Student Athletes Should Be Paid

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Student athletes of colleges across America practice every day to be able to perform for large crowds year round. These athletes train in the weight and study in the film rooms for hours to perfect their craft in hopes to play well enough to make it to the professional leagues. These athletes, however, are not compensated for their efforts, and this has raised a big question about whether or not these students should receive some monetary stipended for their efforts. This subject divides many people because the answer is not black and white because there are many factors to be considered. A lot of people view these athletes as amateurs and being an amateur comes with them not being paid. Just like how in the Olympics how all the athletes are …show more content…

The other side argues that these kids work long hours in the classroom and on the practice field every day to perform at their best and as a reward for their hard work should have a small compensation to account for it. The idea about whether or not college athletes should be paid for their work by the NCAA is a broad and complicated subject due to the elaborate and moral implications that come with paying unprofessional athletes. Every year the profits of the NCAA increase and their student athletes do not see a dime of the profits. During the 2011 to 2012 school year, the NCAA made close to 705 million dollars(NCAA). Many people argue that the athletes receive scholarships to attend the university so that would mean they do not need to be paid for their boarding, school, and meals are accounted for so …show more content…

One of the main concerns with paying these athletes is how the payment would be distributed amongst all the athletic programs. The football team makes more money than the water polo team. This raises great a pause because there is no way that to leave every student-athlete satisfied with their share of the money. There would be a significant discrepancy in money from individual players on the same sports program. For example, Derrick Henry, the last winner of last year's Heisman trophy, would have to be paid more than the second string defensive line player. Since these guys are not professionals yet it would be unfair for there to be a significant discrepancy amongst the players that all put in such great effort(Emmert). Concern about the maturity of the athletes is the main problem as well. The majority of these athletes are under the age of twenty-two, and many of them have never had a job or have any money managing skills. This opens up for them to be taken advantage of by family members, friends, and others. Another concern is that by paying the athletes; the NCAA would effectively turn college sports into a minor league sports program for the MLB, NBA, and NFL(Emmert). The reason for this concern is that the athletes would become less concerned with their school work and lose out on a chance to earn their degree. It is also important to note that very few college athletes go on to be

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