johnson’s book published in 2014 states that granting scholarships to players is very important as this encourages talented athletes to join universities and removes a part of the financial burden of education (Johnson, 2014).

However, scholarships do not relieve the daily financial struggles some athletes are in charge of paying for their food and gas. According to Sanderson and Siegfried (2015)’s research article published in 2015, cash wages would motivate athletes further to keep investing them mentally and physically in games. In addition to scholarships, it is only fair to give them a portion of the money they bring to their university, because students athletes are really a valuable asset for the finances and reputation of the academic institutions.

Conclusion

To conclude, I hope you agree with me that student athletes, who are bringing in millions of dollars to their universities, should be compensated financially because of their efforts and to alleviate financial burdens off their backs. Paying them would not only make them more financial secure, but will also enable them to devote and commit themselves further to their teams and games.If you agree, please spread the world and help your favorite student athletes achieve financial security through wages paid by their college.

Every year college and universities earn millions of dollars from broadcasting games,selling jerseys , merchandise , and most of all using the athletes name for popularity.People who think college student-athletes should get compensated often think the students’ names and pictures are used as a form of advertising, so they should receive some cash reward for that . The other multitude think they should not get compensated because most college athletes receives thousands of dollars of scholarship thus “ getting compensated” Yes the athletes receive scholarships but not nearly as much a college gains from them . On average colleges bring in thousands or even millions of dollars from ticket sales , concessions , jerseys, advertising the players name , etc . All starting with the players, so we go back too “ Should they get consented in any form of cash”.

Being a college student is a full time job in physical , athletic , drama , class ,and movie shows . College athletics is an extracurricular activity, but the national student sports association schedule requires the athlete to not attend school . Mark Edelman notes that “not only do they skip skip but they don’t receive any profit from national televised games. people should get a small portion of this profit with all they do for the organization.

As a college athlete they bounce from workouts , being on the court/field, classes , and sometimes film sessions. Many would argue this ia a full-time job.These sports are labeled as extracurricular activities , but the schedules of the NCAA tournaments require an extended period in which the Athlete must miss school. A college athletes puts in at least around 50 hrs a week.This can be very difficult to manage study time and really focus on academics.Every athlete must stay eligible by passing all his/her classes and be a full time student,12 semester hrs.It’s nearly impossible to stay on top of your grades and clock in for 50+ hrs a week on your sports. Apparently it’s essential to prepare these athletes academically for the future , often lost in the huge shuffle or drive for winning and revenue generation at the expense of the athletes future only so people can be entertained,which sucks.

Athletes not only miss a bunch of school but they are absent for nationally televised games that make a crap load of money.In basketball there are approximately 5,265 male players at the D1 level.Only 75% of these players think they can go pro , 3,949 players. The NBA only drafts around 40 athletes from US colleges a year .This leaves 3,909 players who most likely wont go pro or at least in the NBA they won’t . College athletics is a broken system they value athletic success and revenue over the next 50 years of an athlete’s life The truth about college sports ,especially football and basketball, is that the coaches must recruit the players out there . Most coaches don’t even care about you academically. They will not sacrifice winning for academics.If they did they would not have job. Basketball and football alone make billions of dollars for their college/university, so the question is if these players are bringing in billions of dollars into their school why can’t they get a little extra money for themselves.

The flutie effect was something named after Boston’s college very own “Doug Flutie.” After he won the heisman trophy back in 1984. It was reported that admission rose significantly in subsequent years. Thus noting that college athletes are not only on a team but also recruiters/advertisers .Till this day most colleges with good sports programs use their athletic success to promote their schools .

Florida Gators past head coach,Steve Spurrier , signed a contract for 6 years , and in these 6 years he would earn approximately $2.5 million a year ,not including benefits . Alabama’s own Nick Saban has just signed a contract of 8 years. This 8 year deal is worth around $74 million. Earning 7.5 million a year and increasing by $400,000 every year. Without good talented athletes anyone could argue these coaches would not earn as much .Why you ask? Simply because without wins or a successful season , even without good players .the colleges revenue would decrease drastically . A coach cant play for his/her athletes , the athletes themselves make it happen on the field with their talent , and not to mention risking serious injury to their bodies .Let’s be honest no one pays to watch a coach on the sideline .If the players alone attract all this money , why not share a little of it ? Colleges gain 10 million dollars a year or more and can’t afford to compensate the athletes who made it happen ?

Student athletes bring in alot of revenue for their college and don’t get compensated for it , but what they don’t tell you is that most of these athletes are in college due to the fact that they got scholarship money . Some even blessed with full rides to college . Including a nice place to stay , food , and a quality education . Let’s say colleges were allowed to give players a salary instead of scholarships . Athletes would have money to pay for college and have some left over for their needs right ? Wrong athletes would have to pay taxes , and depending on how much they earn the amount would decrease until they cant afford college altogether according to John R,Thelin in his article” Here’s why we shouldn’t pay college Athletes”.With the benefit of scholarships , all they have to do is perform on the court/field,stay out of trouble , and keep their grades up .

Playing in college is a privilege not a right . “There are thousands of High School athletes that dream of playing in college and only about 7% make it and only 2% make it into a D1 school“,college press . Athletes must realize that there are millions of people that only dream of playing in college and never get to do so . Playing in college you are still an amatuer , so athletes should play solely for the love of the game . If not the game would turn into a business , and college sports would turn into a bidding war . Leaving the less fortunate colleges to be stuck with not so good players. Basically the college with the most money would most likely always win because the players would run for the highest pay .

Colleges should be able to decide how they pay or give funds to their recruits. The NCAA should allow colleges to give out a salary or scholarships , or letting the player choose between them . The question “ Should college athletes get paid “ arises every year, in championship games or march madness, with new ideas and evidence on why or why not they should get paid . Both of the debates putting up a good fight . The most major reason why the NCAA does not want to allow players to get a salary is not having a difference between being an amateur or being a professional. Professionals obviously get paid to play but they pay their own bills , live in their home , and don’t need scholarships . Instead they get sold or traded out . in college a player either transfers or works out a better scholarship somewhere else where there is no pay included ( at least not legally ) . This would ruin college sports many people say . Another “solution” is still giving an athlete the scholarship plus a little bit of money for himself/ herself for their needs . This could be weekly , by weekly , or monthly anything helps them . They should enforce students grades and eligibility because most college athletes don’t graduate , or have a near impossible chance of graduating with all the “work” hours being put into their team. To sum up the NCAA should change or modify rules to help these athletes because after all without them they wouldn’t be gaining so much revenue and neither would the colleges.

Playing your favorite sport should be more rewarding, imagine playing for a team and not getting paid. College athletes could be playing a dangerous game where they are risking at getting injured everyday not only in a game but at practice as well. I think they should get paid because some of them don’t have money for food and other useful things around their homes. There’s so much more reasons on why college athletes should get paid.

They take so much time out of their day to practice and improve. An college athlete averages 43.3 hours a week, that’s more than those who work a full time job. Not only do they need to focus on getting their education but they need to study and do their homework. If they get paid for playing and meeting their expectations on the team they should be able to get rewarded. Athletes would try much more harder in their games because who doesn’t want money, it would do so much good in their outside life but also for food and material in their home.

There were obvious reason on why college athletes should get paid. The only reasonable way they should be paid are for their jersey selling. The NCAA take the profits from their jerseys selling and they don’t even get what they deserve. NCAA rules state that “student athletes are not allowed to use their likeness for promotional purposes or monetary gain”. NCAA coaches often earn about $100,000 per year, even though for they work educational institutions and often have several assistants and advisors who help share the workload; This is a huge amount of money compared to teachers and professors who educated ten and thousands of students. Alabama Head coach made $5.5 million in 2013 and recently received a new contract worth $7 million each year.

There are some reasons on why they shouldn’t be paid. One of them being that playing college football is a privilege and that they should recognize the opportunity they have to play the sport they love. Another reason is that they aren’t professional and they can get paid by working and making it to the pros like the NBA or NFL but there are many more. There are some players who would not take money seriously and waste it on drugs or some more useless things. There’s some truth in this statement but there some players out there who need the money either for their family or themselves, because they might not be able to pay for bills or food.

This is my most powerful statement that should be able to show everyone why they should. Sports are dangerous at times and could happen to anyone that could also affect how they perform. In football they are hitting each other with helmets in their heads which could cause a serious brain injury. Rob Gronkowski, New England Patriots tight end has recently retired because he was concerned for his health which has cost a lot of fans to be emotional. The NCAA is an 11 million dollar industry, that’s a lot of money obviously.

Those pretty good reason on why they should get paid, players will try so much harder. It’s still pretty dumb that they aren’t getting paid yet, and hopefully in the future they will pay them. In my opinion they should’ve been getting paid, they’ll be so many others who would agree with me.

Many have discussed whether college athletes should be paid or not. There is a lot to think about when considering this. These college athletes play for a league called the National Collegiate Athletic Association, or the NCAA for short. The NCAA makes a large sum of money off these athletes. The student-athletes are creating money for their colleges and the NCAA, but they don’t get paid an amount in return. This is not fair to the athletes who put in so much work for the success of their colleges. College athletes should be paid because they put in a lot of work and effort, many of them struggle to get by, and they are the reason that the NCAA and their colleges are making money.

College athletes put in an endless amount of work to be the best for their respected colleges. A lot is expected from these young athletes, from making sure they go to class to making sure they are present in practices and workouts. It is basically a job for these athletes since they put in more than forty hours a week in practice. It is unbelievable that they have to give an insane amount of time just for practice. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said this in his article: “It was mostly holding up in the dorms at night because you couldn’t afford to go out and you needed a lot of rest after punishing practices” (Abdul-Jabbar, par. 3). This limited amount of free time and demanding practices gives the athletes no time to get a job for extra money that is much needed.

Not only do these athletes not get paid for their work, but they risk injuries every day with the extreme practices they are put through. One article states: “Though many athletic programs and scholarships provide health care services, student-athletes are not afforded worker’s compensation protection if they are injured” (‘Compensation for College Athletes’, par.7). This just goes to show how dishonest college sports has become. Athletes are put to work for an endless amount of hours by their colleges, but they have to pay their own hospital bills if they get hurt. This does not make any sense at all. To make things even worse, the NCAA has faced many of these events where players get hurt but are unable to pay their medical bills. However, after facing many of these events, the NCAA started making sure that their athletes had some type of medical insurance to be able to play. This means that if an athlete cannot afford medical insurance, then he is not allowed to play.

With a huge amount of money that is made, it is very hard to see that everyone involved is getting paid, that is everyone except the athletes themselves. In his article, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar states as follows: “Top college coaches make between $4m and $9m per year, plus outside fees. In 40 out of the 50 states, they are the highest-paid state employees” (Abdul-Jabbar, par. 7). The coaches make a huge amount of money from the hard work and dedication from their players. Abdul-Jabbar also included that students who were on academic scholarships were allowed to work and earn money during the year, but students who were on athletic scholarships, like himself, were told not to and to focus on their sport. Many college athletes are struggling to get by with a limited amount of money and to add to that they aren’t allowed to work even if they have time to. This is completely unfair and they should be given at least a sum of money to get by.

Many people from the NCAA believe that college athletes should not be paid, but instead, they should be more thankful for receiving scholarships. However, many college athletes still rack up a big amount of debt. According to a recent study, the average full scholarship athlete racks up around $3,200 in debt every year that they are in school. This debt comes from meal plans and other unplanned fees that are not always covered by colleges. Many of these student-athletes are not financially secure and are not able to pay for these costs. To add to this, getting a job is close to impossible with the amount of practice and games they have. Veronica Majerol states that student-athletes can spend up to 60 hours a week going to games and practices alone during playoff time. Many of these athletes miss valuable class time while attending all these events. Shabazz Napier, a former college athlete from the University of Connecticut, said the following: “There are nights that I go to bed and I’m starving”. With these struggles and a limited amount of free time, how can one expect them to attend all their classes, let alone have time for a job? These athletes should surely be getting paid some amount of money for all the time and effort they put in for their colleges.

The NCAA is growing every year, and so are their profits. It is really unfair that everyone gets their share except the ones responsible for it – the athletes. These college athletes go through many struggles during their time in college. They are the ones creating millions of dollars in profits for their college and the NCAA, yet they don’t receive a penny for their efforts. Hopefully, as time goes by the NCAA sees how unfairly they treat their athletes and decide to pay these athletes what they deserve.

We should pay college athletes a stipend or salary, due to the fact it has an accurate impact on the students and their sports careers. College athletes deserve to get paid considering the fact that they can generate funds for their colleges, which gives their faculties precious exposure, and athletes want to spend money. It is essential for us to understand that getting college athletes paid ought to come with tremendous or poor impacts, and that is why I have done some research to completely understand whether or not college athletes should get paid or not.

Athletes need to spend money. It is essential to recognize that even if an athlete is awarded a full-ride scholarship, they no longer get any aspect of cash from the college to deal with daily expenses. Therefore, even some of the athletes that are with full trip scholarships battle to hold up with maintaining their everyday desires due to the fact of economic problems. If a scholar does no longer maintain a phase time job where does the money come from (besides from their parents)? It is additionally hard mainly for international college students to get that section time job due to the fact of their visas are solely for educational purposes. ‘The Case for paying college athletes,’ This is an article written by means of Sanderson, Alan R, and John J, it is a journal of economic views on paying college athletes. This journal truly supports the fact that college athletes should be getting paid by their colleges, the purpose being that athletes need spending money for more than a few matters to continue to exist and now not solely work but also to stay life. With this research and data gathered, we are focusing on discovering approaches to getting college athletes paid a stipend or salary.

College athletes give their colleges valuable exposure. The exposure students carry to their colleges can boost purposes and donations. ‘The Flutie impact on college admissions,’ is an appropriate instance of how college athletes can supply their schools exposure. It was named for Doug Flutie, A Boston College quarterback who put his college on the map in 1984 with his famous Hail Mary bypass in opposition to the University of Miami and his Heisman- winning season. For Boston University there was a 30% expansion in applications over the next two years. A learn about confirmed that when a football team, ‘Rises from mediocre to great,’ candidates make bigger via 18.7%. Similarly, when a group improves its win total by means of five video games in a season, Donations go up 28.2%. Without a doubt, there are many examples of how university athletes brought about exposure to their institutions. The likes of Joel Embiid who comes from Kansas University and now plays in the NBA (National Basketball Association) for the Philadelphia 76ers. So why not pay college athletes who convey so lots cost to their colleges? Therefore, university athletes deserve to get paid the fact this publicity Rakes in money for these faculties which goes to my next supporting point.

College athletes rake in cash for the schools. Whether the university succeeds in its activity or not college athletes deliver in hundreds of thousands of dollars for their schools, so Naturally they need to receive a cut. This argument holds proper in particular for basketball and Football players, as they emerge as household names during their respective seasons. Everyone round them makes money, however the student accountable for generating revenue receives nothing. If fact be spoken, this is a blatant structure of exploitation. Colleges need to do a better job in assisting their college students financially and giving them salaries or stipends is a great start to doing so.

A lot has been stated about whether college students have to be getting a income from the colleges, and most of the records and information supplied supports the fact that they should be getting paid. In argument, there are nevertheless different opposing factors that make paying university athletes difficult. This should be as simple as determining salaries, which could get messy. The question is who are the athletes that should be getting paid and how an awful lot have to they be getting paid from their colleges? These questions create chaos and threaten the team’s morale due to the fact it is not likely that every athlete will be getting paid. Therefor it is clear that the machine of paying college athletes would be messy, take for example you are in a soccer crew of 30 players and only 1 out of those 30 gets paid due to the fact of his exceptional performances. Firstly, that would reason a lot of jealousy within the group and would hazard the well-being of that one gifted player. Another interesting fact that opposes college athletes receiving earnings is the fact that wealthy universities would advantage the most from this. Universities that are already profitable and in better positions to pay their athletes top dollar would have an unfair advantage in recruiting battles against establishments that are less fortunate than them. This would motive a breakdown in the athletic completion because the fantastic colleges would have higher gamers than the other ones. Rich universities benefiting greater brings to the last opposing point why college athletes have to not get paid, although this would be a high-quality element for them to get paid this would take away the love of the game. Automatically, the minute an athlete is paid money of some sort at a steady rate, they are considered professionals. This would cast off the rawness of beginner athletic competition. The main point of being a student-athlete is first of all receiving an schooling then comes your game as your second option, therefore it is not integral that you have to be getting paid as a professional if you are receiving schooling too as your focus. College college students be collaborating in their sports activities for excitement and to release stress from schoolwork, now not to be getting paid and receiving sponsorships or offers from brands. College sports need to be a platform to compete in your activity at a pleasant stage and if you want to go professional with it then that must be a selection you make after attaining your college degree.

As you can see from the data provided, it is nevertheless a lengthy dialogue before we can say that college athletes be getting a earnings or a stipend. Even with the opposing factors supplied such as it would benefit prosperous universities more, finding out salaries would get messy and that it would take away the love of the game I still stand with the truth that university athletes have to be getting paid. You cannot expect an outstanding level of competition if pinnacle athletes are no longer being paid due to the fact athletes need to spend money. They carry exposure and price to their colleges which in return rakes in a lot of cash for these colleges. So the place is this cash going if no longer the ones responsible for bringing in this revenue?

Advertisement actors on television, door-to-door salesmen, and people that are sponsored by companies all have one job; they bring in customers. They work hard to receive their payments as expected. That is what we all expect, right? We have all been taught that if we work hard and we will receive fair compensation. This ideology does not seem to apply to college athletics though. College athletes have worked throughout their childhood to fulfill their dreams to reach the university that they get to compete for. College athletics is a huge market that people love to watch and support. As a result of the viewership, they bring in billions of dollars. These athletes bring in the viewership, work hard, and are doing arguably more than the actor or the salesman. However, they aren’t seeing these profits firsthand or at all. They should be paid a portion of the money that they deserve for the work they have put in as well as the viewership they have brought to the school. This topic has caught the public’s eye and has become a huge topic across the United States. The NCAA has kept these players under its rules and has set out large penalties for schools and players who do not abide by their rules. How college athletics works is, schools are given a set amount of scholarships for each team. That team then is allowed to bring a certain number of players to their schools with no charge to the player. This scholarship now gives the player a place to live, an amount to spend on food, and education, as well as gear and facilities. These are what the NCAA and Division 1 colleges deem as compensation for the viewership and money that these players bring in. As an athlete that sees people wearing the jersey that they made popular and that kid isn’t making a dime off of that sale, it’s frustrating to the players. This raises the question of, whether are athletes being compensated for their work in their sport.

There are two college sports that matter to most, and that is Men’s basketball and football. These two sports generate around 4.93 billion dollars a year. (Forbes, 2020) Out of the 4.93 billion that is generated only 7 percent ends up with the athletes playing these sports. That means only 340 million dollars ends up near the athletes that earned these schools this money. This money is gifted to the athletes through scholarships and stipends for living expenses, that’s it. That means there are over 4 billion dollars going to schools which are used for coaches and other activities. To show the difference between college to professionals. In the NFL and NBA, athletes in those two leagues receive approximately 50% of the revenue generated by their athletic activities in the form of salary. This means that if men’s basketball and football players in the most prestigious conferences split 50% of revenue equally, each football player would receive $360,000 per year, and each basketball player would earn nearly $500,000 annually. (Beer, Forbes, 2020) These earnings would rise depending on the popularity and the position of the player. This would still give the school earnings to keep coaches and facilities open. This will just motivate the players and also keep them in school giving them a higher education. These will just boost the revenue because schools will have athletes playing longer, creating more buzz around certain players.

Athletes are distracted and exploited and put their entire future and academic success at risk just to play a sport in college that helps them pay for the education that they aren’t really given time to focus on. Due to the increased ratings of college athletics, this figure will continue to rise. The athletes being recruited for college sports are bigger, faster, and stronger than ever and will generate more money due to the number of fans who watch each week. Colleges and universities generate so much revenue during the year that it is only fair that the players receive part of that as compensation for their hard work and dedication. The athletes should get paid based on the university’s income from the sport and apparel sales. A star quarterback, point guard, swimmer, etc. will not only help sell tickets but will bring in plenty of merchandise sales as well. This merchandise has its own name on it. This means they are selling products with no compensation to the athletes. Although the NCAA prohibits the universities to sell a college jersey with a player’s name on it, they are permitted to sell the jersey with the player’s number on it, which is easily recognizable in local, and sometimes national markets (Gaines, businessinsider.com). As expressed, this implies that a notable competitor can’t charge cash for the hours spent marking signatures, yet the college can utilize the competitor to produce many thousands or even large numbers of dollars through deals and expanded enlistment. Likewise, essential to note: in a 1989 overview of expert football players, 31% of the respondents confessed to having acknowledged illicit installments during their school vocations, and 48 percent of the respondents said they were aware of different competitors who took such installments during school (reguli, vittana.org). School competitors in all probability would not want to disrupt the guidelines on the off chance that they got pay that helped them to take care of their bills.

Many will say that these athletes are already being compensated for their efforts through scholarships and stipends. This is a good point, college athletics gives these players a stage to play on. They are given the equipment and the coaching to become top athletes. However, in today’s age, we have the technology where these athletes have been under the national spotlight since they were 16. This also plays into the fact that some of these players are ready for the pros before they go to college. Because of these reasons, athletes need a reason to stay in college and not go straight to the professional leagues.

In conclusion, these athletes bring in the viewership, work hard, and are doing arguably more than the actor or the salesman. However, they aren’t seeing these profits firsthand or at all. They should be paid a portion of the money that they deserve for the work they have put in as well as the viewership they have brought to the school. The NCAA is starting to make a change to where paying athletes will benefit the players. This will go into effect in the 2021-2022 season. This will be the first step towards paying athletes fully.

Advertisement actors on television, door-to-door salesmen, and people that are sponsored by companies all have one job; they bring in customers. They work hard to receive their payments as expected. That is what we all expect, right? We have all been taught that if we work hard and we will receive fair compensation. This ideology does not seem to apply to college athletics though. College athletes have worked throughout their childhood to fulfill their dreams to reach the university that they get to compete for. College athletics is a huge market that people love to watch and support. As a result of the viewership, they bring in billions of dollars. These athletes bring in the viewership, work hard, and are doing arguably more than the actor or the salesman. However, they aren’t seeing these profits firsthand or at all. They should be paid a portion of the money that they deserve for the work they have put in as well as the viewership they have brought to the school. This topic has caught the public’s eye and has become a huge topic across the United States. The NCAA has kept these players under its rules and has set out large penalties for schools and players who do not abide by their rules. How college athletics works is, schools are given a set amount of scholarships for each team. That team then is allowed to bring a certain number of players to their schools with no charge to the player. This scholarship now gives the player a place to live, an amount to spend on food, and education, as well as gear and facilities. These are what the NCAA and Division 1 colleges deem as compensation for the viewership and money that these players bring in. As an athlete that sees people wearing the jersey that they made popular and that kid isn’t making a dime off of that sale, it’s frustrating to the players. This raises the question of, whether are athletes being compensated for their work in their sport.

There are two college sports that matter to most, and that is Men’s basketball and football. These two sports generate around 4.93 billion dollars a year. (Forbes, 2020) Out of the 4.93 billion that is generated only 7 percent ends up with the athletes playing these sports. That means only 340 million dollars ends up near the athletes that earned these schools this money. This money is gifted to the athletes through scholarships and stipends for living expenses, that’s it. That means there are over 4 billion dollars going to schools which are used for coaches and other activities. To show the difference between college to professionals. In the NFL and NBA, athletes in those two leagues receive approximately 50% of the revenue generated by their athletic activities in the form of salary. This means that if men’s basketball and football players in the most prestigious conferences split 50% of revenue equally, each football player would receive $360,000 per year, and each basketball player would earn nearly $500,000 annually. (Beer, Forbes, 2020) These earnings would rise depending on the popularity and the position of the player. This would still give the school earnings to keep coaches and facilities open. This will just motivate the players and also keep them in school giving them a higher education. These will just boost the revenue because schools will have athletes playing longer, creating more buzz around certain players.

Athletes are distracted and exploited and put their entire future and academic success at risk just to play a sport in college that helps them pay for the education that they aren’t really given time to focus on. Due to the increased ratings of college athletics, this figure will continue to rise. The athletes being recruited for college sports are bigger, faster, and stronger than ever and will generate more money due to the number of fans who watch each week. Colleges and universities generate so much revenue during the year that it is only fair that the players receive part of that as compensation for their hard work and dedication. The athletes should get paid based on the university’s income from the sport and apparel sales. A star quarterback, point guard, swimmer, etc. will not only help sell tickets but will bring in plenty of merchandise sales as well. This merchandise has its own name on it. This means they are selling products with no compensation to the athletes. Although the NCAA prohibits the universities to sell a college jersey with a player’s name on it, they are permitted to sell the jersey with the player’s number on it, which is easily recognizable in local, and sometimes national markets (Gaines, businessinsider.com). As expressed, this implies that a notable competitor can’t charge cash for the hours spent marking signatures, yet the college can utilize the competitor to produce many thousands or even large numbers of dollars through deals and expanded enlistment. Likewise, essential to note: in a 1989 overview of expert football players, 31% of the respondents confessed to having acknowledged illicit installments during their school vocations, and 48 percent of the respondents said they were aware of different competitors who took such installments during school (reguli, vittana.org). School competitors in all probability would not want to disrupt the guidelines on the off chance that they got pay that helped them to take care of their bills.

Many will say that these athletes are already being compensated for their efforts through scholarships and stipends. This is a good point, college athletics gives these players a stage to play on. They are given the equipment and the coaching to become top athletes. However, in today’s age, we have the technology where these athletes have been under the national spotlight since they were 16. This also plays into the fact that some of these players are ready for the pros before they go to college. Because of these reasons, athletes need a reason to stay in college and not go straight to the professional leagues.

In conclusion, these athletes bring in the viewership, work hard, and are doing arguably more than the actor or the salesman. However, they aren’t seeing these profits firsthand or at all. They should be paid a portion of the money that they deserve for the work they have put in as well as the viewership they have brought to the school. The NCAA is starting to make a change to where paying athletes will benefit the players. This will go into effect in the 2021-2022 season. This will be the first step towards paying athletes fully.