Since the first college football kickoff in 1869, numerous rules and regulations of the game have changed. What started out as a game between friends that not many people knew about soon transformed into a multi billion dollar industry. In today’s society people of all race, gender, age and more come together to consume one of the most popular sports in the world. One rule of the game that has not changed since 1869 was the idea of paying athletes. Colleges in 1869 could not afford to pay athletes, because the sport was not that popular. Fast forward 148 years and the football players still are not being paid. So why should college football players be paid? College football players should be paid for numerous moral, ethical, and economical reasons.

The most obvious reason to pay college football players would be because they would get what they deserve. In a recently published article, Business Insider estimated the average value of a player playing for the Texas Longhorns would be about six hundred seventy thousand per year (Gaines, 2016). The school itself brought in one hundred eighty three point five million dollars in revenue during the 2016 season. Although Texas might be at the top of revenue amongst division one football programs the staggering numbers still speak for themselves. Not all football teams are created equal, and not all of them bring in millions in revenue. Although 24 FBS teams brought in over 100 million in revenue, seventy three percent of teams brought in less than fifty million. People might then ask, how would you pay the athletes? How would the profit be split amongst the players? The answer to that question is that Athletes should be paid a portion of what they bring their school. It should be a performance based pay set by the coaches. Starters should make more money than walk ons, and at the same time a walk on at Alabama would probably make more than a starter on a division three football team. Going back to the reason to pay the football players is that they treat college football as a job, and are expected to put over 30 hours per week. Football activities dominate the schedule of a student athlete.

College football players have a filled schedule on a daily basis. Especially in the power five conference (which includes the ACC, SEC, BIG 10, BIG 12, AND PAC 12), it seems like players are playing football as a job and not as a sport for fun. The University of Florida holds their players to high standards. A player will typically wake up at 6 am, Have class from 7- 11:30 A.M., Football activities from there until 6, and then eat and study for the rest of the night. That is about 12 hours of non stop schoolwork and football. Lots of non-student athletes  have trouble balancing their schedule without a sport to worry about. It is important to note that student athletes typically take the same amount of classes that normal students do. With all the school work it is hard to imagine how they have enough time to focus on playing football at a high level. After looking at the time these athletes put in, it is hard to not consider this a job. 

Because college football players have such a packed schedule there is not time during the day athletes to have a part time occupation. A lot of college football players come from unwealthy backgrounds so they do not have much spending money to begin with. Although the athletic scholarships cover meal plans it does not mean the athletes do not ever go hungry. Former UCONN basketball star Shabazz Napier was interviewed in 2014 about the road to the final four. When asked about nutrition he said ““We do have hungry nights that we don’t have enough money to get food in. Sometimes money is needed. I don’t think you should stretch it out to hundreds of thousands of dollars for playing, because a lot of times guys don’t know how to handle themselves with money. I feel like a student athlete. Sometimes, there’s hungry nights where I’m not able to eat, but I still gotta play up to my capabilities.”(Sherman, 2014) . It is astounding that one of the best college basketball players of his time might not have enough to eat sometimes. Even though he is going hungry he was still held accountable to perform on the court. The leaders of the school eat filet mignon from the money Napier makes them, but Shabazz meanwhile goes hungry the night of his triple double game. Shabazz also brought up a good point when saying how he did not expect six figures for players, but just enough to eat and buy things that they need in college. It is shameful the people that are in the hierarchy of the program are the ones who keep all of the money the players make. Where do the millions of dollars in revenue go anyways?

Above it was mentioned how the University of Texas brought in one hundred eighty three point five million dollars of revenue in 2016. Where does all of the revenue go? First of all they have to pay off their bills for athletic facilities, scholarship fees, travel, coach salaries, etc. After all expenses they will still have roughly seventy percent of revenue left to use. At this point money will then be transferred to other sports programs which do not make as much money. For example, the women's basketball team at Texas brought in only one point seven million dollars in revenue in 2016. Evidently, this is not enough revenue to keep the power five program going resulting in the athletic department detracting money from the football program.  With the millions of dollars left over, there is no other plausible place to put it except in the athletes pockets. That money should be the money that goes to the players. It is justifiable for some of the revenue to go towards fees and salaries. It is evident that schools must pay more money in the form of scholarships.

 Although football players are ‘paid’ in the way of scholarship, it only amounts to a small fraction of revenue the football program brings in. According to Business Insider, the average top tier football programs only spend ten point two percent of their revenue on athletic scholarships (Gaines, 2016). Considering the athletes are the only reason these programs make money that percentage seems low. BI goes on to suggest that the football staff is paid about three point five times more money than the athletes. In 2013 Texas spent ten million dollars on athletic scholarships, but a whopping fifty-five  million on coaching. They also spent twenty-five point one million dollars on renovating buildings and such. 

The documentary $chooled gives adds to the fact of why college football players should be paid. This film featured multiple advocates for pay for play such as Former NFL pro bowler and Tennessee running back Arian Foster . Foster claimed that college football players are the modern day versions of indentured servants (Gerfrid, 2013). An indentured servant was someone whom was offered food, a place to stay, without pay in exchange for working. College football players do not get paid, but they get food and a place to sleep. It is hard to not see the correlation between these two terms. The documentary also went into detail of the UNC academic fraud allegations. 

Since the late 1990’s UNC has not been very truthful about their players and their academics. Although people look to UNC as an academically elite school, athletes have gone there who are not close to intellectually qualified. As most people know there are regulations set by the NCAA for players to make certain grades to remain eligible. To help reach their goal ‘paper classes’ would be offered to athletes (Gerfrid, 2013). Paper classes were online classes with no real professor and they did not have to do anything except turn in a short essay at the end of the semester. Almost every single class was an automatic A or B for the athletes. The university went through over a decade of legal turmoil but ultimately UNC was able to get away with the allegations against these paper classes. The point is, if a student athlete is a student first, why would these easy classes be offered to athletes. The NCAA says the players get paid in the form of education, but what type of education are they actually getting. For top tier football programs, they often travel for big conference football games. A lot of times these games take place on days of exams. The players are missing an awful lot of time in the classroom for their sport. No matter how many study halls athletes are required to attend at some point they have to sacrifice potential gain in the classroom for gain on the gridiron.  It is evident that the paper classes and time off from class offered nothing to aid the learning process of the athlete so it leads to the question, how much does the athletic department actually care about the education their athletes are getting? The fact is obviously they do not care very much about their schoolwork, they want them to perform on the field. Yet these same officials tell the media that they care about the education of the students? It all does not add up. This is just another reason to pay college football players, because the education is not as valuable as it seems. 

Another pro for paying college football players would be the fact that they might stay in school longer. Most college football players are not talented enough to leave early to go pro, but the ones that do almost always leave whenever they have the chance. The biggest reason a player would leave early would be to keep from injury in college. If a player stayed in college his senior year and got hurt, the chances of going pro at that point would be diminished. Paying college football players would at least give the player a solid reason to stay. The ones that are go enough to go pro early are the ones who bring in more money to the NCAA. It would be mutually beneficial to the NCAA and the players if they were paid and stayed longer, because not only would the players be compensated games would be more competitive with more talent on the field. 

Paying college football players is needed also because of how they give their bodies up to the sport on a daily basis. Football is a sport filled with injury. As a football player you never know when it might be your last day on the field. When looking at this topic people often reference the story of former TCU running back Kent Waldrep. In 1974, he was playing against the Crimson Tide of Alabama. A normal run play was called. He got tackled on his neck and was taken away by ambulance. The doctors soon told him he was paralyzed and was never going to be able to walk again. As soon as the school found out about the news waldrep was stripped of his scholarships, and the school would not pay for any type of medical treatment. For someone who gave so much to the university it is astounding that he was dropped so easily. The school had no harsh feeling either as they stood their ground in court when Waldrep went there for a settlement (Drape, 1997). The point is, if these athletes are going to risk it all on a daily basis for the school, they should be offered financial compensation or workers compensation for their sacrifices.

Additionally concussions amongst college football players also pose a huge threat to the longevity of career for the athlete. According to Livestrong, as of 2011 thirty-four percent of college football players have been diagnosed with a concussion (Thomas, 2017). Considering that number is closer to fifty percent than zero it is easy to see why concussion prevention has become a household football topic in recent years. College football players do whatever they can to get to the next level, but none of it matters if they can not stay healthy. If a player goes down with multiple concussions in his college career it might keep him from going pro. Washington Redskins tight end Jordan Reed is one of the best in the game. In college though he suffered two diagnosed concussions and some doctors believe he might have gotten more. Although he is still making money in the NFL it's important to note that one more bad concussion could spell the end of his career. At the end of the day it is important to pay these football players because they never know when there last play is going to be. They need to make money while they can. A lot of people are joining the movement to pay college football players, but one group that's not is the NCAA. 

There are many changes that must be made to the NCAA. Firstly, there must be some sort of checks and balance system in order to hold the NCAA accountable for their actions (N, 2010). Next, there must be consistent in their rulings amongst schools. The NCAA needs to revamp the way they investigate potential infractions amongst college athletes (N, 2010). These changes need to be made not only to inch closer to paying college football players, but to recognize the integrity of college sports. 

Overall there are numerous reasons college football players should be paid. At the end of the day it is the ethical and moral thing to do. There are so many people making money off the success of these student athletes. They do not deserve the money they receive, the athletes do. It does not make one crazy to think college football players should have some extra spending money, and it could be done if the proper steps are taken.  College football as a whole would be more enjoyable to watch if the players were paid for all they do for their teams. 
