Essay Why College Athletes Should Not Be Paid

College sports such as football and basketball are very popular in the United States. College sports makes colleges a lot of money and revenue every year. College athletes can be seen as an idol to some people or to the college that they are attending. Tim Tebow is known for playing football for the Florida Gators, winning the Heisman, and for his touchdown celebration “Tebowing.” Athletes like this make colleges millions of dollars every season. Being an athlete they still have to stay in school to be able to play a sport. College athletes do not have time for a job with school also the time they put in for the sport they play. What are the effects of paying college athletes?

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The NCAA stands for National Collegiate Athletic Association.

The NCAA oversees all athletic activities at colleges around the nation. To be member of the NCAA, schools have to register with them in order to be a member. The NCAA has rules and regulations for the student athlete and what they can and cannot do. Players cannot sell or sign memorabilia for money. Another rule for the student athlete is that no student can receive financial aid from anyone other than what the school offers to them. NCAA also has rules on academic eligibility (Patterson). To practice students have to be in a full time program where the student can earn a bachelor’s or a degree that they pursue. For the student athlete it is hard to have a part time job and keep your grades up to play a sport. Most students don’t have jobs at all because there is absolutely no time for a job.
Things to know about the college athlete is that most of these college athletes have received a scholarship to play the sport.

Scholarships given to college athletes can cover tuition, fees, room, board and textbooks coming from the NCAA. Some athletes only get some of these expenses but some still receive more benefits than the average student. Scholarships can range from 20,000 to 100,000 dollars. Without scholarship many students could not pursue their academic or athletic goals. Students that receive scholarships like this are talented or work hard to earn money for them. Some may see a scholarship as the student already getting paid to play a sport. “A scholarship can be seen as earning money to go to college for free and should not be paid any amount of money on the side” (Johnson). Many athletes argue that they do not have time for a job and should be paid by the university to have extra money to go out with friends and buy necessary items. Many college athletes are broke and deal with these kinda things every day. Some say not having enough money is something you tend to deal with in college . Playing a sport is a full time job. Athletes could be at practice or doing something with the sport for fourty to fourty five hours a week. That would be considered working a full time job, but they are spending that time involving themself with a sport instead. A student might want money for food, clothes, and personal

issues.
Why college athletes should be paid to play a college sport is because there just like any other athlete just in college.

The NCAA is largest collegiate sports organization in the United States. “For 2012-2013 the NCAA reported $871.6 million in revenue eighty-one percent came from agreements with with CBS sports, eleven percent came from sponsoring championships such as the March Madness basketball tournament.”(Dabad) .The NCAA distributes roughly sixty percent of its revenues to help found athletic departments and scholarships. No college sport generates more money than college football. Last year The Ohio State University football program brought in 95 million dollars which tied for the most that a college has made in the United States. Not one penny of that money that those college athletes bring goes back to the student athlete who are the stars of the game. College athletes put their bodies on the line every game they play. In 2013 Louisville basketball player Kevin Ware suffered a terrible compound fracture to his right leg. Luckily about six to eight months later he was back to practicing.There have been college athletes who have been paralyzed for a big hit on the football field or any playing field. Some injuries have ended players’ careers before they have even started. These athletes are hurting their bodies for a sport that they love to play. Getting paid to play a college sport could help the athlete by getting ready for the future. It can get them

ready for the future by giving them a amount of money to pay bills and buy what is needed for them to live. They can also be treated like they will be if they move on to a professional sport. Some think if they got paid it would help them in the future as a professional. Paying college athletes could create a sense of financial awareness. Many athletes are financially not responsible.
‘Sixty percent of NBA players are broke within five years of retirement” (Preston). A lot of players say it is because of poor investment or bad spending habits. Paying college athletes could help them build some type of financial awareness. This would help students with investments no matter if they were going to play a professional sport or not to carry them throughout their career.
Why college athletes should not be paid to play a college sport it is too big of a debate for some people to solve. Paying college athletes could detract from the purity of the game. Many people believe that college athletes play with more passion and care for the sport than athletes at the professional level because they already made it to where they wanted to be so they don’t risk injury as much as college athletes (Patterson). Paying college athletes could make them not want to play as hard as they can because they are receiving money. If students were to get paid they would probably play harder. Many student athletes are already receiving a free education. Not all student receive scholarships. Most of the ones who receive scholarships are on teams that can win a national championship. Some student athletes receive extra money towards books and basic needs but usually it is only the good ones. None of this money has to be paid back. About half of these students don’t receive extra money and will come out of college with a lot of student loan debt. But student athletes already have it much easier than other students at their school. Students receiving scholarships should not be seen as receiving money because its going all towards their education. Theres a strong stand against even thinking about paying college athletes. Only a few college sports bring in enough money. Football and basketball are the biggest money makers in college sports. So there comes the question whether only football and basketball players should be paid and is that fair to everyone else? Another question would be how they should be paid and how would it work? Could you make it close to the same as professional athletes? Where would the money come from? These question show how hard it would be to change the system for college athletes (Patterson). I do believe that these question can be answered if people would work hard enough and come together on a conclusion. If college athletes were to be paid, there are some different ways they could be paid. One way would be to pay them based on how they play. They could earn certain amounts of money based on how they play. If a college athlete matched a certain stat that they had to get to earn money, then that would be a way to pay them. Another way would be a education lockbox. A trust fund for student athletes where they can access money that they earn. Say that a student reaches their degree and is getting ready to graduate. There would be a fund of money after they get out of school that they earned through the years that the student was there that would help them pay for college or set them on there way. Now players that break the rules could lose some of the money or all of it. The last way would not be actually paying college athletes but letting them make their own money by letting them sell or earn money from their memorabilia. If the NCAA would let college athletes sell their own memorabilia, they can earn their own money off their own name. There have been many players who have got in serious trouble from trying to sell signed memorabilia. Last year Todd Gurley, running back for Georgia University, got suspended for selling his autograph to a dealer. It is against NCAA rules for a student to profit from their names and images. Many people feel it is unfair that college students cannot make a profit off their own name while the NCAA makes millions off of them. If college athletes would be allowed to sell their signatures, then they could make their own money to live off of during college.
Conclusion
College athletes are just like regular athletes but they don’t have much experience and they're still in college. They paid for college why can’t they get some of that money back?. The NCAA generates millions of dollars every year college athletes deserve a share of the money that they generated. Being a college athlete is a full time job and adding classes to that can be stressful. They shouldn't get paid a lot but they should get paid around the amount as is they had a part time job. That would be enough money for them to have extra money in there pocket. Both sides of this argument to pay or not to pay college athletes are passionate. College athletes should be paid for playing a college sport.