
Yes, I believe that athletes who are successful at the collegiate level deserve to be rewarded.  Compensation for these athletes will further the growth of both the university and student-athletes themselves. This question is very open ended, and seems to become debated more and more each year. Thanks to the split beliefs on this topic, I will have plenty of room to argue with my ideas, while also being able to include a formidable rebuttal, which just gives myself more room to refute this rebuttal's argument.  I am interested in this research question because as a college student who nearly decided to play a sport in college, I believe that there isn't enough compensation for student-athletes expending so much time, energy, and effort into their "second job" behind being a student. Being a current college student has vastly intensified my interest to further research my topic since I am able to comprehend the difficulty involved in having to balance school, a social life and a sport.  This research only further reinforces my values and beliefs.  I firmly believe that hard work deserves a reward and college athletes are working their tails off for very little remuneration.  I also do not believe that those of a higher authority like the NCAA should be allowed to make millions of dollars off students who earn practically nothing back in return.  I have been an athlete nearly my whole life and I can relate to the rigorous schedule that comes with playing a sport.  Often times, student-athletes only have enough time in the day to go to school, do homework, eat, and practice.  This intensive daily life regularly leads to little or no recreation time, which especially as a college student, is very difficult to deal with. I am qualified to write my research paper on this topic due to the fact that I will be intensively researching other qualified sources and then analyzing these resources to form my opinion rather than claiming these ideas as my own.  

The central claim in this article is that even though the NCAA is considered a non-profit organization, they somehow earn over 11 billion dollars a year in annual revenue, yet not one cent was paid out to any college athletes nationwide.  The NCAA earns more money than both the NHL and the NBA combined but the NCAA keeps all of their money rather than paying their athletes.  

The major interest of the article to explain how professional leagues like the NBA are making less money than the financial powerhouse that the NCAA is, yet still paying their players.  Meanwhile many collegiate athletes who spend more time on just their sport than many adults do in a workweek don't receive any compensation while also having to balance out their schoolwork. 

The author Mike Benedykciuk is a sports writer for The Daily Free Press, and has also written articles for other organizations like The New York Times.  Benedykciuk sources lots of credible sources in his article which allows him to make for a stronger argument.

The central claim in this article is that even though the student athletes are the ones doing the work, they aren't earning anything while those who take the money do significantly less work.  The top ten earning colleges in college sports averaged almost 150 million dollars in revenue, yes only averaged giving out 12.4 million dollars in scholarship money.

The major interest of this article is to explain why college students should earn a piece of the pie, especially considering the amount of work they put in so that their colleges can be economically successful.  Values like hard work are questioned in this article, since those doing work aren't getting paid which is highly questionable.  

The author Cork Gaines is the editor for Business Insider's sports page, and has written for 3 other sports pages.  He also graduated from the University of Iowa, and holds a doctorate from Fordham.  Gaines also cites a USA Today graph in his article to further exemplify his ideals.



The central claim in this article is that students are starting to catch wind and understand how much money is really being put into the industry that they are merely pawns in. Coaches in college basketball often make more than NBA coaches, and it simply isn't fair that college coaches are able to be compensated but the players who spend 50 hours a week working for these coaches aren't receiving a penny.

The major interest of this article is to emphasize that although some collegiate sports are simply sports that college athletes participate in, some of these sports like Football and Basketball are clearly just commercial entertainment and take away from fundamental collegiate athletics.

The New York Times is one of the most highly valued newspapers in the world, which makes the article quite credible just by looking at the source.  Author Joe Nocera is a sports business columnist for The Times, and has been for more than 10 years.  


The research question is arguable because nearly everyone has a side in this debate.  There are many aspects of this argument to take into account like ethics, fair treatment, and the integrity of collegiate athletics.  Some agreements that I have found from all my sources is the fact that there is money being pumped into the NCAA, yet for some reason none coming back out to those earning it.  The main discrepancy between articles however is how to deal with this situation.  There are so many different ways that these student-athletes could be compensated that it is truly difficult to decide which would be most effective.  Seeing different perspectives enables me to think about how I would handle the situation and how others would. This gives me the inspiration to try and find a solution for my research paper that would leave both students and the NCAA happy with the results.  I might revise my research question to focus more on how to solve the problem at hand, rather than how the problem at hand affects those involved. 
