Should Student Athletes Be Paid?

Are colleges doing enough to prepare student-athletes to be successful in life? Are students benefitting or are universities exploiting? Colleges are monetarily thriving from the talents of athletes. A numerous amount of these athletes are only recruited for their physical talents and many of them are not academically up to par. Although academic institutions claim to procure means to aid athletes in the classroom, there are still vast conundrums plaguing society concerning the miseducation of these individuals. One such plight is athlete apathy towards education. This is not a generalization about college athletes but a specification concerning the select few that are unopaquely there to just play sports. This statement is in reference to

The University of North Carolina has a system of “paper classes” for its athletes to take. These were independent studies requiring little work and no attendance. These types of courses are probably found in other academic institutions; even Stanford University is perceived to possess an easy class list for athletes. Why should a student get an A in a class they have never attended? Learning specialist, Mary Willingham stated that paper classes were openly discoursed as a way to maintain the eligibility of athletes to play. Former football player Michael McAdoo said he was forced into majoring in African-American studies. Willingham’s job was to aid athletes who were not academically up to par in comparison to their classmates at UNC. During her tenure she has found that athletes who are illiterate are not an

This number is much higher than the 63% Federal Graduation Rate of all other college students. Why is it that athletes, who spend most of their time on the court than in the classroom, graduate at a higher rate than full time students? The numbers are inflated; many of these individuals are being steered towards certain courses and majors to keep them athletically eligible. The GSR does not calibrate the number of athletes who leave school in “good academic standing.” All of the eligible players that leave college early to enter the NBA draft are not considered in the 82%. Even the ones that earned their degrees did not necessarily receive a proper college education. In 2009, Sports Illustrated estimated that “78 percent of NFL players are bankrupt or facing serious financial stress within two years of ending their playing careers and that 60 percent of NBA players are broke within five years of retiring from the game.” This does not insinuate “good academic standing.” Academic institutions need to provide additional effort in educating their student-athletes, especially since many are benefitting financially from these