Why College Athletes Should Be Paid

Regan Gladney
English 1320
September 20, 2016
College Athletes Deserve A Salary

Each year the NCAA (National Collegiate Athlete Association) earns billions in revenue across all college sports, bringing in more money than many professional sports and even many of the countries biggest public companies (Top 10 Reasons college athletes should be paid). However, the student athletes who are the reason behind these earnings do not see any of it in the form of a salary. College athletes should be paid an annual salary due to the countless hours they spend playing their sport while maintaining academic standards, the regulations preventing them from getting a job, and the astonishing amount of money they generate for their school.
Being a college

Mark Edelman reported that, “The NCAA currently produces nearly $11 billion in revenue— more than the estimated total league revenues of both the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League”(Forbes 1). This money derives from ticket sales, merchandise sales, endorsements, etc. The NCAA then pays the colleges 60 percent of the 11 billion they acquire, but where does it go? Unfortunately, the money is not spent on education or research, but is instead spent on things such as lavish jets, new equipment, and new facilities. Not to mention, the coaches and administrators make staggering amounts of money from high salaries to performance bonuses. Performance bonuses result from a successful season, which leads back to the players. Fans of these sports pay large sums of money to see the athletes live in action and television companies pay even more to broadcast their games for the country to see. People aren’t spending money to wear jerseys with the name of the coach or administrator on their back, so why is the majority of the money earned going to them? Despite all of the money floating around, the athletes, who are the reason behind all of it, see nothing. They are the ones putting in the work and suiting up when game day comes around. The college athletes deserve to be compensated for their contributions by being paid a

This is true, but not all scholarships given are the same. The majority of college athletes do not receive a full scholarship, meaning the school is only paying for a portion of their tuition, meal plan, and housing. Scholarships are given out between D1, D2, and D3 schools. D2 schools are strict with the amount of scholarships that they can give their student athletes. The amount of scholarship money available is so small that they rarely give out full scholarships to anyone; they mainly split the scholarships out in portions. At Tarleton, for example, they start the freshman recruits on a very small scholarship at first, but the amount goes up every year the athlete stays there. Most of all D-3 schools can only supply “academic” scholarships, which don’t cover housing or a meal plan. Not to mention there are players who “walk on” and receive no scholarship at all. Despite the fact that players receive different scholarship amounts, they are spending the same amount of time devoted to their sport along with the same NCAA regulations preventing them from working. The salary will not only compensate them for the time and energy they give to the team, but will also help the costs that the different scholarships do not