NCAA Probhits from Student- Athletes

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Throughout the long history of college sports, football in particular, athletes have played squarely off of scholarships or as walk-ons. The NCAA generates millions without paying the athletes a dime. Recent years have caused huge problems in the country with paying athletes for playing. Scandal after scandal has rocked the image of college football and doesn’t appear to be getting better. The NCAA prohibits student-athletes from receiving improper benefits and selling memorabilia for a profit when they should be paying its athletes.

Since the early 1900’s when college football first became a NCAA sport, it has had a history of paying its athletes as well as improper benefits. In around 1910, Walter camp was put under fire for having a fund for players of over $100,000. Camp was one of the early pioneers in football that brought the game where it is today. In the 1950’s, scandals hit the college of William and Mary for hiding its players poor grades to allow them to be eligible all season. (Branch 83) This is important because the University of William and Mary was contending with powerhouse football programs that season for a national title. This here all shows that even 50-100 years ago collegiate athletics had already been dealing with improper benefits for players.

In the last 30 years, the NCAA has dealt with pretty much a new case on improper benefits once every year. The first time this rule really was brought to national attention was in the early 1980’s. According to an ESPN 30/30 documentary, SMU or known as Southern Methodist University had dealt serious money to now hall of fame running back Erik Dickerson. Dickerson had been a top prospect in the nation and had no intention to play at SMU originally....

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...because he sold his won college memorabilia for Tattoos, further proving the stubborn rules from the NCAA.

The NCAA needs to find a way to have its athletes profit off their play. With the NCAA still keeping the rule on banning athletes from profits, problems will keep occurring every season. The NCAA has shown that if an athlete dares try and profit off of anything while in college, the athlete and the university will be in serious trouble. If problems keep occurring and scandals keep happening, we can expect a change in NCAA rules in the very near future in favor for the student-athletes.

Branch, Taylor. "The Shame of College Sports." Atlantic Monthly, The. 01 Oct. 2011: 80. eLibrary. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

Murschel, Matt., Writer, Staff.. "Manziel mess highlights problems with NCAA." Orlando Sentinel. 09 Aug. 2013: C1. eLibrary. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.

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