The topic of whether college athletes should be paid or not greatly interests me as a student at University of South Carolina and as a huge NCAA sports fan. This is an increasingly more controversial topic and I believe the student athletes should not be paid any money for playing sport. As a student, I feel as if college athletes are already being paid with reduced or free tuition, along with free meal plans, housing and more. If universities started to pay these athletes, it would take much more money from the school itself which would affect myself as a student along with thousands of others and also staff members of the university including teachers. It is completely unnecessary to pay college athletes with the universities money. If they feel that they truly deserve to be paid, they should focus on making it legal to accept endorsements and be paid for auto graphs. My personal experience regarding this topic is not that I am a college athlete, but on the other side as a college student who pays tuition, housing and for meal plans. I think that it is unfair to pay other students of the university for playing sports with the money that other students and I pay in order to attend school. This qualifies me to write about the subject because student athletes being paid directly affects me so I deserve to have a voice regarding the issue.

The first source I used was an article on thesportsjournal.org called "Point/Counterpoint: Paying college athletes. Article covers many reasons of why and why not to pay college athletes and supports them with actual facts and also opinions of both of the authors. The article explains both benefits to both sides of paying or not paying college athletes and consequences of each. Major values at stake in the article are the universities that could pay athletes and the athletes themselves. Many students and teachers at universities take interest in this topic because it directly affects them. Also many college sports fans are interested because they believe that if athletes are paid, it will strip college sports of the pureness of playing to win and instead playing for money. This article is credible because both authors have degrees and the information comes from thesportjournal.org which is a nonprofit organization. The first author Dennis Johnson has a Doctorate of Education and the other author John Acquaviva has a Ph. D

The second source I used was an online article I found written on the CBS sports website. The article is based around the information of a survey conducted in 2014 and is called "NCAA expert: 69 percent of public opposes paying college players". The articles main points are that in surveys they proved that fans are less likely to watch college sports if the athletes are paid. Also, they claim that more of the public would rather see athletes remain unpaid. Major values at stake in this article are the universities and college sports fans. They found in surveys that the more players are paid, the more people will discontinue watching college sports, resulting in a huge loss of market to universities. The author of this article is Jon Soloman, CBS Sport's national college football writer. He is credible because he has plenty of experience in the world of college sports. This article is also unbiased because he is using valid research information in his article and explains it rather than stating his opinions about the subject.

My third source is an article called "Privilege, not job: College athletes should not be paid". It is an article that explains the difference between employees and athletes, and why they shouldn't be paid. The article explains how the athletes are called student-athletes for a reason because they attend higher level education usually for less than a dime, which is already paying them enough. The article also explains that athletes should recognize playing sports at a school as a privilege because many people don't get the opportunity. The people at stake in this article are the student athletes. They hold stakes in their education and money, whether they truly deserve to get paid for all their hard work or that they should accept what they already have and play for the love of the game. The author of this article Kate Murphy wrote this article for Elon's student news organization and has some credibility as a writer but not much because of her absent background on college sports. This article also has some bias because it is very opinionated about why college athletes should not be paid.

My research question is very arguable because there are many different solutions and answers that can be given in response. There is also plenty of information that can support any answers to my research question. Many people agree and say that college athletes should not be paid because universities already give them enough money in scholarships. Many common disagreements I have seen through my research is that they should be paid because most college athletes are misled and misguided into thinking they will leave college well educated and with a degree. Many people think money should compensate for loss of a full education, even though many players already go to school for free. I think that I will keep searching for more sources and facts to support my claim when I revise my research.

