Should Colledge Athletes Receive Compensation for Playing?

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Recommended: College Athletes Should Be Compensated Beyond Scholarships

According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, there are over 400,000 student

athletes attending a university this year. Its a debate that has been going on for the last twenty years,

Should student-athletes receive compensation for playing? This argument has gone on for a while,

but recently received media attention, when the O’Bannon v. NCAA started taking place. Athletes

believed that they were being exploited on video games, and believed that they deserved compensation

for that. Now there are multiple sides to this debate, some may argue that they are already receiving

compensation, by receiving a free education, while others will debate that athletes work hard and deserve

to get paid for the time and effort they put in. Then you have those who believe athletes are already

getting paid, we just don't see it happen in front of us. Overall, this makes a very interesting topic to look

at and discuss. Many believe this topic does not have an affect on them, but in reality it does.

The first perspective is interesting, those who are against student-athletes getting paid, tend

to believe they are already receiving compensation. This compensation for example, could be the free

education they are receiving. Sharon Law, a former teacher believes ”that I believe that any student that

is accepted into a university setting should be considered equals. By paying athletes, this would separate

him or her from their peers and cause favoritism and negativity among their peers and professors.” She

believes that if an athlete were to be paid, this would take away from learning, and would certainly be

a distraction to other students. Favoritism is brought on by the payment of athletes. This is due to the
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... the money, while others

would disagree and say that athletes are already receiving benefits from the school non-illegally. One

thing most can agree on however, is that if student-athletes were to be paid, they should all receive the

same salary. This may seem like a small point, but on the contrary, it’s very important. How much a player

gets paid in comparison to another player can cause comradery to be broken in the locker room.

To conclude, either way you look at this topic, it can be very interesting. This idea of paying

student-athletes can be taken in so many directions, because there are so many different opinions.

Everyone has a side on this, which is why it is why the subject never dies down. There are so many

factors and statistics that play into this decision, that it is likely we will still be having this discussion 25

years from now.

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