College Athletes Should Be Paid

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Recommended: "Paying College Athletes." Issues & Controversies. Facts on File News Services, 21 June 2010

Not paying collegiate athletes is not fair. College football and men's basketball generate revenues of more than $6 billion every year. Yet not one penny goes toward paying the people who make the sports possible: the student athletes. None of the $6 billion dollars brought in every year by college football and basketball goes to paying the athletes that make it possible. That is only two sports bringing in that much money, just imagine all the money other sports bring in. If it was not for them, collegiate athletics would not exist and colleges wouldn’t be making that much money each year, so it is only fair to pay the people who make it possible.Michael Polak, states,"All colleges have work- study programs, so students can work in the library …show more content…

A September 2011 study by the National College Players Association and Drexel University, titled "The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sport," looked at football players and men's basketball players at the 120 colleges whose football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The study found that the average athletic scholarship failed to cover $3,222 of a player's education-related expenses during the 2010–2011 school year. About 85 percent of players receiving athletic scholarships live on campus, and 86 percent of those who live off campus live below the poverty line. Colleges don’t provide enough for the athletes to live comfortably. A whopping 85 percent of all athletes who live on campus and 86 percent who live off campus live below the poverty line.While Mack Brown, the head football coach at the University of Texas, earned the second highest ($5.1 million). Brown's salary was greater than the total value of athletic scholarships awarded to Texas players ($3.1 million). Mack Brown, Texas football coach, gets paid $5.1 million and athletes only get $3.1 million in scholarships. One coach is being paid more to coach than all the athletes to learn. Most colleges and universities now require that students, playing sports, must have their own insurance policy before joining a team. In many cases, students are often still covered under their parents’ policies; however, this is not always the case. Student athletes are more prone to injuries than nonathletes, and with the cost of medical care, one injury can incur thousands of dollars of medical bills. Student athletes must have their own insurance before joining a college team, but some injuries can cost thousands of dollars. So, if you were to get hurt but your insurance couldn’t pay for it you’d be in trouble. The school should at least provide insurance to pay for an injury sustained while playing for that

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