Free Essay

Paying College Athletes

In:

Submitted By DrewC82
Words 586
Pages 3
Logical Argument Essay: Paying College Athletes
College athletes juggle busy academic in addition to practice schedules throughout their week. Team sports like basketball and football, as well as individual sports, are extremely popular worldwide, especially in the United States. Pro athletes have statuses similar to Hollywood celebrities, and wages that match. However, no matter how well they currently play, all of them once were amateurs. In this perspective, college athletes are not much different from professionals, yet college athletes have never been financially compensated for their efforts in sports. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) prohibits college athletes to be monetarily compensated for their effort. College athletes should be fiscally compensated for a number of reasons.
Playing a college sport is like a full time job, except for no financial benefits. A typical 1st division college football player trains approximately 43 hours per week. To put that into perspective, a typical American works 40 hours per week. In addition to the 40+ hours per week of training, college athletes also need to dedicate time to studying. With an intense schedule like this, college athletes are left with no time to make a living. Additionally, NCAA tournament rules often require college athletes to skip classes in favor of nationally televised games that bring in revenue, going to the NCAA, not the athlete who is possibly sacrificing their grades. Based on this alone, college athletes should receive at least some monetary compensation for their time and effort. If college student athletes were to receive salaries, illegal recruiting and under the table payments wouldn’t happen, at least as often. Because players who are not rewarded for their hard work often look elsewhere to a school that offers better “benefits,” colleges are forced to persuade them to stay with items such as cars, houses and cash. These types of scandals jeopardize the integrity of the school and people involved, further justifying the importance of paying student athletes.
Lastly, paying college athletes could also solve a significant problem of athletes dropping out of college for financial reasons. It’s not a secret that many college athletes make a decision to leave school for financial reasons and are allured by the perspective to start earning money with what they do best, sports in this case, outside of college. What is the point for a prospective professional athlete to rush between sports and study for free, if they can earn real money doing what they love, and without any obstacles? Paying college athletes could help keep many of them enrolled in their respective colleges, ensuring that they earn a degree that can be used should they not make it to the pros.
The reasons why college athletes should be paid are significant. First of all, the NCAA has all of the means to do such; they bring in millions of dollars in revenue during the football season, so supporting college athletes would not be a problem. Despite the NCAA officially recognizing college athletes as amateurs, these “amateurs” train on average 43 hours a week, in addition to maintain an often rigorous academic schedule. Lastly, It could actually ensure that the student athletes complete their degree and have something to fall back on should they not make it to the pros, as statically many will not. College is supposed to be a time where young adults learn and prepare themselves for their futures. Paying will teach them the importance of hard work and money management, and ultimately help both the college athlete and university.

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Paying College Athletes

...warm Saturday in August. The streets are buzzing with students and families, and nothing but blue and gold tailgates for as far as the eye can see. This is also the case for every other college in the country. College football has become increasingly more popular over the past few years. It has even got to the point that players and coaches have raised the idea that players should be paid. This essay will focus mainly on collegiate football players and whether or not they should be payed. I used to play football in college and I, for one, do not think players should be paid. I believe that, if they were to pay players, the money should be used to benefit the their education in the form of scholarships. Also paying athletes will individualize the sports, much like how professional sports are now. Lastly, paying all athletes would cost far too much for the NCAA. Scholarships as Currency If college athletes were to be paid, it should be in the form of scholarships. From my own experience colleges have switched from the traditional four year scholarship, to one year grants. This is where the argument first stems from. A four year scholarship guarantees the athlete financial support throughout their four year stay at the institution. It covers all the basic finances of a college student such as tuition, fees, and room and board(Mitchell). On the other hand, one year grants can be revoked at anytime for numerous reasons, such as bad grades or injuries, to not living...

Words: 1031 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Paying College Athletes

...Paying College Athletes One of the biggest issues in college athletics that has been put to question for a number of years is whether or not college athletes should be paid for the amount of money they bring in for their schools. Well-known columnist Joe Nocera of The New York Times insist that it is time for change in the college world and that players should be paid. In his article “Let’s Start Paying College Athletes” he begins by introducing an antagonistic claim to what he believes, and then explains why he supports athletes being paid sustaining his statements with a solution to go about doing it. He begins his article by deliberately trying to distort the credibility of Mark Emmert, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), to gain the reader’s favor. In Nocera’s view, he calls Emmert “the almighty overseer of American college sports,” who “likes to think of himself as a reformer.” In making this comment, Nocera criticizes Emmert, who has only held the position for a year, for the series of improvements he has implemented only a few months back. He goes into further detail about one of the improvements made by Emmert to give a $2000 stipend to division I athletes to help with college expenses, and then attacks him in person claiming that it is a form of payment to the players. Again, he tries to ruin the face of Emmert but this time through the form of hypocrisy. It is quite obvious that he detests Emmert and the rest of the NCAA who agree...

Words: 1123 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Paying College Athletes

...November 2, 2015 Professor Brian Royce ENGL 111-05C-C1 Ivy Tech Community College Fort Wayne, Indiana 46835 Dear Professor Royce- I am writing this cover letter to you as a part of the Informative essay assignment for English 111. I choose to write about the current debate over whether college athletes should be paid for their time and effort while playing their chosen sport at colleges and universities across America. I received only one peer review on Blackboard, and was underwhelmed by the response that I received. Jairret Boyce was the only classmate that responded to my essay, and in his peer review, he merely agreed that I did everything well. This was not very helpful in the completion of my final draft for this assignment. The only helpful feedback that I received was from you, with the notes that you made on my first draft, with the most important information being that my thesis statement would not work because I presented it in the form of a question. I made the proper changes to my thesis statement to make sure that it shows the two different sides to the debate that I writing about to inform my audience. After receiving the grade for my essay in writing project two, I wanted to make sure that I did a better job with my Works Cited page. I went to the library, and was shown Noodle tools, and made sure to use that resource to make sure I completed a quality Works Cited page for this assignment. I am looking forward to completing Writing Project four,...

Words: 1871 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Paying College Athletes

...extra money for other necessities. You did not save enough money in high school and your family does not have money to give you. You are a college athlete. Athletic boosters tempt the athletes with illegal benefits because most do not have money for their own use. The NCAA makes millions of dollars off a college athlete’s performance. The NCAA is a not-for-profit agency that does not operate like one. If college athletes received a yearly stipend from the NCAA, then they might not be lured to take illegal benefits and would have spending money to enjoy the college life experience and pay for needed college items, such as a computer or supplies. For those reasons, college athletes should be paid by the NCAA for the services they provide to their schools. Critics against student athletes being paid believe in the benefits of the athletic scholarship. However, past athletes received improper benefits, financial and otherwise. Reggie Bush accepted improper benefits when he played football for University of Sothern California. According to the article, “Paying College Athletes,” “…current NFL star Reggie Bush-had violated its amateurism rules when his family moved into an expensive home owned by a local businessman with whom Bush and his family had had business dealings related to Bush’s football career” (Paying College Athletes par. 7). Reggie Bush and his family collected an excess of $290,000 from sports agent Lloyd Lake. Lake sued Bush and his family to be repaid...

Words: 1754 - Pages: 8

Premium Essay

Paying College Athletes

...Paying College Athletes College athletics is a billion dollar industry and has been for a very long time. Due to the increasing ratings of college athletics, this figure will continue to rise. College athletes should get paid to play for many reasons. First of all, college athletes bring in millions of dollars through merchandise and games. Then most of the athletes that have the opportunity to leave school and turn professional do so, because college athletes live in near poverty. Thirdly, if college athletes aren’t allowed to work how can they afford necessary expense if they come from poor families? College athletes bring in millions of dollars to their schools. For example, the University of Miami received about 8 million dollars for the Miami Hurricanes playing in the Nokia Sugar Bowl. The apparel also brings in a lot of money by selling hats, footballs, and jerseys. Also the Orange Bowl holds over 60,000 people and they sell tickets at an average of 20 dollars each. Therefore, players should receive some of this money because without them the schools wouldn’t receive all the money and popularity. Second, college athletes live in near poverty because the money they receive isn’t enough to pay for all of the expenses. The few athletes that graduate from college, that could turn professional before their senior year, stay because their parents support them by sending money. If college athletes are eligible to be paid, there would be more athletes graduating. Paying athletes...

Words: 438 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Paying College Athletes

...Social Responsibility of, “Is it moral for the University of Notre Dame to pay their college football players?” CERTIFICATION OF AUTHORSHIP: I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in the paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used this data, ideas of words, whether quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course. Student Signature: Jill Burgess *************************************************************** Instructor’s Grade on Assignment: Instructor’s Comments: Table of Contents Introduction Many students who are currently active players for their university's football team are struggling to make ends meet. They simply don't have the funds to buy new clothes, tools for education, or even food not supplied by the university. To make matters worse, the NCAA has created policies restricting players from pursuing avenues of being compensated for services. These policies make living situations for many of the players very uncomfortable. In business, there are unions who protect employees from abuse and unfair treatment in the workplace. Unfortunately for the players, there isn't any one privatized union representing the best interest of student-athletes. Private interest groups exercise most efforts toward the rights of players, and player...

Words: 6552 - Pages: 27

Premium Essay

Paying College Athletes

...Cay Strode 4 April 2016 Paying College Athletes Millions of fans gather around to watch their favorite college team or player from the first game to the championship. Whether the sport is basketball football or hockey, college teams are love to compete against each other and take it very seriously. However, this of course comes with certain issues, particularly when it comes to the question whether college athletes should be paid for their performance. College athletic programs are making millions, so why shouldn’t they convinced their school to pay their athletes. Also, it being a business opportunity benefiting the coaches, the amount of games that team wins, and the student athletes. Meanwhile, people who opposed it say that it is harmful and destructive for the athlete’s. They believe it harms the education part of being the student athlete, taking the money out of education, and paying them for just their performance is not setting a positive example. I find confusing that sometimes that college athlete doesn’t have a saying on if they should get paid for their performance, whether or not they’re good or bad. This issue is important to understand from all sides because it affects education, problems with payment, the university, the NCAA and the athletic department. Both sides care about the performance of college athletes, the education, but the approach of being a business opportunity really has both sides fighting. Paying college athletes has been around since the...

Words: 285 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Paying College Athletes

...the sport of football. College football is unique in many ways, but what baffles many people is how the universities and colleges, along with their athletic program can make so much money from the game itself, which by the way include student-athletes. As the crowds of people I described earlier come into these stadiums and spend money to watch their school play, despite who is on the roster (meaning people trend to support schools not players), the athletes are not allowed to profit from their talents. After many years of debate there has now been enough case-law, scandals, and law-suits (that usually started from a scandal) too have a reasonable fight on why student-athletes among all divisions should receive percentages of in season earnings of all athletic events. As an avoid video game freak, it became rather easy for me to research in examples of how the money may be falling the wrong direction all over the NCAA. Focusing in in EA sports and their version of college football in the virtual in the series, NCAA FOOTBALL (YEAR).In, Gettin' Played: How the Video Game Industry Violates College Athletes' Rights of Publicity by Not Paying for Their Likenesses, author Matzkin, prevents case law and examples of how the names of players publish and profit for EA Sports and institutions. Although gaming is one of the leading factors in how student-athletes are being used for money, there are many examples of cases where the NCAA decided not to allow an athlete to play for a team because...

Words: 600 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Paying College Athletes

...The Controversy of Payment to College Athletes Michael H. Rubin University of Maryland Baltimore County Abstract The benefits of allowing college athletes to accept regulated payments are examined through surveys’ and facts. Several possible techniques and systems that can help aid student-athletes’ through the rest of their college career and life are discussed. This topic addresses anyone who is involved or interested in college athletics and aims to end the exploitation of NCAA athletes. It will be proven that the majority of the student body, players and several coaches all agree in the payment of some form to student- athletes’. The University and the NCAA are worried about losing revenue and tainting the NCAA’s name. Throughout this study, many issues are addressed, involving the pros and cons of allowing student athletes to receive their share of the large amount of revenue received. Included are interviews from college level players and professional level players, as well as a survey of an unbiased group of college students. All of this research emphasizes that these athletes deserve to take a small share of this multi-billion dollar industry. Keywords: university, college, athlete, compensation, corruption, payment, student, NCAA, money, sports, salary The Controversy of Payment to College Athletes In several recent events, there has been a reoccurring trend in college athletics involving student athletes being paid money or given other incentives to...

Words: 3451 - Pages: 14

Premium Essay

Paying College Athletes

...- Ethics and Social Responsibility January 22, 2013 Responsibility Project Video Link: http://responsibility-project.libertymutual.com/films/rp-roundtable-college-sports * Organizational Issues The world of collegiate sports is as comprehensive a subject as can be discussed. The issues that come with the overall organization of collegiate sports and the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) are far greater than what should be deemed acceptable. In an Internet video, Responsibility Project (2011) states that the “model” of collegiate sports is broken, that there is a debate on whether college sports builds character or retracts from character, and that we have reached a cross-roads with today’s college athletes. The issues discussed in the video are of great importance because they deal with the education and upbringing of thousands of our nation’s youth and because the “organization” of college sports is a multi-billion dollar industry which is accompanied by many flaws. These matters include the fact that college athletes receiving full scholarships are demanded to allow so much time and effort towards their athletic programs that it comes at the expense of them receiving an education. Another issue discussed in the film, this actually from a former athlete himself, says “the athlete is so far removed from the academic experience of the institution…they don’t interact with the normal student body, they are dealing with people who think and act...

Words: 689 - Pages: 3

Free Essay

Paying of College Athletes

...Should Student Athletes Receive Stipends Past their Scholarships? Dylan Windom Arkansas State University Intercollegiate athletics has gained a massive amount of popularity over the past few decades. Student-athletes aren’t asking for millions of dollars, they are just asking for enough money to live off of. Television contracts, multi-million dollar coaches, and endorsements are the way to universities and coaches, so it is suitable to provide compensation for the student-athlete who makes these opportunities possible for each university. Proponents of compensating student-athletes for their participation in these revenue-generating sports have been named “pay-for-play” advocates (Haden, 2001, pp.674). “Pay-for-play” brings out the question whether student athletes should receive compensation beyond the tuition, room and board, and books or should they receive zero compensation. The pay-for-play system faces major obstacles such as employment status (workers’ compensation), any federal tax benefits, Title IX, antitrust under the Sherman Act. The first major obstacle that an athlete would face is attaining the employee status. In order for student-athletes to receive additional compensation for their participation in inter-collegiate athletics, they must be recognized as employees of the university (Haden, 2001, pp.674). To follow along with employment status, the pay-for-play advocates encounter additional obstacles in their quest to compensate the...

Words: 1303 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Paying College Athletes

...ANTHEM QUESTIONS Chapter I – Response 1 In a well-organized paragraph, describe the society in which Anthem is set. Some areas to consider are the political structure, degree of technology, social relationships, quality of life, and education. ALSO comment on the following: ➢ Would you want to live in this society? Explain why or why not. ➢ How would your teachers react if you had Equality’s “curse”? ➢ Why do Equality’s teachers disapprove of his quick mind? Chapter II – Response 2 . Re-read the account of Liberty 5-3000 on or around page 38. Which character traits are revealed in this brief description? . Find several examples of the ways in which this society tries to obliterate each individual’s mind (and self!) by quashing personal choices, desires, and values. . Of the whole range of feelings possible to man (joy, excitement, anger, embarrassment, etc.) why is fear the prevalent emotion in this society? Explain the following terms-- WHAT do each of these terms symbolize? If you think about it, they are easy to label. The Great Truth, the Unmentionable Times, the Uncharted Forest, the Evil Ones, the Great Rebirth Chapter III – Response 3 Clearly, up to this point and beyond, Ayn Rand intended Equality to stand out from his “brothers.” Explain how she accomplishes this by contrasting Equality’s physical qualities and character traits to those of his fellow men. . What...

Words: 937 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Philosophy of Paying College Athletes

...One of the most debated topics across all Division I colleges nationwide is whether or not college athletes should be compensated for their impact on the revenue of the school from sports. Many schools call sports the “front porch” of their campuses, bringing in the bulk of their revenue, creating nearly free advertising, and attracting students that would otherwise not attend their school. A 2009 court case brought this issue to light when a former college player sued the NCAA and EA Games for using his name in a video game and not paying royalties. The case is headed towards an NCAA payout, and many athletes are joining the plaintiff side as allowed by courts, as their names were used as well.1 Although this event may seem like justice for college athletes, it does not satisfy their right to be paid while attending school. There are many suggestions mentioned in an article by Time Magazine, but each includes contradictions and ethical problems that cannot be overlooked. From a philosophical perspective, compensating college athletes would be unethical and I think we can see this by examining the impact and a few theories. The article from Time Magazine is completely supportive of paying the students, and mentions that not every school would participate, only the 60 or so schools in the power conferences. Within those 60, only basketball and football would be paying players with the exception of schools to pay other sports or star players who have a great impact. 1 My fundamental...

Words: 1464 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

The Importance Of Paying College Athletes Paid

...you ever wondered how much money professional athletes make annually? What about college athletes? There is not one college football player that is being paid right now. This is a problem because it is taking up their time that they need to use towards education and jobs. By paying all of the professional football players it will give them money for their life outside of school football if they do not make it to the NFL. Most college football players do not make it to the NFL leaving them nowhere because there education is poor and they do not have any money.Businesses won't hire them because they have not specialized in a subject such as business. The average professional athlete in America makes between $1.9 million and $5.15 million...

Words: 655 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

The Importance Of Paying College Athletes Get Paid

...body from injury, working extra hard to make you a better player and you are not making a penny but someone else is. If you are an NCAA athlete this is what happens to you. Being to play any sort of college sport makes you a more elite athlete then most people. Imagine how many people played your sport in high school and now you play in college and they don’t. Now comes the long-term argument; should college athletes get paid? Obviously there are two sides for this argument, yes they should get paid and no they should not. I think college athletes should get paid, I think it would help them financially and it would...

Words: 1011 - Pages: 5