NCAA Athletes Need Salaries

1490 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Why college athletes shouldn't be paid

NCAA Athletes Need Salaries

The chants grow louder, "Dayne, Dayne, Dayne", its 4'Th and goal, the Badgers trail Michigan by 5 with six seconds left. The winner takes home the title as the 1999 National champions. The ball is snapped, Bollinger drops back, fakes the pass, and pitches it to Dayne. He dodges a tackle, bounces off 2 blue jerseys, and stumbles in the end-zone for the game winning TD. Dayne's hard work and perseverance "paid off" and led Wisconsin to a victory.

But who really capitalizes when Ron Dayne leads his team to a National Championship? To Dayne, "Paid Off" in no way means he will receive a check from the University of Wisconsin. Under current NCAA regulations, "all student athletes are prohibited from receiving any payment for their efforts". Exploited athletes generate millions of dollars for their schools, and never see a dime. Is this fair?

College sports are big business. Every single day, universities succeed in coaxing the general public into believing that the kindred and pure spirit of amateur athletics serves as the main catalyst for their respective universities desire to field a good team. However, in reality the common motivation for these universities is nothing other that the almighty dollar. For many universities, the athletic program serves as a cash-generating machine. In terms of profit, if all ties with the university were eliminated, an athletic program acting as its own separate entity could compete with some fortune 500 companies. So, why do the vital pieces of the machine, the players, fail to receive any compensation for their performance? Certainly, a car engine is cared for and maintained, the owner continually spending money to keep it up. The answer lies in the money...

... middle of paper ...

...college, they would have enjoyed four years of, well, being slaves.

It wouldn't hurt universities to give back a little. The average Division One school profits $6 million per year on basketball and football alone. Consider that, some universities such as University of Florida or U of M profit more than $10 million per year on their respective athletic programs. Everywhere you look in Ann Arbor you see Michigan Football merchandise. The amount of money and number of people the football program brings into this city alone is tremendous. If every player were given a decent salary, say $75 to $100 a week, it would make life a lot more livable for some athletes. They should not struggle for food or money, considering that they are, in a sense, keeping the town alive. What would Ann Arbor be without football?

Much less lively and spirited, to say the least.

Show More
Related

  • Annotated Bibliography: Should College Athletes Be Paid?

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    Those who play popular and highly competitive college sports are treated unfairly. The colleges and universities with successful sports like football and basketball receive millions of dollars in television and ad space revenues, so do the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which is the governing body of big time college sports. Many coaches are also paid over $1 million per year. Meanwhile, the players that help the colleges receive these millions of dollars are forbidden to receive any gifts or money for their athletic achievements and performances. As a solution college athletes ...

    Read More

  • Ethics Of Paying College Athletes

    1736 Words  | 4 Pages

    First lets explore the history behind the paying of college athletes. Over the past 50 years the NCAA has been in control of all Div.1, 2 and 3 athletic programs. The NCAA is an organization that delegates and regulates what things college athletes can and can’t do. These regulations are put in place under the label of ‘protecting amateurism’ in college sports. This allots

    Read More

  • College Athletes Should Be Paid

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    Should college athletes receive pay for what they do? You’ve probably seen this pop-up a million times, and thought about it. You’ve probably figured why should they? Aren’t they already receiving benefits from a full-ride scholarship? But then an athlete will get caught up in a scandal like Johnny Manziel, where he signed footballs for money.. then you think well why shouldn’t he receive that money? And you then contradict yourself. But shouldn’t they receive money from outside sources, and then the benefits from the school. Not get a salary from the school just the benefits they’re already receiving, and money from sponsors. Wouldn’t that make sense considering the money they’re making the school? According to an ESPN report Alabama University makes $123,769,841 in total revenue from sports. (College Athletics Revenue) Yes ONE HUNDRED & TWENTY THREE MILLION. Yet an athlete from Alabama can only receive benefits from a scholarship.. That doesn’t seem right. You would want to be payed when the opportunity arises. It should only be fair these players get a piece of the revenue pie, after all they are the ones creating the revenue. The players should be getting benefits to allow them to pay for basic college needs, grow up to be responsible adults, and allow the NCAA to thrive. This would allow for the NCAA to truly thrive as a sporting association.

    Read More

  • College Athletes: Employees or Students?

    850 Words  | 2 Pages

    Fans have such a love for college football, completely different from NFL but paying athletes just like professional ones would change that different environment for both players and fans completely. Fans love the idea that they are watching these young men play with passion and love for the game. University alumni like to see these players have the same loyalty to the schools that they had when they attended. It resembles a big family, which is so different than a professional team that is technically playing simply for money for the organizations. Collegiate sports is not a career or profession. It is the students' vehicle to a higher education degree (Mitchell). Like many say, “you play for the name on the front, not the back.” It is a common argument that that professio...

    Read More

  • College Athletes: Amateurs or Full Time Employees

    2012 Words  | 5 Pages

    Ever since college students started playing sports, back in 1879 when Harvard played Yale in the first collegiate sports game, the question of whether college athletes should be paid was addressed. From that point on athletes, coaches, and college administrators have brought forward points agreeing or disagreeing with the notion of paying college students. The students argue that they deserve to be paid due to the revenue that they bring for the college and because of the games they play and the championships they win. At first the idea of paying college athletes was out of the question, but now the argument has gone from a simple yes or no to a heated debate. Since college athletes are given a free education, they should not also be paid.

    Read More

  • Should College Athletes Be Paid?

    2435 Words  | 5 Pages

    Today there are over 450,000 college athletes and the National College Athletics Association (NCAA) faces a difficult decision on whether or not college athletes should be paid. Many people believe that they should and many believe they should not. There are several benefits that college’s athletes receive for being a student athlete. Why should they receive even more benefits than their scholarship and numerous perks?

    Read More

  • The Argument for Paying NCAA Football Players

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    Even the waterboy gets paid! NCAA football is a billion dollar a year empire, in which coaches, executives, school presidents, board members, athletic trainers, athletic directors, equipment managers, Waterboys, towel boys, ball boys, and even team mascots all receive a chunk of the revenue. Everyone gets paid except the athletes, who don’t receive a dime of the money. That’s because it’s against NCAA rules to pay college athletes with anything other than an athletic scholarship; anything else, and it’s deemed as an improper benefit, thus making an athlete ineligible if he/she were to accept. The NCAA defends its rule of “no-pay” by claiming that all its student-athletes are “amateurs” and not employees; therefore, they’re legally not compensated. The argument over whether student-athletes should be paid or not, is particularly unsettling within the sport of football, because NCAA football is the most popular and profitable sport of all college athletics. The NCAA’s discrepancy over whether it should pay its players or not, currently has the association fighting a lawsuit filed by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon, who’s suing for compensation on behalf of former Division I football and men’s basketball players. The lawsuit challenges the NCAA’s use of student-athletes’ images and likeness for commercial purposes (PBS.org). In recent months the argument has been geared more towards whether current student-athletes should be paid or not, particularly football players, who like former Texas A&M star quarterback Johnny Manziel, provide the athleticism and entertainment that makes NCAA football the million dollar empire that it is. So, should college football players be paid?

    Read More

  • Should College Athletes Be Paid?

    1593 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...it off of their likeness. No we should not be paid millions of dollars, or even hundreds of thousands, but I do believe that student-athletes should receive a small amount of money .It is only fair to the student-athletes because they are the ones out there putting in work on the field, weight room, film room, and traveling half the time to represent the university on top of trying to maintain a grade point average. I feel that it does not only deserve, but I also believe that getting a stipend would help student-athletes learn to manage their money. There is a reason so many athletes that make it to the professional level end up broke. It’s not fair to the players that they cannot make a profit off of their god given talents and their likeness. In a certain aspect college athletics is sort of like slavery, the university controls almost every aspect of your life.

    Read More

  • Student Athletes Should Not be Paid

    1793 Words  | 4 Pages

    Student athletes should not be paid more than any other student at State University, because it implies that the focus of this university is that an extracurricular activity as a means of profit. Intercollegiate athletics is becoming the central focus of colleges and universities, the strife and the substantial sum of money are the most important factors of most university administration’s interest. Student athletes should be just as their title states, students. The normal college student is struggling to make ends meet just for attending college, so why should student athletes be exempt from that? College athletes should indeed have their scholarships cover what their talents not only athletically but also academically depict. Unfortunately, the disapproval resides when students who are making leaps academically are not being offered monetary congratulations in comparison to student athletes. If the hefty amount of revenue that colleges as a conglomerate are making is the main argument for why athletes should be paid, then what is to stop the National Clearinghouse from devising unjust standards? Eventually if these payments are to continue, coaches, organizations, and the NCAA Clearinghouse will begin to feel that “c...

    Read More

  • College Athletes Should Be Paid

    1467 Words  | 3 Pages

    A question that has been rising to the surface lately is “should college athletes be paid a salary?” One cannot get on the internet now a day and not see some kind of college sport headline. The world of college sports has been changed greatly the past decade due to college athletes. These athletes make insurmountable amounts of money and an unbelievable amount of recognition for the universities. The athletes that provide and make a ton of revenue for the colleges also spend a huge amount of their time practicing and staying committed to sports, and have to maintain good grades in school which requires quite a bit of overtime. Because college athletes generate massive amounts of revenue and put in massive amounts of personal time for their individual universities, colleges need to financially compensate players for their contributions. The colleges that these superstars represent are reaping all of the benefits of the accomplishments the athletes have, yet the big named players are making nothing from what they do.

    Read More

  • Should Student-Athletes Be Paid?

    1960 Words  | 4 Pages

    College athletes are undoubtedly some of the hardest working people in the world. Not only are they living the life of an average student, they also have a strenuous schedule with their specific sport. One of the most discussed topics in the world of college athletics is whether or not student-athletes should be paid money for playing sports. The people who disagree with the idea have some good arguments to make. Primarily that the athletes get to go to school for free for playing sports. Another argument is that if student-athletes were to get paid then it would ruin the amateurism of college sports. People who are against paying the athletes do not want to see the young people become focused on money. “Paying student-athletes would dramatically shift their focus away from where it should be - gaining knowledge and skills for life after college” (Lewis and Williams). This is very understandable because one of the biggest reasons college sports are so popular is because the athletes play for school pride and for bragging rights. They play because they enjoy the game, not because it is their job. Most people that disagree with the idea of paying the athletes fail to realize what really goes on behind the scenes. At most Universities around the country the bulk of the income the school receives is brought in through the athletic programs. In fact the football and basketball teams usually bring in enough money to completely pay for the rest of the athletic programs all together. To get a better understanding of how much has changed in the world of college sports a little history must be learned.

    Read More

  • The NCAA and College Athletes: Should College Athletes Be Paid?

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    College athletes juggle busy academic and practice schedules all throughout their stressful weeks, so why shouldn't they be compensated for their time dedicated to sports? NCAA rules strictly prohibits players from being paid for all the hard work they do to protect “amateurism”, but are you really an amateur putting in over 40 hours a week between practice and other activities? Although students earn a college scholarship, that doesn’t cover living expenses, and access to a degree at the end of their career, players should be paid because schools, coaching staffs and major corporations are profiting off their free labor.

    Read More

  • College Athletes Should Be Paid

    1602 Words  | 4 Pages

    College athletics is a billion dollar industry and has been for a long time. Due to the increasing ratings of college athletics, this figure will continue to rise. It’s simple: bigger, faster, stronger athletes will generate more money. College Universities generate so much revenue during the year that it is only fair to the players that they get a cut. College athletes should get paid based on the university’s revenue, apparel sales, and lack of spending money.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On College Athletes

    2000 Words  | 4 Pages

    The complaint of the academic institution receiving the TV and merchandising money while players get next to nothing is a ridiculous sentiment. The apparatus of said institutions is not set up to drain players but the opposite. Student-athletes get room and board, the opportunity to show their skills to professional scouts, and most importantly a free education (Ramey 1). Though even with this provided, a collection of athletes somehow struggle to make ends meet. Out of all college athletes living on-campus, a whopping 86 percent drop below the federal poverty line (Alford 1). Faith Alford, journalist for the Daily Cougar, claims that the student-athletes cannot afford food at times, considering their sport is their full time job (1). Even so, that’s another day in the life of any other college student. College students make cutbacks all the time, staple foods are ramen noodles and great value counterparts to popular brands. Everyone has to make sacrifices. There is acknowledgement to be made to Alford 's statement, regardless, as of January 27th, 2015, College athletes are getting more than just tuition, room, and board under a vote taken at the NCAA 's annual convention (Berkowitz 1). These added benefits are called stipends, which could also be a problem for schools like TU. Stipends are not as simple as one would think. If these plans were to follow through in all places with players getting $2,000

    Read More

  • Professional Athlete Salaries

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    In today’s society many will argue whether or not professional athletes are overpaid. In the present time athletes are being paid phenomenally large amounts of money for their entertainment. It is my claim that all professional athletes are overpaid because they do not offer society an essential function that improves or enhances our world in comparison to other professionals such as medical doctors, lawyers, and teachers. Society does not value entertainment enough to warrant such high salaries such as those of many professional athletes. There is no reason that these athletes should demand these tremendous amounts of money. This is why you have to put into question their reasoning for demanding such high salaries.

    Read More

More about NCAA Athletes Need Salaries

Open Document