In the United States today, there are over 460,000 student athletes participating in collegiate sports and millions of viewers and fans all over the country. These athletes go through the same academic hardships during their toughest educational years as well as having multiple practices and sporting events each week. These athletes receive scholarships depending on their athletic ability as well as any academic scholarships they receive from the school they attend. Along with this they receive performance gear, amazing experiences, and thousands of fans cheering them on every week. In today's society, the big question is 'Do these athletes receive enough for what they put out'? This has become a growing issue since the late 20th century and many want answers. With the dozens of pros and cons this argument brings forth, the points that can not be ignored include the millions of dollars in revenue the NCAA brings in from these sports, the constant fear of injury, and the education the athlete receives. Each of these topics have an opposing argument towards the payment of collegiate athletes; however, none weigh greater against the positive points of this argument. 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA, was created in 1905 and since then, the government of this corporation has been changing constantly. Today, the NCAA follows a formal constitution and bylaws that were voted on by members. Marc Edelman, a law professor wrote a short treatise on "Why the NCAA's No-Pay Rules Violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act". In his writing he quotes the principle of amateurism as the NCAA sees it, "student-athletes shall be amateurs in intercollegiate sport, and their participation shall be motivated by education and by the physical, mental and social benefits to be derived" and that the bylaws set by the NCAA limit the amount of financial aid student-athletes receive (Edelman, Marc). The NCAA has so many rules set in place where nowadays, Joe Nocera from The New York Times states, "Any student athlete who accepts an unapproved, free hamburger from a coach, or even a fan, is in violation of N.C.A.A. rules." (Nocera, Joe). Numerous coaches have been fined and athletic program penalized due to student-athletes receiving benefits beyond what the NCAA permits. Michelle Greenbaum used an example of this in her article, "Behind the Scenes of College Football Recruitment". She discussed how in 2010 quarterback, Cam Newton, was allegedly asking for money from two schools that were recruiting him (Greenbaum, Michelle).  Since this was never proven, the athletic program and quarterback was able to play. To avoid these types of situations, the athletes should be compensated for the greatness of their athletic ability. 

Athletes are only as young, lean and limber for so long until their bodies can not withstand the pressures of athletic events any longer. This point in an athlete's life can come from the body being exhausted itself or due to a career ending injury through their regular athletic practices or games. This puts a greater need on the athlete to have insurance in case this were to happen. Certain colleges may give some student athletes an assurance of a scholarship if an injury is to occur. Douglas A. Kleiber from the University of Georgia and Stephen C. Brock from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine conducted an experiment to figure out what a career ending injury would mean for five to ten years down the road. The experiment included 425 athletes, 54 of them having career-ending injuries (Kleiber, Douglas A., and Stephen C. Brock.). They measured the athlete's current life satisfaction and self esteem as well as examining their academic life outside of their respected sport. The results showed that those with career-ending injuries were more likely to have a lower life satisfaction than the other athletes. This shows that athletes are putting the rest of their lives on the line and deserve to be recognized for all that they do. 

A long with stress put just on the body itself, there is a great amount of stress put on players and their mental abilities. In December 1996, Notre Dame, a university placed in the Atlantic Coastal Conference with an accrediting sports program, was playing in its last regular season game before post-season games. The game depended on an extra point which was to be kicked by Notre Dame's placekicker, this point was missed and the teams went into overtime where Notre Dame eventually lost. The winner of this game was to go to the Alliance Bowl game which would have meant an $8-million-dollar bonus for the school (Zimbalist). All of the pressure of this loss, the game and the loss of major income for the school, was placed on the shoulders of a placekicker. These athletes are the main attractions for most schools and most of the income the school receives, goes to better facilities. For major athletes to become the players that they are today most of them had to be trained by the best which was not cheap for their parents. Many athletes just want to repay their parents for all that they did to help their athlete get to where they are today. By allowing players to be paid, this would help certain players that may not make it to the next level repay their parents some even if it is just a little. This goes a long way for parents as they put everything on the line to help their child succeed and to finally see their son or daughter make their dreams come true is the greatest feeling. However, the greatest feeling is making your parents proud, so these athletes would be able to repay their parents this way as well as making them so proud.

Many argue that these sports receive the income and use it to upgrade their facilities which are a major factor in recruiting purposes. An aspiring athlete goes on an official visit to see a universities' state of the art facilities and equipment along with how their program is improving so that they can keep the upgrades coming in the future. According to an article written by David Sirota and Andrew Perez, these upgrades for universities such as Clemson University in South Carolina include a new athletic village that will feature laser tag and mini golf (Sirota, David, and Andrew Perez). Schools such as the University of Texas and Texas A&M spent millions of dollars on stadium revenues (Sirota, David, and Andrew Perez). As universities spend more on their athletics so that more players will come play for them and so that more people will attend their games, the athletes that are the main attraction are barely getting anything. 

A major issue brought from the opposing arguments come from the discussion of which sports receive how much from the NCAA. Along with choosing which sports receive income, does each player receive the same pay and if not, how do coaches/universities decide which players get paid. Many authors have written that the sports that bring in the most income deserve the most money for their players. With this point, they have written that the players that make the big plays deserve the most money. If these players, like most, have hopes of reaching higher levels in sports they deserve income in case one of these big plays cause their careers to end due to injuries. Michael Wilbon from the well-known ESPN show called, Pardon the Interruption, spoke on the fact that each player is needed for a team so each player would receive some payment just some more than others based on what they bring to the team. This plan would be similar to the NFL and how they pay their athletes, just a junior version. He believes that football and men's basketball players should be paid and the other sports should not because of the revenue they make (Wilbon, Michael.). He states that it's "capitalism: not everything is equal and not everything is fair" (Wilbon, Michael).

The NCAA has over 460,000 student athletes included in 24 sports, the revenue they receive goes mostly towards the most successful teams and the coaches along with them. Why not do the same for the players of those schools. Based on the school's income through sports, the sport that brings in most of the money should receive a larger sum of it. This sport should then be able to decide which athletes receive the most. Athletes that receive major awards such as MVP or honorable mention means that they made the biggest impact in the game played. These players should receive more than just a trophy as they have done so much for a team and that program. These players may have just had a great game that one time and if they are seen playing horrible the next game they could be subject to getting benched which could result in them not being able to reach a higher level in the sports world. Michael Wilbon also discusses this topic as "If someone were to give A.J. Green, currently a wide receiver for the Cinncinati Bengals, $750 or even $2,500 for his Georgia Bulldogs jersey, fine, good. If one of his teammates, a tackle, can fetch only $50 for his jersey, then it'll be a good marketing lesson for both of them. It's called supply and demand, and if both men are fortunate enough to reach the NFL it'll be a lesson worth learning because that dynamic will exist their entire careers. If a soccer player can't get a dime for his jersey, well, there's a realization in that, too." (Wilbon, Michael).

Another issue from the opposing side questions how the different division levels of colleges would be compensated. This goes back to the point of depending on how much income these schools receive from their sports depends on how much each school and eventually player receives. If an athlete was not good enough to make it to the Division I level, they do not deserve the same pay as one of those athletes. This is already seen as athletes that play for Division three schools do not receive any scholarship money, it is as if they are playing on a club team at a larger institution. Every year the men's basketball national championship brings in nearly $800 million a year from television contracts (Nocera, Joe). This money is split up and divided throughout the divisions but most of it goes towards those schools actually eligible to play (Gregory, Sean). It all comes down to a player's worth. Some players are worth more during their time in college as they are younger and able to withstand more with their bodies. 

Some could argue that these players already receive income through scholarships that let the athlete go to a great college for free or almost free. At a division three school, the athletes are there for the school and athletics on the side, division two is where athletics and schoolwork are on an even level, but at a division one school, it is said that school comes first but many athletes take courses that are easier during their sport season and their tougher classes during the off season. These athletes during season may have several away games per week which cause for an abnormal amount of stress put on a student athlete. This causes athletes to reschedule many exams on top of their many practices and upcoming games to come. This makes being a student-athlete less about fun and more about getting your two jobs done and doing both equally well. With this much stress, a student-athlete deserves more than just scholarship money.

 Although student athletes do receive large amounts of free merchandise and better amenities than regular students, this is not enough for some students at certain universities. If athletes were able to be paid for sponsoring certain merchandise, this would lead to a steady income. These athletes are constantly representing numerous clothing lines and advertising without getting any pay. By paying these athletes, it would be more fair and more of an incentive for athletes to wear certain products. Clothing lines such as Adidas, Nike and Under Armor have major contracts with different universities where their players are given large amounts of merchandise from the specific clothing lines. This is free advertisement for these companies without compensation for the modeling persons. This is in no way fair to the players because they may only be able to sell the merchandise for so much while the companies sell their products in bulk. This clothing is also usually only athletic equipment and some athletes may not need this equipment for long because their career may end after only four years. Along with these athletes advertising for major companies, a big problem is them accepting money for autographs. There have been numerous reports of this but Sean Gregory from Time magazine writes about Heisman winner, Johnny Manziel. Johnny Manziel was all over the papers during his time as a college athlete and now even more as he was the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. The issue was that Johnny Manziel signed autographs for trinket brokers and whether or not he was paid for them was unknown (Gregory, Sean). Due to this incident, Texas A&M's 2013 season began with their star player sitting the bench (Gregory, Sean). "Though the NCAA and the school determined that Manziel had not personally accepted money when he signed autographs earlier this year, they nonetheless slapped Manziel on the wrist for failing to realize that trinket brokers would surely profit from his signature", with thousands of these accusations every year for players, that question remains 'Are we paying these players enough' (Gregory, Sean). If a simple autograph is worth so much for trinket brokers and so many others, shouldn't the athletes be worth more to their specific university. 

After weighing the dozens of pros and cons this argument brings forth, the points that can not be ignored include the millions of dollars in revenue the NCAA brings in from these sports, the constant fear of injury, and the education the athlete receives. With this argument becoming more of an issue each year, the result is clear that collegiate student-athletes deserve more than what they are receiving. Whether the athletes are declared as workers for the universities or just receive more scholarship money as a whole, these two ideas would go a long way for both the athletes that will go on to play at the professional level and those that will go on into the working world. These athletes are worth so much to their fans that support them every game, but these athletes are only receiving so much awards from their schools. It is time to take action so that less athletes are getting in trouble and are more focused on their athletic and school work. These ideas will take time for everyone in the NCAA to come to a consensus but hopefully it will be done sooner rather than later. 

