The NCAA and College Athletes: Should College Athletes Be Paid?

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College athletes juggle busy academic and practice schedules all throughout their stressful weeks, so why shouldn't they be compensated for their time dedicated to sports? NCAA rules strictly prohibits players from being paid for all the hard work they do to protect “amateurism”, but are you really an amateur putting in over 40 hours a week between practice and other activities? Although students earn a college scholarship, that doesn’t cover living expenses, and access to a degree at the end of their career, players should be paid because schools, coaching staffs and major corporations are profiting off their free labor.
The NCAA prides itself as an organization dedicated to safeguarding the well-being of student-athletes and equipping them with the skills to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom and throughout life. In order to ensure that participants are students first and athletes second the NCAA has specific rules pertaining to athlete amateurism. The requirements prohibit contracts and tryouts with professional teams, salary for participating in athletics, prize money, and representation by an agent. (Amateurism) These rules not only limit the freedom of the player but also put the player at risk of being taken advantage of due to the lack of a players union and illegality of employing an agent. Other aspects of the NCAA’s rule book have been under scrutiny as well. Marc Edelman, Professor of Law at Baruch College, wrote in his treatise: Why the NCAA’s No-Pay Rules Violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act that courts are now beginning to overturn certain rules that are deemed anticompetitive. This development is important because according to the Sherman Act “Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherw...

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...ew (2013): 41.
Lawsuit Alleges NCAA and Conferences Cap Scholarships Illegally. 7 March 2014. 16 April 2014 .
Mitchel, Horace and Marc Eldelman. Should College Student- Athletes be Paid? 6 January 2014. 6 April 2014 .
Prewitt, Alex. Large majority opposes paying NCAA athletes, Washington Post-ABC News poll finds. n.d. 6 April 2014 .
Schneider, Raymond. "College Students' Perceptions On the Payment of Intercollegiate Student-Athletes." College Student Journal (2001).

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