Premium Essay

Pay for Play

In:

Submitted By kobet24
Words 1193
Pages 5
When Johnny Manziel appeared recently on the cover of Time magazine -- striking his Heisman pose with six simple words, "It's Time To Pay College Athletes" sharing his space -- the most universally agreed, yet universally debated, issue in all of non-professional sports returned to the front of the national discussion.

Yet the beauty of the debate is once again lost because the foundation of the argument sits on a fault line. There is no system of payment that can be put in place that is fair across the board to all students, all sports and all schools that participate in college athletics.

At this point, the debate over whether college athletes should be paid really doesn't change anything. It's not about finding the right answer because there is no right answer. Seemingly everyone, regardless of the stance they take, makes valid points. Yes, for the most part, colleges and universities are making money off of the backs, performances and success of major football and men's basketball programs and the scholarship athletes who play them. But ask yourself: Isn't that what most businesses do?

Yes, business. Not college athletics. Business, man.

The problem seems to be that we don't look at college athletics as a business. Instead, we subconsciously and constantly (and emotionally) look at college sports as something different. We allow the "school" part to blind us into thinking that the educational piece changes the dynamics of what is really going on and exempts athletics from being about something other than money.

It's not. But that's our fault, not the NCAA's.

Take away the university/college "label" associated with college football and what do we have? The NFL. Do the same for all of the other college sports, and the professional equivalent to that sport comes up as the answer. This is where we are. This has been our reality for decades. Yet, we

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Pay for Play

...championship. Millions of fans invest time, money and energy cheering for their favorite teams. Billions of dollars are made by the television and advertising industries, the food and beverage industries and the College and University “industry”. We watch these young men and women play their hearts out never once considering they have classes to study for or calculating the amount of money they make generate. Today’s college athletes or “student-athletes”, as the National Collegiate Athletic Association calls them, are a part of a long time controversy. While they receive scholarships and are allowed to go to college for free, they also have to “work” in practice and games. They are no different than other college students in that they also have to pay for other necessities. Even if a fan wants to help them out in any way like buy them a meal they can’t because it’s a NCAA violation. This is a hot topic especially during the NCAA tournament. Even the popular IPhone application, Instagram has recently put this hot topic on display. This past week, University of Louisville women’s basketball player, Bria Smith posted a picture of an article about this debate. Her teammate, Monique Reid commented on the photo saying, “Pay us!!” Ohio State University women’s basketball player Raven Ferguson also commented saying the same thing. College athletes should be paid because they are not compensated for their work in sports and the money that’s generated for their university and for the NCAA is...

Words: 1699 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Pay to Play

... Some make the argument that the student-athletes get the best of both worlds of college. Free educations to play a game and special treatment on campus are some of the many reasons that experts are against paying student-athletes. I do not feel the same way. There is much more that goes in to practicing, playing and particapatating in sports at the collegiate level. Student-athletes should be compensated with some form of monetary payment for their efforts and all they sacfice on a day to day basis. In the United States today, most businesses and companies are try to run more efficiently as well as keeping up profitably. Companies have to produce a product that the consumer not only wants but needs. Keeping that particular product in demand, as well as increasing income, bottom line is the ultimate goal. As the company does well, the workers are compensated for all their effort and hard work. Companies over the years have devised many different options in rewarding employees: profit sharing, bonuses, and incentives based performance in addition to regular benefits. CEOs of companies are well taken care of because of the efficient job they are doing in running the company making money. Universities are no different than these companies. Colleges or universities are investing millions of dollars in the school’s athletic programs and facilities. They also have to pay their version of a CEO, which in this case that would be the head coaches of these programs. Playing sports for...

Words: 1142 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Pay for Play

...Pay for Play Short Paper Timothy McGee Southern New Hampshire University January 10, 2015 There are many ways one could answer the age old question should college athletes be paid. The bigger question should be why are student athletes not being paid. I stand firm on the issue that student athlete's should be compensated for the work they put in for the University. I am a former student athlete and I feel strong about the situation because I have seen thing behind the curtain that the normal American public does not see. If people really knew what it was like to be in the shoes of a student athlete they would probably choose to go to school without sport. The lifestyle of a student athlete is demanding. Do to NCAA rules student athletes are unable to work during the school year due to compromising tactics like receive an increased amount of money because you play for a respected program. Many athletes have lost money from being taken advantage of by agents, coaches, and lenders all looking to cash out when the athlete play professionally. There are many rules to keep student athletes in a system where they basically have no control over there future. For example if a student athlete wanted to transfer to a different college they would have to sit out one academic semester no matter the circumstance. If a student athlete wants to transfer the coach can keep them from going to certain programs. Some coaches have the right to even protect players while there still...

Words: 1195 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Pay to Play

...Pay to Play: Economic Impact of Paying College Athletes 1. Purpose of Research & Analysis On April 25, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., granted Northwestern University's request to review the decision made by the regional office recognizing the school's football players as employees. In mid-April, Northwestern football players voted as a team on whether or not to unionize, but the votes will only be opened if the board ends up siding with the players, which may take at least a couple of months. Ultimately, the Northwestern football players are determining their fate through this secret ballot and their decision to form the first union amongst college athletes—a decision that has the ability to change the landscape of American college sports. If granted the right to unionize, the Northwestern football team will actually have the ability to bargain over their conditions and it is expected that this could ultimately lead to requesting salary compensation for their efforts. In light of these recent historic discussions, it is critical to analyze not only the ethical, but also the economic impact of such potential situations. My research paper has been structured to shed some light into the challenging and complicated discussions that continue to occur around this topic. Specifically, I have broken my research and analysis into three key topics. First, I explore whether or not there is an underlying issue with the current state, from an economic perspective...

Words: 5163 - Pages: 21

Premium Essay

Pay To Play Research Paper

...Pay to Play Should one have to pay in order to play?  Yes they should be required to give a monetary fee to participate in the school sport.  Athletes need to be required to pay to play due to it being a privilege to be on the team.  The reasons why pay to play will be effective are school budgets, it eliminates fundraising, and someones kid will more likely get more out of it. Schools are cutting wages because the budget is so tight.  If the wages get cut teachers will leave because they want a higher salary to support their families.  Also, when wages get cut, it gets harder to find teachers who will work for them low wages, and the adolescents in the classroom may also be affected by the lower wages because bad teacher, usually get the...

Words: 773 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Ncaa Football Pay to Play

...Table of Contents 1 The Ethical Issue – Whether to Pay NCAA Football Student-Athletes 3 1.1 The Case For Maintaining the Current System - Not Paying NCAA Football Student-Athletes 4 1.2 The Case For Paying NCAA Football Student-Athletes 6 1.3 Conclusion 11 1.4 References 13 The Ethical Issue – Whether to Pay NCAA Football Student-Athletes Top college football programs make hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues each year, all without having to pay the people who actually play the game. Is it ethical for colleges to not pay their football stars for playing their hearts out on the field, building popular branding images for themselves and their school, and for the collective big-money earnings and prestige that often comes to their schools? Or is indirect payment to these players in the form of a free undergraduate education and college degree through an athletic scholarship sufficient enough? In the 2012 NFL season, 1,947 players played in at least one game. Of those, 62% attended college at one of the five “power conferences” in the U.S., and only one of those players did not attend college at all.[i] Donald Remy, the NCAA chief legal officer has said, “The NCAA’s rules do not force athletes who wish to be professionals to enroll in school,”[ii] yet premier NCAA schools clearly offer the best path to fulfilling these hopeful football players’ dreams. Nevertheless, despite the more opportunistic path of attending a Division...

Words: 4619 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Pay to Play in High School

...The Issues Surrounding “Pay-to-Play” and its Effect on Students in the United States Outline Science, Technology and Human Values Topic: Pay-to-Play I. Introduction A. About Pay-to-Play 1. “Pay-to-Play” is a policy implemented by school districts to help cover the cost of extra-curricular activities, such as sports, clubs, cheer and dance, and even some honor programs. It dates back to the 1970’s although it became more popular in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. The fees range from $850 to play football at Oakfield High School in Massachusetts, $350 to participate in band at Fairfield High School in Michigan, to $30 per year total, no matter how many extra-curricular activities the student participates in, at Holton High School in Kansas. The fees vary by state, by school district, and there are some schools who don’t charge a fee at all. In 1984, California passed a law that no school district will charge fees for extra-curricular activities. Stealth versions of pay-to-play exist at many high schools around the country. Sometimes they are clothed as transportation fees, equipment fees or donations. Some schools blanket their fees by asking students to donate $150.00 to their booster club, such as Lakeside High School in Atlanta. Therefore, it is a considered a donation, and not a fee. (Brady) 2. There isn’t a current policy in the United States for pay-to-play in schools. It isn’t governed, nor is it required or uncommon for districts to charge some...

Words: 3443 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

College Football and Pay for Play

...| College Football and Pay for Play | | | | | | Introduction “The rising dollar value of the exploitation of athletes is obscene, is out of control.” -Roger Noll, Economics Professor Emeritus, Stanford The whole purpose in researching this topic was based on the fact that the researcher is a fan of college sports, football and basketball especially. As the researcher has grown into adulthood and come to understand that with most things in life, it’s all about business in some form or fashion. So with that being said, as in any business situation, laborers get paid for revenue they work to produce. “The NCAA's current men's basketball tournament agreement with CBS and Turner is worth an average of more than $770 million per year, and the current Bowl Championship Series television deal – money that goes to conferences and then is distributed to schools, with no NCAA involvement – is worth $180 million per year. The new college football playoff, which starts in the 2014 season, will be worth about $470 million annually to the conferences.” (Cohen & Russo, 2013) This is money that is created through the blood, sweat, and tears of the athletes. On multiple occasions, the researcher has participated in and listened to many arguments on how a scholarship is equal enough payment for student-athletes. The researcher has always found that theory to have a multitude of flaws though, and that’s mainly because common knowledge tends to show that things...

Words: 2287 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Pay for Play- Ethics Paper

...Pay for Play: An Ethical Analysis of the Student-Athlete Compensation Dilemma Group 2: Julie Burnett Christopher Fincham Revati Kailasam Catherine Kondo Teresa Seim Ethics and Professionalism in Accounting Andrew Dill ACG 6835 Fall 2013 Introduction The college sports industry is a large industry in America which is estimated to produce $797 million dollars for the 2012-13 season (NCAA). Of these millions, not one penny will go to any of the 400,000 plus college athletes under NCAA rules (NCAA). This however, was not always the case. Prior to the formation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1906, student groups frequently hired players without the stipulation that they must also be students at the university (NCAA). Due to these circumstances and poorly regulated play that often led to injuries, the NCAA was established to provide a safe and fair ‘playing field’ for student-athletes. However, today this regulatory board is not seen as beneficial by all members of society, and is especially negatively scrutinized by top performing student-athletes. In 2005, NCAA Football had an estimated total attendance of over 43 million compared to the NFL of over 17 million, while NCAA Basketball had estimated total attendance of over 30 million compared to the NBA of over 21 million (Humphys, 2008). Despite having more viewers, college athletes received no pay while professional players earned millions. This has prompted college athletes to argue...

Words: 6363 - Pages: 26

Free Essay

Impact of Advertising on Consumer Buying Behavior

...Impact of advertising on consumer buying behavior By S #. | Name | Reg #. | 1 | Muhammad Hasnain Abbas (Leader) | 23618 | 2 | Haris Memon | 19965 | 3 | Kamran Khan | 20911 | 4 | Zahida Lakhan | 22868 | 5 | Kabir Thakur | 24017 | 6 | Mushtaque Shayan | 24026 | A Project Report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Course of Writing Research Reports to Miss Sania Usmani at the Iqra University, Main Campus Karachi, Pakistan. Dec 26, 2014 ACKNOWLEDGMENT This report is dedicated to our family, companions, and educators for their backing and support. Initially, we might want to thank Miss Sania Usmani for being a fabulous research supervisory. It implies a ton to us that she ventures up when we required her most and tackled the obligation of managing us in the privilege bearing. Moreover, she pushed us to consider unheard of options and tested us to look past what is directly before us. Without her we would not have possessed the capacity to finish this exploration. Thus and a lot of people more, we will be perpetually appreciative. ABSTRACT Advertising has made a great deal of chances for advertisers to associate with their customers and additionally advance their items successfully however not all their customers consider it to be of much vitality. People of Pakistan don’t get influenced by advertisement even if the product is advertised on TV by their favorite celebrity or actor. Advertisements are the source...

Words: 3737 - Pages: 15

Free Essay

Pay Now and Play Later

...obscurity, with the application of Timeless and Universal Principles of Success, you can rise to Lime light. Walgreens for over forty years had bumped along as a very average company but in 1975 seemingly out of nowhere-bang-it began to climb and climb…and kept climbing until it surpassed its rivals and contemporary companies-some of the best-led organizations in the world. ---pages 3-4 PROOF OF LESSON 1 I currently own a cleaning organization which has only gotten one job since established in 2004. I decided to close down since 2011 because of lack of success in moving forward. APPLICATION OF LESSON 1 I will pick up the papers of that company, dust it and start up again putting principle of perseverance, strategic and massive marketing into play etc because if Walgreens for over forty years had bumped along as a very average company but in 1975 seemingly out of nowhere-bang-it began to climb and climb until it became a strong unrivaled brand. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. LESSONS 2 Success or Greatness does not only come by focusing on what to do, rather it also comes by focusing on what not to do and on what to stop doing. ---Page 11 paragraph 1 PROOF OF LESSON 2 I have always desired to be motivational in my approach to things and when I talk, Though a passion burning in me, I have not deliberately taken steps to study voraciously and prepare myself. I was actually leaving it too chance APPLICATION OF LESSON 2 I want to be a motivational speaker, one...

Words: 3182 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay

...you want to play sports in college you might want to be paid for them but you get to choose to play sports or not. What some don’t know is that you shouldn’t have to get paid to play a sport that you chose to do. Today, I am going to try and persuade you why college athletes should not be paid. In college playing a sport is a privilege because most people that play sports in high school don’t play in college. What reason do athletes need more money, each year there are billions given to college athletes, the athletic scholarship averages over the schools tuition. Here is an example Ohio State of a little over $10,000 a year and the scholarship is $17,856 (Anderson). If they wanted to get paid let’s say a $100,000 salary that isn’t bad but a salary is affected by federal and state taxes. A student with a salary would have to pay a total of $34,900. That means the student only has $65,100. And college expenses get to $65,000 then then what was $100,000 is only $100, so is getting paid and having a salary better...

Words: 790 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Essay On Should College Athletes Be Paid

...argument comes into play. But in other cases student athletes are pretty well taken care of and have it very nice on their campuses. Many students are already playing for free or on scholarships and only have to pay for everyday essentials. Student athletes cannot be paid to participate in college athletics. There are no possibilities where college athletes could be paid. Most...

Words: 1300 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Should College Athletes Be Paid

...Should College Athletes be Paid to Play. C Team BCOM/275 Robert May Should College Athletes be Paid to Play. Should college athletes be paid to play? That is the question and discussion being presented not only in this paper but also across many colleges in these United States. There are many pros and cons to college athletes being paid to play their sport, which makes this is a very controversial topic. Are the sport scholarships and uniforms enough? Should schools really pocket all that money they make in revenue from the sports teams? Many moral, ethical and legal issues can be raised in the idea of paying college athletes to play, on both the pro and con side of the issue. Should an athlete receive a full ride scholarship and also be paid from the school to play? Many big universities may be able to handle such a thing, but what about the small colleges that do not receive such a large amount of revenue from their sports teams? Can or should schools pay all the athletes or only the top players? What about Title IX, how will potentially paying athletes be affected by it? All these topics will be discussed, as well as Team C’s final decision on this matter. PROS In 2012 the athletic revenue reported by University of Texas was $163.2 million, Alabama $143.4 million, Ohio State $142.0 million and Michigan $140.1 million (Berkowitz, Schnaars, & Upton, 2014) Coaches like Nick Saban (Alabama Football) and Mike Krzyzewski (Duke Men’s Basketball) make in excess of $7 Million...

Words: 2122 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Essay On College Athletes Should Be Paid

...open. It's not high school athletics. In some ways, it's really exciting. But if your child's not passionate, you are going to have a lot of teary phone calls’” (Holland, Kelley Holland, and John W. Schoen). The dedication and passion athletes need to play...

Words: 1850 - Pages: 8