Summary: College Athlete

5 a.m.- Anthony Gill wakes up to his IPhone alarm knowing that he better eat something quick so he will not throw up last night’s ramen noodle dinner on the track. The coaches were still mad about some of the other players skipping class the previous day, so the entire team running was the solution. After hitting the showers and grabbing his books, he was off to class. Legs numb he sat through class and was ready to board the bus at 1 p.m. to take off for round one of the NCAA tournament. “March Madness generated upwards of a billion dollars in revenue in 2015”(Huma). “Also the program surpassed previous viewing records and was third watched event in T.V. history behind two super bowls”(Huma). All the athletes receive no monetary compensation.

College athletes should be paid.
When founded, the NCAA’s “primary purpose was to sanitize and standardize the playing rules for football to preserve it as an intercollegiate sport”(Zimbalist). Now the NCAA does so much more, the NCAA sponsors championships and provides scholarships for upwards of 490,000 student-athletes.(Learn) The NCAA also works with outside companies to fund their sporting events by doing commercials and other advertising.
A common excuse the NCAA uses is, we will not compensate athletes “because it would corrupt them. Paying athletes would undermine the values and virtues of amateurism in sports” (Learn). We pay professors, instructors, and teachers, but hardly anyone worries about the corrupting influence of money on them. This brings us to verse 10 in 1 Timothy chapter 6 that reads, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” (ESV study Bible, 1 Tim. 6.10) It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” Many times people quote, “money is not the root of all-evil”, but they miss the crucial words “for the love of.” If the players do become corrupt, the NCAA can now fine them, which makes paying them a win-win.
Money has become something that everyone chases after, but if you are in the head coach at a division one college or university, there will not be a need to pinch pennies. The highest paid NCAA basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, brings home 9.6 million dollars a year. Krzyzewski, who has coached since 1974, makes more money than some coaches in the NBA. The highest paid NCAA football coach; Nick Saban makes 7.1 million dollars a year at the University of Alabama not including endorsements and bonuses. Even the ushers at NCAA events make money, whose median salary18, 760 dollars. NCAA CEO Mark Emmert made 1.7 million, and the NCAA made 912.8 million dollars in revenue. The NCAA pays everyone except “the eighteen year olds who risk health consequences that can last for the rest of their lives”(Learn) for our own entertainment.
“Former NCAA rule violating sports agent turned to NCAA reformer, Josh Luchs”(Huma) could not sum up the “black market” of college athletes any better, he said, “As long as you have a prohibition, you will have bootleggers.”(Huma). According to “Inside Higher Education 53 of 120 FBS schools were caught violating the NCAA rules between 2001 and 2010 (Lederman, 2011)”(Huma). To see these overwhelming statistics stirs the thought of “how many violations take place without the NCAA taking notice”(Huma). Over the years, the NCAA organization has become the prime example of what organized sports should look like. However, the clandestine transactions and duplicitous business hides under the surface.
“The NCAA is making their athletes easy targets for coaches, agents, advertisers, and runners that have significant potential financial rewards associated with securing talented players” (Huma). College football standout Tim Tebow, widely known for the expression of his faith on and off the field, wrote a novel titled “Through my Eyes.” In Tebow’s book he talks about how he “loves gift giving, but while he was in college it was a pain to have to scrimp” (Tebow) to buy presents for everyone in his family. Tim Tebow’s unrelenting love for his family shows when he came back from college during the Christmas season. Tebow worked in his mother’s garden as a gift, because he could not come up with any money to buy a decent gift.
Players who are caught violating NCAA rules and regulations do not always purposely break the rules “Former UCLA and NFL linebacker Donnie Edwards was suspended for unknowingly breaking NCAA rules when he kept $150 in groceries that someone left anonymously on his doorstep on two separate occasions”. After Edwards attended a radio show on how athletes struggle even though they are on scholarships he received the second set of groceries” (Huma)
While some players decide that they do not want to break the rules, others willingly make the decision because there is no other way for them to obtain the money to purchase the necessities. “Former USC (California) wide-out R. Jay Soward confirmed to Sports Illustrated that he had accepted benefits from his sports agent Josh Luchs, because his scholarship did not provide enough money for rent or food” (Huma). “Soward confessed that he would repeat his actions. He also explained that if his one of his four sons had the opportunity to take money, and not be hungry he would tell them to take it the money”(Huma). Also college basketball hall of famer Kareem Abdul Jabar said,” I was always too broke to do much but study, practice, and play.” (Huma).
In the documentary “The Fab Five” Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom recalled this memory of the 1993 number one NBA draft pick Chris Webber while he was in college, “I was with him once and we walked past a store in Anarbor, and it had his jersey hanging in the window and it was seventy five dollars. And he (Chris Webber) just asked me if I could give him money for gas or pizza, I couldn’t (because of NCAA rules) but he asked anyhow. He saw his jersey in the window for seventy-five dollars with the number four (Webber’s jersey number) and Chris said, “They’re selling that for seventy five dollars and that goes to somebody, and I have to borrow money to put gas in my car.”
One of the most severe college athlete attempts to gain money occurred at Boston College during the 1978-1979 collegiate basketball seasons which obtained the name “The BC point shaving scandal”.

The scandal consisted of some mobsters, a couple of bookkeepers, and three players. Rick Kuhn headed the operation on the player side. Kuhn needed a way to make some cash because he could not find the time for a job. His job description stated that he should purposely lose games or keep the scoring margins down so the mobster’s bets would win. But Kuhn could not do the job alone; instead he incorporated “best friend” Jim Sweeny and the Boston College’s best player and leading scorer Ernie Cobb. Long story short Kuhn and the mobsters were indicted into prison for point-shaving basketball games, and the criminals received sentences up to life in prison.
More recently in 2010, star Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor, and other players got suspended for four games for selling their Ohio State memorabilia and using their persona to get discounted services like getting tattoos. Pryor had to pay 2,500 in retribution for these

violations.
According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of an employee states “ a person who works for another person or for a company for wages or a salary.” The NCAA says that the their athletes can only work on their sport twenty hours a week (Huma), but recently in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers” Gladwell talks about what it takes to reach the elite level at whatever your craft is, and it takes 10,00 hours to do so. With players wanting to make it to the next level, they put in more work so they can achieve that goal. According to Forbes contributor Marc Edelman, “The typical Division I college football player devotes 43.3 hours per week to his sport, which goes 3.3 more hours above the typical American work week”(Edelman).
In 1 Timothy 5:18 the apostle Paul writes, “For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.

(ESV Study Bible 1 Tim. 5:18)” In the case of the college athletes’ they are the laborer because they are bringing in money and viewers, and without them the colleges’ and universities’ sports programs become nothing. With this as the final scenario, all the schools would not bring in as much money to support their school. If the laborer deserves his wages, and the athletes are laborers for their respected schools, than the verdict is that athletes should receive compensation for their work. Also, in Luke chapter 10 verse 7 states, “And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house”(ESV Bible Luke 10:7). Again, the text states that the laborer deserves his wages, and the college athlete’s deserve their wages for their

work.
Some might say that education and gear is compensation, but what the universities give them only goes so far. A prime example of this is Georgetown University center Matt Stainbrook. As a player on one of the top teams in the nation, “Getting a normal job with any sort of predictable schedule is downright impossible for an athlete who has to juggle practice, games and travel.” So to pay for his utilities, food, and daily living he drives for Uber. Uber, an anywhere cab system works by calling Uber and one of the many Uber drivers respond by picking you up and taking someone to their destination. Because of his inflexible schedule, Stainbrook could only find work with Uber
Finally, without the performances of the universities’ athletes, they would struggle getting their names around to people that live thousands of miles away. For example, “Gonzaga University would need to spend on building name recognition to prospective students not on the West”(Edelman). Luckily, Gonzaga has had success in its basketball program so now people all over the U.S. know the name of the University
3p.m.- Attempting to focus on schoolwork seems virtually impossible at this point, with his mind on the pending game, and how his performance will affect his opportunity to go to the NBA, Gill’s brain is on overdrive. He has to focus though because teachers at the university show no mercy, even if he is representing the school on national television. (Gill)
The Student-Athletes of the NCAA bring so much to the table, but the NCAA will not show their gratitude by compensating them. Without the Athlete’s countless college, programs would go underwater, but because our entire nation enjoys watching our college athletes, the universities gain so much money.