Research Paper

Over the past fifteen years college sports have exploded in popularity amongst the nation. The athletic departments in colleges are generating massive revenues and they depend on the success of their athletes for income. So is it fair that these colleges get to receive all of the benefits while the athletes work tremendous amounts of hours to only receive pride and a few who receive scholarships. There is even a cap for how many players can receive scholarships per school. So as college sports has become a bigger thing, the question that is being debated and needs to have a better look taken at, is whether or not college athletes should be paid.
There are many reasons that people believe athletes should not be paid and also many reasons that they should. I think the most heard reason for not paying athletes is that most of the big time athletes receive scholarships. The average scholarship for a full division one scholarship is about twenty five thousand dollars per year bringing us to a total of one hundred thousand dollars over four years. That does seem like a lot of money but really, it only covers the basics nowadays. It covers university fees, housing, tuition, meal plans, and textbooks. So, basically it covers everything for your academic career but what about when you’re not taking classes or doing homework. Classes do not take up all twenty four in a day. However most college athletes are spending the rest of their time after schoolwork on the sport that they are involved in. Contrary to what most opponents of paying athletes believe, being an athlete is a full time job. A typical day for an athlete consists of waking up before classes, lifting or conditioning, going to classes until about mid day, going to practice, an...

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...ford or find it in the budget to pay players extra earnings, then this topic would not be debated so heavily. This paper does not provide any solutions to the cash flow problem in college sports nor is it suggesting large sums be paid to the high revenue earning athletes. However, between NCAA television and licensing revenues, salaries paid to coaches, a little bit extra should go to the players who are truly bringing in a lot of the money to balance the scales. In the end, the NCAA does not have much juice to fall back on when they argue against the fact that athletes should receive some form of compensation. The status of being considered an amateur athlete no longer exists at this level and the value of an athlete’s education at universities across the country is in question. Change like this is definitely not simple but it is the fair and right thing to do.