Ncaa Madness: Should Student Athletes Get Compensated for Playing Sports?

Should student athletes get compensated for playing sports at the collegiate level? Or is the funding the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) provides through programs that directly support the educational, financial, and health and safety needs of student athletes enough? Peter Ohr of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) recently stated, “Northwestern University Football players often work many more hours than the players spend on their studies, effectively making them athletes first and students second”. Furthermore, the NLRB granted Northwester University football players the right to unionize in March of 2014. Although this is a breakthrough regarding the controversial topic, it could take numerous years and plenty of legal battles for any alterations to occur. This paper will address why I believe college athletes shouldn’t get paid and provide economic analysis to back up this notion.
One of the main reasons why college athletes shouldn’t get paid is that most college sport programs are not profitable. To illustrate, USA Today determined that in 2011-12 athletic programs at only 23 of 228 Division I public schools produced enough money from media rights contracts, ticket sales, donations and other sources (not including subsidies from institutional or government support or student fees) to cover their expenses (Berkowitz, Upton, Brady, 2013). Most of the 23 schools that did generate enough to turn a profit were those who belong to some of the “powerhouse conferences” in collegiate athletics. For instance, Texas University, which generated $25,025,405 in profit in 2011-12, and The Ohio State University, which generated $17,623,645 (Berkowitz, Upton, Brady, 2013). Furthermore, since most athletic programs aren...

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...Street Journal, 2014). I know that scholarship don’t cover all living expenses and doesn’t include money for items such as trips home, but paying them a salary isn’t the solution to the problem. John Calipari Kentucky Wildcat basketball head coach suggests, “additional scholarship money, that a stipend of $3,000 to $5,000 would help athletes meet the full cost of attendance. And it should be noted that meeting the full cost of attendance and flat-out paying athletes are two entirely different things” (CollegeBasketballTalk, 2014). I believe Calipari’s suggestion is a great idea and a stipend would be highly appreciated by college athletes and their families. In summary, the battle over whether to pay or not to pay college athletes will continue for many years to come and could eventually result in a complete overhaul of the collegiate athletic system we know today.