Let’s Start Paying College Athletes

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When deciding to play a sport in college that sport essentially becomes ones main focus. It is trusted by the school that they are being given their all. Between countless hours of practice and keeping ones grades up it is nearly impossible for a college athlete to get a job. Without a job, some of these athletes have no guaranteed source of income and that makes covering every day needs difficult. That brings the debate to whether college athletes should be paid to play a sport or not. The NCAA, formed by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1906, was initally put into place to take care of the safety element in college football. In 1950, colleges introduced the athletic scholarship. Using scholarships was seen as an act of pay-to-play for the athletes when the college’s revenue for sports was only brought in by ticket sales to home games. Also in the 1950s, the term “student-athlete” was created by long term NCAA President Walter Byers to avoid the athletes coming off as employees of the state and therefore they would not be receiving wages. In 2006, President Myles Brand to the NCAA and agreed that college athletics should remain as amateurs but they need to accept that college sports has indeed become a commercial business. (“Should College Athletes Be Paid?”). With clear evidence that college sports are bringing in more and more revenue for their schools, it seems that the schools would now be able to afford to pay their student athletes for the work and time that they are putting in. There are so many questions as how to make paying the students work, such as: how do you decide what sports get paid, how much does each student get, should students that bring in more revenue for the school get paid more and should each scho... ... middle of paper ... ...an trying to place college athletes in the pay positions of professionals. Works Cited Dorfman, Jeffrey. “Pay College Athletes? They’re Already Paid up to $125,000 Per Year.” Forbes. Forbes, 29 August 2013. Web. 15 November 2013. Gilleran, Mike, Ron Katz and Issac Vaughn. “Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Santa Clara Law. Santa Clara University, 15 July 2013. Web. 15 November 2013. Jackson, Scoop. “The Myth of Parity.” ESPN. ESPN, 12 September 2013. Web. 15 November 2013. Keller, Sam. “Paying College Athletes.” Facts on File News Services. Facts on File News Services, 21 June, 2010. Web. 15 November 2013. Nocera, Joe. “Let’s Start Paying College Athletes.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 30 December 2011. Web. 15 November 2013. Rocker, John. “Why College Athletes Should Not Be Paid.” WND. WND, 23 September 2013. Web. 15 November 2013.

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