Analysis: Should College Athletes Get Paid

Should College athletes get paid?
College sports are a major part of colleges, and some colleges benefit greatly from these sports. Most, if not all, colleges gain a great amount of money from the sports that they incorporate in their programs. College athletics is a non-professional, competitive set of sports which is played at the tertiary level. These types of programs were developed to enhance several skills outside of the classroom, like health, discipline, as well as build several bonds between student-athletes. (Wikipedia). College athletics is major deal for the colleges but it is also a major deal for the wider public. Some of these people contribute money to specific college athletic programs, watch the sport religiously, and even

have their team that they cheer for loyally. Most student-athletes get some scholarship or financial aid from the tertiary institution which is great because it helps with school tuition, books, meals, and boards (Gazett). Some athletes are even on full scholarships which covers standard school-related things. Although athletes get scholarships, I believe that they should receive some form of payment other than just scholarships because of how difficult their lives as students are.
A student-athlete is a student in college who participates in an organized competitive sport which is sponsored by the college or the university which that student attends. Student-athletes have a hard job. They are to maintain an average grade point average (GPA), which is 2.0, in order to be eligible for competition during their respective seasons. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has stated that student-athletes are always students first and an athlete afterward. Most schools respect their student-athletes because they know how much of a struggle it is to keep up with their grades as well as do well in sports. Student-athletes are the representatives of the school, and they should be well-behaved and well-mannered. Being a student-athlete, many skills are learned such as time management, behavioral skills, and discipline. These athletes do not necessarily get the total college experience because most times they have practice, weights, an away game, meets, or something which stops them from doing what the average college student does on a daily basis.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) makes their own rules based on their morality instead of what is best for the athletes (Bernie). But actually, who cares about the athletes, right? The athletes are just there to fill stadiums and arenas (Bernie). Most people have the mind-set of athletes getting scholarships so they should be satisfied. The athletes are not that important because coaches, staff, media personnel, and colleges need to be paid. The student-athletes are “performers in the NCAA’s circus.” (Bernie). They get enough of what they need; they get full scholarships, meals, shelter, and surgery for broken limbs. Student-athletes should be thinking about their academics as opposed to thinking about being paid. They should think about what their role is, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) stated that a student-athlete’s role is always being a student first. By getting paid, they would be somewhat a professional and that would undermine the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) rules and regulations.
College athletics is mainly about the athletes. These athletes bring a vast amount of money to the colleges as well as attract future students and build school spirit. (Birkenes). If there are no athletes, there’s no need for the coaches, staff and the school to be involved with that particular sport. This goes to show that even though the coaches and staff need to be paid, that should not be a problem for the athletes. If any set of people should be paid, the athletes should be first in line. The athletes should be paid because they do the hardest part of the job of the entire team including the coaches, staff, and the school. The athletes are too busy with all the things they do to even try and get a part-time job. The issue of coaches getting paid should not be that important. Coaches have just a few main jobs which are coaching, making workouts, and recruiting while student-athletes train hard, produce great results 80% of the time, try to keep their grade point average (GPA) up, and deal with all the injuries that come along with the sport for just tuition. Some coaches try to recruit early to get the athletes they want but all coaches have the same offers most times. Most times the athletes choose based on how well the school does in the sport. The real problem is the coaches not having much to offer rather than a full scholarship. The athletes will get the same offer everywhere but if some form of payment was involved, these athletes would surely have easier choices. If there is money to be made, more students would try and get involved, the more student-athletes, the better the programs will become.
These athletes get scholarships, meals, board, and a surgery for broken limbs.

(Miklasz). Many people believe that these athletes should be satisfied with what they get because some people don’t even get financial aid. But the truth is, some people are not worthy of financial aid and these athletes worked hard to get these scholarships. Nevertheless, scholarships are not worth the pressure they put on student-athletes (Gazett). For instance, some schools don’t provide supplements for the athletes to take or even enough meals. What about the less fortunate athletes? College athletes, like every average person, have expenses too, especially to buy things for the sport itself (Peterson). Every college does not provide enough practice gear or enough Gatorade, or even healthy food, and these are vital things that the athletes need in order to practice and perform well (Peterson). Healthy food is very expensive and these athletes need to stay health in order to perform at their best. The NCAA introduced a new rule where colleges have to provide snacks for the athletes. Snacks are unhealthy most times and healthy snacks aren’t filling so there’s no winning with snacks. College athletes not getting paid has been the norm for years but the system should be updated. Is the NCAA waiting for something devastated to happen before they look at the needs of the athletes? Not every athlete will make it to the professional level so why not give them a chance to make some money off of their

talents? There are so many colleges across the United States and so little professional teams for each sport. Only like 2% of college athletes make it to the professional level which means the other percentage of athletes are just wrecking their bodies for these colleges and fans which the possibility of bad injuries for life. (Al Jazeera).
It is usually thought by others that student-athletes should worry about keeping their grades up and not getting paid.

They should worry less about being paid because then it would typically be a profession. However, as an athlete myself, college athletics does feel like a non-stop job. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) should add the cost of necessities to scholarships as a rule since some people think that a scholarship is enough. People would say that college athletes are greedy but competing for a college with a great chance of getting hurt and being unable to go to the professional level is a huge sacrifice for most of these athletes especially those at the major sport colleges. Schools keep saying that athletes are just students which are false because they are obviously student-athletes. Athletes could be making so much money; even people who try to give some good college athletes some form of payment for their great work are punished as well as the athletes. (Gazett). It is evidently unfair to sell merchandise with some of the great college athletes names on it; they should get even a quarter of this money if any money at all because it is their

name.
The NCAA benefits from most of these sports more than the colleges themselves. When a team wins a conference title, the NCAA benefits the most instead of the winning team. This association makes six (6) billion dollars annually. Big tournaments like “March Madness” and other sports tournaments bring in the big backs for the NCAA. This association seeks to pull athletes closer to athletes, and they believe that if they pay these athletes, then that will push them away from wanting to learn and get a degree because they would already be getting paid. What the NCAA does not realize is that the athletes are not trying to obtain millions of dollars or stacks of cash from this dreading payment. The athletes just want something so that they can maintain themselves during their college years especially because athletics takes so many tolls on their bodies.
College athletes go through too much stress and pressure to suffer throughout the year because they don't have basic necessities. These athletes should be treated well, especially those athletes at the major schools who perform well in football and basketball as these sports are the major fan-based sports in colleges. These athletes work hard and produce great results for the coaches, colleges, and most definitely, the fans. They should be the main priority of the schools and even the NCAA as opposed to coaches, or staff, or the media. The NCAA should realize that this is the 21st century; things and times have changed. People need money to survive and to make their lives better, whether in or out of college.