Should Scholarship Athletes Work?
Should college athletes on full ride scholarships be able to hold a job during the school year? Well up until Monday, January 12, 1997, full scholarship athletes were forbidden to hold jobs during the school year. For the last five years this has been a very controversial issue in the National
Collegiate Athletic Association, known as the NCAA. Imagine being from a poor family and going to college on a full-ride scholarship for basketball. Under the old legislation, that player is not allowed to work or receive money from the school. In turn the player cannot afford to even travel home over the holidays to be with his family. Athletes should be able to hold a job during the school year in order to get the valuable experience of working and make enough money to cover living expenses and traveling costs.
Under the new legislation, which was passed at the NCAA Convention,
Division I athletes on full scholarship will be allowed to earn enough money to match the full cost of attending school. Athletic scholarships typically cover room, board, books and tuition, but do not cover costs for trips home, gas, laundry and other items. The determination of how much money covers those things is made by each school's financial aid office; most administrators have estimated the costs to be between $2,000 and $3,000 a year. Athletes who choose to work, and their employers, will be required to sign an affidavit that says the athletes have not been hired on the basis of their athletic ability or status and that they will be compensated only for the work they perform at a rate commensurate with the local rate of pay for such work.
Critics of the legislation that passed said it opens the door for the very problems that originally sparked the regulation, athletes being paid for menial labor, and that keeping track of how much money athletes are earning will be difficult. But according to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, "Sure there will be bogus jobs,'' he said. "It'll open up a can of worms, but I think we have to start living with cans of worms and let the presidents, athletic directors, and board of trustees handle it.'' It makes more sense to have the schools required to enforce the new regulations involved than it does to ask the
NCAA to handle it. The schools have first hand account o f all the players at their school, therefore they are in the best position to enforce the new legislation's requirements.
On the job experience is essential when looking for a job after college.
Tyson Hartnett of The Huffington Post once said “Even with any type of scholarship, college athletes are typically dead broke.” This quote regards a tremendous controversy that has been talked about for the past few years. He talks about whether or not college athletes should be paid for their duties. Despite the fact college athletes are not professionals, they should most certainly be paid for playing for their respective schools due to many factors. These factors include health risks and the income bring in for their colleges as well as to the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
...hedules the athletes had, they are still considered just a student. The NCAA cannot continue to allow these schools to work the athletes as much as they do without giving the athletes what they deserve.
There has been a lot of athletic scandals in colleges in most parts of the world. These scandals have been as a result of the coaches and the directors of athletics in the colleges failing to take the full force of the law and giving their players freedom to do everything even if it is against the law. One of this fatal scandals is the Baylor university basketball scandal that occurred in the year 2003. This scandal involved the players and the coaches of the team. The scandal left one player dead and the other imprisoned for thirty five years. The team was subjected to a lot of punishment by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA is a non-profit organization comprised of 1281 institutions, organizations, individuals and conferences and that organizes the athletic programs of most of the colleges and universities in the United States and Canada (The New York Times, 2003).
College athletes are manipulated every day. Student athletes are working day in and day out to meet academic standards and to keep their level of play competitive. These athletes need to be rewarded and credited for their achievements. Not only are these athletes not being rewarded but they are also living with no money. Because the athletes are living off of no money they are very vulnerable to taking money from boosters and others that are willing to help them out. The problem with this is that the athletes are not only getting themselves in trouble but their athletic departments as well.
There is currently a major issue in today’s college athletics. Universities and the NCAA make billions of dollars while some student-athletes go hungry. There is a huge debate over whether or not student-athletes should be paid as employees of their respective colleges. Personally, I don’t believe players should receive full-time salaries, but Universities and the NCAA should be required to increase the value of the scholarships that they award to student-athletes. By requiring that colleges provide athletes with an additional $2,000 per semester as part of their scholarship you can greatly increase the well-being (welfare) of the students.
Are college sports an extracurricular activity or a job? The argument to pay college athletes has increased in the last few years. Some say athletes have a full time job and deserve to be paid since they are over-scheduled with many school-related activities. College athletes should not be paid because it is a privilege to play a sport for a college.
...ith no choice but to accept illegal money. If the NCAA would just pay these athletes some type of payment then athletes would be less likely to break the rules of the NCAA
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.
College athletes need to get paid more multiple reasons. They could be starting a family and if the athlete does not have any money then getting paid for the sport they do could help them. Most athletes do not have jobs because they do not have time for sports,college and a job. If college athletes do not have a job then they could not get paid and if they do not get paid then they will not have groceries.
This is a big topic in the sports world. Players such as Reggie Bush and O.J Mayo have stripped their team of big achievements just because of one desicon. Some of the things that have been stripped are national championships, scholarships, wins, and not being able to play in the postseason next year. The player also may have some achievements taken away as well. Such as, player of the year award, or defensive player of the year. Most of the incidents happen when a player signs an agent and takes gifts such as money, houses, cars, food, and so on. Colleges should be punished because they are responsible for that player, colleges/coaching staff have a pretty good idea of the events that happen between players, and the athletes are representing the college.
In trying to decide what research topic I wanted to use, I took many ideas into thought. I decided that the one idea that interests me most is whether student athletes should be paid or not. This is very intriguing to me since my master’s program is sports management. In order to do this research there must be many ways to use research as well as ideas from other people. This project is a very big topic in today’s discussion amongst sport fans, college administrators, and student athletes themselves. Media has recently put more pressure on this topic as well with the Northwestern decision to unionize as well as pointing out an athletic director gaining an $18,000 supplement for a wrestler at their school winning a national championship. To gain a better idea on this very topic, I would like to do an extensive research on how many variables could affect different people or universities from the idea of student athletes being paid from their university.
One and done. The phrase that has brought some much controversy to college basketball. It has brought on many debates and has started a new age of college basketball. The burning question though is if players benefit better by going pro as soon a possible or waiting.
The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is an association set up to regulate
United States of America. National Employment Law Project. National Employment Law Project. N.p., Jan. 2011. Web. 18 May 2014.
Should college athletes be paid? This has been a controversial topic ever since college sports started out. Many people argue that they should. Many people argue that they should not. The people that say they should be paid argue that the amount of practice the athletes put in, is equivalent to a full-time job, and maybe even more. The people that say they shouldn’t get paid argue that they get scholarships that are worth, if not worth more than getting paid as athletes.