College athletes deserved to be paid due to the billions of dollars they generate for the NCAA. College sports has become one of the largest sources of entertainment in America. Athletes represent the school that they attend while millions pay to watch them play. The athletes never see any of the money that they are responsible for generating. Coaches, athletics directors, and trainers are all paid to work for the school but the athletes performing on the field do not. The NCAA claims to be a non profit but is worth over 10 billion dollars. College sports has changed into a multi billion dollar industry and we need to change how we treat college athletes accordingly. 

The NCAA has become one of the largest non profits in America. College football and basketball generate billions of dollars every year. However, the NCAA claims to be a non profit while enjoying the large profits gained off of these two major sports. Also, the NCAA is one of the few legal monopolies left in the United States. This means that they have complete control over college football without any other competition. These two factors make the NCAA very unfair and help make paying college athletes seem like a very real option. The NCAA claims to be helping college sports as a non profit organization but is earning billions of dollars that are wasted away.  Paying college athletes would also help eliminate several other problems with college sports. 

High school recruiting has become a major business in America. Athletes have started to receive offers from major colleges in middle school. High school games are getting put on television and gyms are sold out to watch top recruits. The development of the amateur athletic union has made college recruitment nation wide. The AAU holds tournaments across the country where teams go to play in front of college scouts. I played AAU in high school and played in several tournaments where the nations top recruits played. Coaches from across the country gather in a small gym to watch kids play. National signing day is televised on ESPN. Top recruits are worth millions to a the college that they will eventually play for. The growth of college athletics has changed high school sports. 

The one and done has become a trend in college sports. Five star recruits for college basketball and football enter college with out the goal of finishing.  Athletes come to college knowing that they will only stay the one year that is required and then go pro. They do not care about the academic portion of college at all and this leads to several problems. Many division one athletes come from troubled backgrounds. This will make athletes turn pro when they should not because they need money to support there family. If they were given money while in college, they could earn a degree and if they are not able to make it playing professional sports they could use there degree to get a job. Giving college athletes some form of finical compensation for the work they do for the university would help the student athlete in many ways. 

Many college athletes gain nothing by playing college sports and have the talent to go straight to the pros. However, they are required to go to school and remain an amateur athlete. An amateur athlete is an athlete that performs his sport with no finical incentive. The NCAA has been challenged several times over whether or not college athletes should remain amateurs. The line of NCAA football and basketball video games brought several issues into light. The games had every college team with players that resembled the athletes that played during that year. Several college athletes became very upset because the game became extremely popular and the NCAA took a cut of the profits. However the athletes which were the most important part of the game gained nothing. The game did not use players names, instead they used there likeness. This led to several law suits and eventually the game line had to be shut down. This was when the talk of paying college athletes first began. 

Changing the system to pay college athletes would be very challenging. Giving college athletes a salary would be challenging because taxes and they would have to pay there own tuition because they would be considered employees. I believe that they money that the college earns off of sports should be divided and distributed to the players. An allowance would allow the players to live comfortable and would make going to college a better experience. Giving college athletes a set amount of money every month would benefit them in many ways. Also using a salary system would not work because they would not be considered students any more. Paying college athletes would improve athletes grades as well. The title 9 act passed in 1972 required that all college sports receive the same amount of scholarships. Legally all college athletes would have to be paid equally due to this act. This is unrealistic because the only college sports that have a very large profit are college basketball and college football. This should not prohibit athletes that are making money for the NCAA and there school to boot be paid. If college athletes were to be paid this law would have to be changed.

College sports are a large time commitment which causes several problems. Athletes are not able to focus on school as much as a regular student. Most athletes work to have a source of income during college. This leaves very little time for athletes to focus on schoolwork. Adding an allowance to athletes would allow them to focus on academics. Academics should come first for a student athlete. Athletes would be able to focus more school and perform better on the field. College athletes are given full scholarships for there ability to perform there sport. If they do not perform well they lose there scholarship. However if they are failing school, the school will take action to help them get there grades higher. Athletics have become the first priority for student athletes due to the importance of good sports so a university. Successful sports programs has began to influence where students 

There are many arguments against paying college athletes. Some people believe that going to college for free is enough compensation for playing a sport. Also, athletes get to enjoy many other advantages over normal students such as free traveling, clothes, and easier schoolwork. However these advantages do not compensate athletes for the amount of work they do.  Athletes sacrifice there body for the university and earn the NCAA billions of dollars. They deserve fair compensation and I believe that a monthly allowance would be the best way to do it. 

I believe that college athletes should be able to sign endorsement deals also. The school would not lose anything by allowing endorsement deals. The athletes have the opportunity make money and built there brand. This benefits both the athlete and the university. The NCAA makes 814 billion dollars annually. There would not be a NCAA without the players but they are not allowed to see any of the money they are responsible for producing. I believe the most fair way to change the system to pay college athletes would be to take 25 percent of the money made and divide it up and give it to the players. Also, have the universities spend some of the money that they make on paying there players. Starters would get paid more than bench players and bench players would get pay more than redshirts. Everybody understands that athletes should be paid because college sports have become so popular but changing the system would be very challenging. Another issue is that some college sports do not make any money for the university. The swim team produces no income but the football team produces millions of dollars a year. This is the same at the school that I attend. Going to a soccer game is completely free and you just walk in, however going to a football game requires spending points that you earn by going to other sporting events. If you were to pay college athletes you would need to pay them all. This is challenging because certain sports gain nothing while the two main sport, college football and basketball, generate millions of dollars. Change is usually very challenging but that does not mean we should allow the system to continue being unfair. 

College sports have grown into one of the largest source of entertainment in the country. The BIG 10 conference was just offered a new 2.6 billion dollar television deal. The development of these new deals has led to more money being involved in college sports than ever. Over the past several decades college sports have changed drastically. College sports originated as a way for schools to compete against each other and for students to cheer for. As soon as college athletics began to become televised it changed everything. Millions of people spend there Saturdays during the fall watching college football. There are television shows that are only focused on college football. Tickets to a big game will cost several hundred dollars. This has made college football one of the largest markets in America. I believe that college sports will continue to grow and produce even more money. This will lead to several changes in the way we view college sports. The amount of money in college sports has increased so much that has had different effects on different industries across America. 

The legality of paying college sports has changed over time. People have challenged the NCAA right to have complete control over college sports. The Sherman antitrust act was passed in 1890 and was passed to make sure that monopolies did not dominate the American economy. The NCAA is one of the few government sanctioned monopolies. Several court case have taken place. Ed O’Bannon sued the NCAA over the amount of finical help that athletes receive. This case was taken to the supreme court but the supreme court ruled in favor of the NCAA. College athletes would only be able to receive scholarships.  I believe that the NCAA should not be the only entity in control of college sports. I believe that the conferences should control all the teams within each conference. This is better because each conference is different and would allow them to deal with there own problems accordingly. Conferences would be able to use the money they earn to help build up there conference.  In conclusion, the NCAA needs to change the system to pay college athletes or allow the conferences to govern there own teams. 

College sports has developed into a multi billion dollar industry. The athletes deserve to get a portion of the money that they are earning. We are continuing to use a system that is unfair to the athletes involved. Every other party involved in college sports has continued to make more and more money while the ones responsible for the earning the money do not get any. If we are going to allow college sports to continue developing and earning more money we need to change how we treat the players. High school sports have been effected by the growing profits in college sports. Athletes are getting offers to go to college at incredibly young ages because a star athlete generates millions for the college he attends. College sports will continue to grow and develop into a major source of entertainment in America. There are many issues that would need to be solved to allow college athletes to be paid. These problems include changing the Title 9, designing a system to pay the athletes, and figuring out which sports should be paid. The NCAA needs to either be changed or destroyed due to being hypocritical and unfair to the athletes. Conferences should govern there own teams and pay the athletes that are generating billions of dollars for them.  College athletes deserve to be paid fairly for the work that they do for there university. 
