Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay

Going to college is such a stressful time in a person’s life. You have to go through the process of finding what school you want to go to and what you are going to study. Figuring that out has to be difficult because they may be unsure if they are going to make the right decision or not. Now imagine going through the process of picking the best school for yourself and what you are going to study, and add playing a sport on top of that stress as well. You play a sport all throughout your childhood and high school, you do not want to give that up as you go away to college. You decide you are going to go to college to play that sport, not only do you want to play that sport, you also want to go to a Division Ι school and compete at the highest

level. All throughout junior and senior years of high school, athletes have numerous recruits coming to watch them play their best in hopes of landing a full ride to the school of their dreams. You finally choose what college you want to attend in the upcoming fall and you also decide that you want to play your favorite sport, whether it be football, baseball, basketball, etc., at that college or university. Now you have to focus on school, studying, your sport, and socializing, all within the same semester, for at least eight semesters, or however long you plan on staying at school. Playing a sport in college, in Division Ӏ, II, or III is huge commitment and the only benefit you have is receiving a free education while playing the sport you love. Many people believe things should change for these college students who dedicate most of their time to a sport and that they should be receiving some sort of compensation. But would they be able to pay each and every student athlete equally?
“Should college athletes be paid?” is a huge topic of discussion in today’s society because of how much time and effort that is put into the sport. A lot of people talk about this on ESPN and other sports shows. John Brill, who wrote an article titled Should College Athletes Be Paid? talks about the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament hosted every year. That tournament is called March Madness and it hosts 68 men’s basketball teams from all across the country. Teams must either win their conference tournament in order to become eligible to play in the tournament or receive an at-large bid based on their record and achievements from that season. March Madness usually generates about $770 million in TV deals alone. The only reason why they make all this money because of the athletes that play in the game. John Brill writes, “If the NCAA does not want to pay college athletes, then it should not hold these players back from entering the professional game” (Brill). During your college years, usually the university does not want you to collude with the NBA or NFL until you graduate, unless you are recruited by them personally. Brill also explains how the players should be allowed to receive some pay for their work, as well as the right to enter the professional leagues at an age that suits their abilities. Players not only play during this tournament, but they send out many promotions and make it known that March Madness is going on so the NCAA makes money off them in that way also. John Brill has a brilliant idea about why athletes should be paid that play in the March Madness tournament.
Allen Sack also wrote an article on the same topic called Should College Athletes Be Paid? He too talks about the NCAA tournament, while it was coming to an end. Conflicting the ideas presented by John Brill, Sack does not think they should be paid, however. This tournament has been around since 1905 and he thinks it still remains the greatest fit for the academic job for college. Allen states, “However, if the NCAA doesn’t change the status quo – which is on a fast course toward building a sports entertainment empire – how could they not pay athletes or at least extend worker’s rights?” (Sack). They make so much money off these athletes from having this tournament every year, it is crazy. Sack played football for Notre Dame in the 1960s when the NCAA already compromised its half-century commitment to certain principles. After years of a heated debate, the NCAA had to sponsor athletes and also voted to allow athletic scholarships as well for the university they were attending. Even though they decided to award scholarships all four years for a sport that was played at the same university, a few years later they threatened to take away any scholarship of an athlete who challenged the authority of a coach or withdrew from the sport. Another way an athlete’s scholarships can be taken away from them is if they are injured and cannot come back to the sport for good. This is the reason why Allen Sack does not think college athletes should be paid since the NCAA is giving them scholarships while they are playing the sport.
Paying Athletes in College? is an article written by Victor H. Halbach Jr. from South Jacksonville, Florida in the Florida Time-Union. He writes about how the NCAA does not let college student-athletes get any form of payment even if they receive a gift of some type. The gift could include anything from promoters giving them checks for helping them sell shirts or just a simple jersey that somebody made for them for the tournament. Victor asked the Time-Union Email interactive group if they think it is time they start paying college athletes. The universities they play for make so much money off of them and some people think it is time they start to share the revenue they make. Student-athletes have little to no time for outside money to come in due to the commitment they have to make to the sport whether the season is in or not. Usually football and basketball generate the most money for universities in a Division Ӏ school. Other sports still bring in money, but these two are the biggest money makers for the schools. Athletes do receive a free education, room and board, tutors, mentors, trainers and top-notch medical attention. Most of these perks are not offered to any other student on campus. Tom Byerly from Neptune Beach, Florida explains, “If they want to pay ALL athletes equally in every sport at every level of competition then maybe. If they just want to pay only certain Division Ӏ football players, then absolutely not” (Halbach, pg.1). If they really think they are good enough, they will eventually make it to the professional leagues and can get paid there. Everybody has their own opinion when it comes to this topic that is talked about regularly and one day they will find out if college-athletes should be paid or not.
Lee Goldman wrote an article called Sports and Antitrust: Should College Students Be Paid to Play? He talks about all the monetary figures produced by the NCAA and the football company as well. Goldman states, “Amateur athletics at the major college level is big business” (Goldman). Final Four participants of March Madness receive direct payments of over $1.3 million to the schools, not the athletes. Each school that was invited to this tournament earned almost $275,000, the football programs are very similar to this. During the 1988-89 season, between all the bowl games they made $66 million and $53 million that went to the participating schools and not the athletes. The NCAA made rules regarding this and one of those rules is restricting the ability of college athletes to earn outside income. How can they play a sport, study, socialize, and not have a job? They have no extra money to spend since they are always busy, especially with how much commitment they have to have with their sport team. This is another factor in the controversy of whether or not college athletes deserve to be paid.
People believe that things should change for college athletes and the money the universities receive because of these athletes. Tiffany Paterson wrote an article called Should College Athletes Be Paid? This topic is discussed regularly now. This article explains the pros and cons of why college athletes should or should not be paid. Some pros include that each individual athlete put their bodies on the line each game they play and every time they practice. A prime example from this article is the story about Kevin Ware, who in 2013, during the NCAA tournament suffered a gruesome injury to his right leg while attempting to block another player. He was considered very lucky because he should have never been back on the basketball court. Six months later he was healed and ready for another tournament. These athletes sacrifice their physical health to play the game they love, but get nothing in return for it. Another reason for college athletes to be paid is that they are the ones bringing in all the money for the university. If it was not for them putting on a show and dedicating their time to the sport, the universities would not make nearly as much money as they do. “While not all student-athletes are on scholarship, many are, particularly those who are playing for schools we see winning national champions,” (Paterson) stated Tiffany Paterson. This is a con of playing college athletes because they are getting paid basically and when they come out of school, they will not have to pay student loans. Most of the other students on campus who do not play sports do not get these benefits and come out of college with huge debt in student loans. Another negative of paying college athletes is that it could detract from the purity of the game. This means that these college students play their hearts out because they are looking to make it to the next and highest level with the sport they love. If they got paid, they would not be that dedicated and committed to the sport. Professional athletes do not play as hard because they think they made it to the highest level and they think they cannot make it higher. If you pay these college athletes, it can pull away from their passion and they would not play as hard as they would if they were not getting paid. Finally, paying college athletes can get too difficult. Not all college athletes and sports bring in the money to universities. Football and men’s and women’s basketball are the big money makers when it comes to college sports. So a problem that can come upon if you pay college athletes is if; only football and basketball should be paid. How do you tell other athletes their sport is not good enough for them to be paid? Also, it would be too hard to decide whether the university or NCAA or the football company should pay the athletes.
This discussion still continues and it will for a very long time.

Should they or should they not pay college athletes? Michigan State law professors, Robert and Amy McCormick, state that Division Ӏ college athletes qualify as “employees” under federal labor laws in the article Should College Athletes Be Paid, written by Kenneth J. Cooper. They think it is definitely a job for football and basketball players who attend a Division Ӏ university. “There are more demands put on these young men than any employee of the university,” says Robert McCormick (Cooper). These young men are employees in terms of the physical difficulties they endure while they are also trying to keep up with studying and getting good grades. Usually student athletes do not get to choose their major because the classes might conflict with their athletic schedule. Student-athletes say that playing a sport has the same similarities as working a job; there is a lot expected of you, as a boss would want. The common law has three parts: the right of others to control a person’s activities, whether that person is compensated and if that person is economically dependent on that compensation. All college athletes in Division Ӏ sports meet the three components of the law because a coach has so much control over them and everything they

do.
No matter what your stance is on paying student-athletes, there is no doubt that these athletes work hard. There are many benefits and disadvantages to paying them, and this debate is surely to rage on for some time to come. Meanwhile, the NCAA will still have its $11 billion contract with CBS/Turner Sports and college athletes will continue giving it their all at a shot at making it to the professional level. College is already stressful without having a sport because it is difficult to manage studying, socializing and having a job to afford all the fun things you want to do. The added stress from playing a sport makes it that much more difficult as well. Some sort of resolution needs to be made for people who have beliefs on both ends of the spectrum. People think they should be receiving some sort of payment for all their hard work and having such a big commitment to the team while others do not think it is unfair to compensate student-athletes.

Works Cited
Brill, John. "Should College Athletes Be Paid?" The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism RSS. N.p., 09 May 2013. Web. 12 July 2016.
Cooper, Kenneth J. "Should College Athletes Be Paid to Play?" Academic Search Premier [EBSCO]. N.p., 23 June 2011. Web. 22 July 2016.
Goldman, Lee. "Sports and Antitrust: Should College Students Be Paid to Play 65 Notre Dame Law Review 1989-1990." Sports and Antitrust: Should College Students Be Paid to Play 65 Notre Dame Law Review 1989-1990. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 July 2016.
Halbach, Victor H., Jr. "Sound Off; Paying Athletes in College?" Florida Times-Union [Jackonsville] 29 Sept. 2013: E-6. Print.
Patterson, Tiffany. "Should College Athletes Be Paid?" SmartAsset.com. N.p., 22 Mar. 2016. Web. 12 July 2016.
Sack, Allen. "Should College Athletes Be Paid?" The Christian Science Monitor. The Christian Science Monitor, 07 Mar. 2008. Web. 12 July 2016.