Over the last few decades, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) has been in a constant feud with the student athletes who participate in their activities. The student athletes are beginning to understand their worth and they have noticed how much the NCAA depends on them. The NCAA is consistently hiding behind the amateur defense, claiming that the athletes are students first and athletes second. The NCAA asserts these claims and positions, meanwhile they are making millions of dollars in endorsements and television contracts, and the athletes do not see a single dime of it. It is time for the NCCA to reform their system of compensation for student athletes based on the fact that these division one athletes bring in millions of dollars for their university, spend countless hours a week dedicated to their sports, and are denied the ability to make money off their talents and name recognition.

The people who are against paying college athletes need to take a step back and look at the facts. These young adults who compete at one of the highest levels of competition in the world are generating millions of dollars in revenue for a corporation that is supposed to help them succeed. The NCAA is nothing without the thousands of division one athletes that compete in collegiate competitions. In an article from the Santa Clara Law Department, Mike Gilleran provides an adamant amount of statistics and insight on how much revenue the NCAA is taking in each year. The NCAA generates over $750 million every March alone, during the division one men's basketball championships (Gilleran). After taking in all this money, still not one single athlete who helped generate this money through their own blood, sweat, tears, and hard work will ever see a single penny. The public opinion for the pay for play system is slowly shifting in favor of the student athletes, a 2014 poll held by Reason-Rupe stated that around 64% of Americans believe that the student athletes deserve compensation for their efforts and that the men's basketball players deserve a cut of the $750 million generated from the March Madness Tournament (Garcia). The NCAA will hide behind the fact that they offer scholarships to the athletes, cut their tuition, and provide an outlet to higher education, but still even that is not even a fraction of what the NCAA stands to make on these young athletes talents. An article by Alexis Garcia breaks down the fiscal amount of what an individual division one college athlete is "worth" to a university. She references an interview the she held with Ellen Staurowsky, a sport management professor at Drexel University, and states that it is estimated that a college football player across all universities is worth approximately $110,000 each (Garcia). The NCAA obviously has the money to pay the student athletes, but the problem is they do not want to solve the issue they have created. Why would they want to reform a program that maximizes their revenue and allows them to not pay a single soul for the entertainment the athletes attract? If they provide a system similar to the National Football League (NFL) or the National Basketball Association (NBA) they would lose money. Statistically, division one men's college football and men's college basketball alone generate over $6 billion of revenue a year and are considered the money makers to the NCAA, This $6 billion is much greater than what the NBA generates each year (Nocera). This is evidence that the NCAA is converting from a non-profit organization, to a big business commercial enterprise that is bloodthirsty for maximizing revenue. The NCAA fails to recognize the fact that the reason they are generating more and more money every year is not because they are doing something right, without the student athletes participation in the competitions put on by the NCAA, the NCAA would seize to exist. Metaphorically the NCAA is a massive Fortune 500 company with thousands of employee's, the only thing separating them from an actual company is that the NCAA refuses to pay their best employees, the student athletes. The ethics behind the NCAA's explanations and reasoning are ridiculous, and they only get worse. 

The average full time employee is required to work 40 hours per week, and they will get paid for all 40 hours. It is estimated that collegiate student athletes spend greater than 40 hours a week participating in their sport alone. A study from a UNC Lawsuit filed back in 2010 states that the average division one football play (FBS) will spend 43.5 hours a week at practice, participating in weight lifting, or studying in the film room, etc. (Jacobs). On top of that, students are required by most universities to take at least 15 credit hours of classes each semester, and it is said for every hour of class there is in a semester, it is best to study at least 2 hours a week for that one hour, which adds up to 30 hours of studying a week on top of the 15 hours of class and on top of the 40+ hours of football related activities. This is a simple break down of an average collegiate student athlete's day-to-day schedule. It is very clear that these athletes lives are very busy and barely have time for their academics, what they also don't have time for is a job to create income for themselves. Unlike other college students who can work and make a living on a part time job during their free time, college athletes do not have this opportunity. Looking at it from this perspective, an individual may recognize that absurdity that these student athletes are working what seems 3x more than an employee with a full time job, and still receive no pay. What if a company started making their employees work 55+ hour weeks and then on top of that take away the salary the employees were getting paid for their 40 hour weeks? The company would be shut down for ethical violations and the owner of the company would most likely end up in jail for neglecting the employees. In retrospect, is this not the same exact thing the NCAA is doing to all student athletes across the country? Forcing them to work countless hours after countless hours, risking their health and well-being, denying them the opportunity to make money. This is the reason why the NCAA is liable and needs to compensate the athletes that are being forced to create revenue for no profit. 

Even if the NCAA wasn't commanding enough, they set hundreds of restrictions on the student athletes which are clearly unjust. An engineering student is allowed to sell their newly created app to a company and receive compensation for his or her efforts, but if a division one football player signs a photo of himself for a die hard, passionate fan, his career is now over. This athlete has worked hard his entire life to earn the recognition from others, and his talent is what has got him there, but he is not allowed to market himself. The NCAA will not allow the student athletes to make money from their own personal success. Meanwhile the NCAA is selling college jerseys implying that they are the "big names" jerseys by putting their number on the jersey, because putting their name on the back would require the NCAA to compensate the athletes, and why would the NCAA ever want to do that? Going back to Johnny Manziel, after his Heisman winning season, Texas A&M saw an increase amount of jersey sales, specifically the #2 edition jersey (Reilly). A coincidence maybe that Johnny Manziel wore #2 while playing quarterback at Texas A&M during the same season. All this revenue coming in from jersey and t-shirt sales, and Johnny Manziel never saw a single cent. He was denied the ability to profit off his own personal success because the NCAA would ban him and single handedly ruin his career if he ever took a single dollar. How is this justifiable? The answer is simple, it is not. The NCAA has manipulated the system to practice a modern day form of slavery, exhausting the college athletes and restricting them to make money, all for their own monetary gain. Ken Reed produces an interesting solution to the issue. Reed states that the best way to reform the system is to practice the Olympic model of compensation (Reed). He claims the NCAA should allow the college athletes to benefit from their fame and likeliness, just like every other college student (Reed).  Again questioning the ethical ideologies of the NCAA, Reed quotes a sport and culture writer named Patrick Hruby. Hruby reiterates the fact that it is morally wrong and anti-American to have all the restrictions the NCAA imposes on income for college athletes. They have worked very hard to earn this recognition, they should be allowed to profit from it, just like a musician student is able to profit from a performance. 

There will always be the critics who will deny the fact that a student athletes deserve a single cent. They justify this in many different ways, one the athletes are receiving free education, they get a platform to perform on at one of the highest levels of competition, and their biggest argument of all is that these student athletes are amateurs, not professionals. The NCAA defines amateurism as "In the collegiate model of sports, the young men and women competing on the field or court are students first, athletes second. (NCAA)" The dictionary defines amateurism as "the practice, quality, or character of an amateur or amateurish performance. (Dictionary)" It is very evident that these athletes are not giving "amateurish performances" and the NCAA knows better than anyone that these athletes are not generating an "amateurish" amount of revenue. So why does the NCAA treat these dominant athletes with such a degrading title. They justify this by claiming the athletes are students first and athletes second. Although as discussed earlier the student athletes barely have a moment to breathe let alone be a normal college student. When it comes down to it, the statement, that college student athletes are students before they are athletes, is just flat out false. A college athlete would never miss a game because they have an essay due, a college athlete would never miss a practice to get some extra studying in, but college athletes are forced to miss class to travel for competitions, and miss assignments because they have weightlifting at 6:00am. No matter what the NCAA tells themselves, they are just blowing smoke over a real issue in the college sports realm. Overall the NCAA's argument of denying the compensation for student athletes is hidden deep in the roots of the greed and self-interest of the ones a top of the totem pole (Horace). The NCAA is always thinking of themselves first, disregarding the best interest of the athletes, and universities that make up the athletic association. 

College student athletes are some of the busiest, hardest working, most dedicated people

in the country. They never take a break, constantly striving to become better than they were before, always improving from one day to the next. The NCAA needs to recognize the fact that these athletes are not puppets, they deserve what they are fighting for, and compensation is necessary no matter what the form. The NCAA is profiting too much money and being so manipulative that this issue cannot be overlooked. A solution is needed, one for the student athletes who are being mistreated, and for the sake of college athletics as a whole, because if a solution is not found, it may bring an end to the NCAA before we know it.

