Student Athletes Should Be Paid

Student-athletes are some of the most cherished figures in their communities. These players compete in collegiate sports programs all across the country in their respective academic institutions. What is the process that takes these young individuals from high-school athletes to college competitors? At first glance, the recruitment procedure may seem like a simple, straightforward operation, but it is quite the contrary. For these students to play for their particular teams, they must sign contracts that legally bind them. Also, these contracts must satisfy the traditional common law requirements of a contract, but also fulfill conditions specified by certain organizations such as the governing body of the sports league. This is a complicated process that removes much of the bargaining power from recruits and allows institutions to make false representation of the situations in which student athletes may find themselves in and should be amended to make the system in its entirety more equitable for recruits.

The commitment process, as it is regulated currently, is a much more of a formatted and governed process than seen in

A growing interest in intercollegiate sports during the 1920s slowly gave rise to the power of the fledgling organization, and many were calling for the implementation of new rules to combat the commercialization of the field (Smith pp. 14). The NCAA slowly made ground in the 1930s but did not make significant progress until after World War II. The invention of the television, widespread use of home radios, spurred the NCAA to implement some rules to limit the market’s influence on the sports it governed (Smith pp. 14). A significant event which strengthened the organization’s power occurred in 1976 when the governing body obtained the authority to directly penalize schools for the actions of coaches, athletes, or administration (Smith pp.