
In 1859, the first collegiate baseball game was played between Amherst College and Williams College. On November 6, 1869 Princeton and the Rutgers were set to play the first official collegiate football game. Thus, for almost two centuries now, college athletes have not been paid a salary to play college sports. However, recently an issue between the NCAA and some of the athletes have come to light: should college athletes be paid or not? It’s no secret that college athlete are exceptionally talented in their respected sports, some are even good enough to play at that professional level where they can form a career out of the game they love. It’s clear to see that college athletes are no ordinary athletes; they play on one of the biggest stages, they get national attention, and last but not least, college athletes receive scholarship towards their education, some even full rides. It is not as if the colleges of these athletes do not compensate them on the services them as athletes give. College is not cheap, thousands of regular college students go into debt by the end of their college days, and only some can recover (Norris). Being a college athlete lowers that risk more than one can imagine.  The only solution could be that college athletes cannot be paid salaries as the athletes are amateurs and not professional where their participation is only voluntary not mandatory and education is main reason towards their attendance, the athletes would not make any money if they switched to salaries because of taxes and expenses, and it will make bankrupt the universities they’re attending, however, there should be a valid way that athletes who are injury should be compensated with entitlements to their education. 

 There is no doubt that College sports is different from professional sports and one reason is that one gets paid. Everyone has their likes and dislikes, some enjoy the same as other’s do, while others prefer a different taste. Say for example, there is two shows on television, one that has amateur actors and one that has great actors. Now, the show with great actors want are doing the same show as the other. What makes the fans want to watch a show with worse actors? The shows have become the exact same, so why not just watch the show with the better actors? That what would happen if college athletes were paid, collegiate sports would become something like the Development League for the NBA ( a basketball league that help players who are not ready for the NBA to get better).  

There’s a reason why the viewer count between the “minor league” of sports and college sports are vastly different; the drive to become an actual professional is there, everyday game is a could make or break a college athletes’ reputation and draft rating. In the NFL, Just becoming a first rounder pick could mean an extra few million dollars in your pocket. “How much did Randy Gregory's draft slide cost him? Nearly $11 million” (Corry).  So, if a college athlete earned a salary why would they care about the signing bonus and the draft? I mean they already made it up if they were to stick to their school’s program the full four years. But, then what happens to the next generation of athletes wanting to play in college? Why pursue to becoming a college athlete if they can’t play until their junior and senior years? College programs rely on their good players playing only one to two years before they declare for draft, so they need fresh high school talents to take their place once their done. This makes jobs for thousands of people as college scouts. If a college team only needs one or two players to fill the roster the next season the coach can do that by himself, which result in a loss of jobs to those college scouts. 

When this argument of giving salaries to college athletes rose, a news report for The New York spoke his mind as he said: “Fans are not only seeking athletic excellence as such—the biggest and fastest players in descending order. Our connection to the athletes is deeper. These student athletes walk the same halls, have the same professors, and sweat the same midterms that we did, however long ago” (Yankah). Fans watch these players play because they are so much more real than the celebrity athletes that are on professional teams. Most college sports fans, being college students themselves, go to classes with these athletes and work in groups, or see them walk around campus and laughing with their own friends, and maybe even become friends with them around the campus. Even though some may get the fame in their head, most are genuine normal people; they shop at the same shops, eat at the same restaurants, and even live in the same neighborhoods. They become local heroes in their communities in which they play at because to the fans they play for their respected school for that, their schools, not for a paycheck. 

Most of today’s college athletes pick their school to be surrounded by this, to feel like they’re playing for a  these types of fans, the friend kind of fans, not fans expecting to win every year with a stacked team because their local college can pay for it. 

Paying student athletes erodes that association. If a high-school football prodigy reported that he chose Michigan not for its academic quality, tradition, or beautiful campus but because it outbid all other suitors, a connection to the university’s values would be lost. This is not naïve idealism. Auburn fans still bristle at accusations that Cam Newton auctioned them his services; prideful Michigan fans still smart over the sanctions surrounding Chris Webber, and over stinging comments intimating that he might just as well have attended a rival school. These episodes reveal what happens when college sports are reduced to a market; that this occurs all too often already is no reason to surrender to it (Yankah). 

These players are true amateurs, they play for the town and to be recognize as a great player, not for a salary.

Deciding a college to attend to may be difficult when it comes to for average students. First they pick which colleges are best suited for what they want to major in or which is most convenient to go to, whether it would be transportation wise or living arrangements. After they pick their school the most important part is decided: “which colleges can I afford to go to?” This question is usually the deal breaker when it comes to wanting to attend the college of yours dreams, as for it can be easy to tell, the nicer colleges are going to cost way more than one would bargain for. Scholarships can help, but most students need to take out loans and other finical aid help just to receive a four year degree. By the time most college students graduate most have not even started a career yet or are even employed, and with the interest rates of students loans students feel like they just can never recover. In 2012, a statistic was formed to show the amount of students were in debt by student loans, total how much it was made out to be. Forty four million students were in debt, and the total between those students came out to be almost one and half trillion dollars (U.S. Student Loan Debt).  Surprisingly there are a handful of student who would not have to worry about to this problem, college athletes. “A full athletic scholarship (a “grant-in-aid”) at an NCAA Division I university is about $65,000 if you enroll at a college with high tuition. This includes such private colleges as Stanford, Duke, Northwestern, University of Southern California, Syracuse, and Vanderbilt. The scholarship is $45,000 for tuition and $20,000 for room, board and books. At state universities, the scholarship would be lower if you were an “in state” student—because tuition would be about $13,000” (Thelin). 

Now say for example, a college student’s full-ride scholarship is exchanged into a salary, they’re not professionals so they would not receive millions, perhaps around hundred thousand dollars should do it, which is more than what three fourths of the citizens of the United States makes. One would suppose a hundred grand recruiting bonus is good trade compared to a non-monetary scholarship correct? Subtract the tuition and cost of living, which at a good Division I school, such as Texas University or Duke, would be around fifty thousand dollars per year. Afterwards without the meal plan provided by the school the college student will have to pay for his or her own meals. An average two hundred and ten pound male will need to eat around five thousand calories a day to stay healthy (Writer). That approximates to around thirty-five dollars a day if the athlete chooses to stay on a budget and eat three meals a day, which equals to about thirteen thousand dollars a year. The total cost of the year for the athlete would cost sixty-eight thousand dollars a year. So, the athlete has roughly thirty-seven thousand dollar left, which would be a lot if there wasn’t federal income taxes, student fees, social security taxes, as well as other taxes a student would have to pay which a study shows in 2016 would be around thirty-five thousand dollars (Thelin). This leaves the college athlete with only two thousand left for the year if he or she don’t decide to spend it on personal expenses. 

With that, that wouldn’t ensure that all players would get a clear one hundred grand as a paycheck. What about the golf team? The woman’s softball team? The teams that don’t make it on ESPN or have a big audience won’t be making the same amount its plain a simple, but to the eyes of the people it would be fair. So, an athlete that plays on the volleyball team plays at a better level, works harder, and has a 4.0 GPA versus a player on the football team that isn’t on the starting lineup and is doing poorly in school will always make more money because the college supports football more than volleyball, and that’s fair? If the NCAA were to replace the scholarships for paychecks it would not be fair to those who don’t play on the big stage. Students who play those sports go into high school and college playing those sports to try to pursue a free education, because unlike football, basketball, and baseball players, they don’t have a chance of going pro. 

If the NCAA decided to pay college players with salaries rather than with scholarships not only would be a bad idea for the player, it would bankrupt the college itself. A lot of college athletes wondering what happens to all the ticket sales and merchandise sale goes after the seasons over. They feel like they should earn that money, not the program itself. However, if the money went to the players instead of the athletic program and university how would they maintain the field they play on? The free gear that every single player gets? To pay all the coaches and staff as well as the athletic director? It may seem like colleges make a killing on these games that these college athletes play, but that’s not the case. A recent study shows that colleges spend millions of dollars just to make the stadiums look presentable. 

The football team of the University of Texas at Austin, for example — which has spent $176 million on stadium upgrades in the last decade — generates the most revenue in the nation. Texas A&M’s football program — which recently benefited from a $450 million stadium upgrade — also ranked among the top 20 schools in revenue (Sirota, Perez). 

Being as it may, most public universities often lose tons of money trying to maintain their athletic programs, having to pay mutli-million dollar contracts to have their coaches stay, even to recruit takes money. Often, the ticket sales and television time can’t generate enough revenue to maintain the program, especially if a team has a bad record, this is where the taxpayers and the tuition and student fees a non-scholarship student pays for. There’s only a handful of schools that could even afford to pay just their football team alone, let aside the fact that more than fifteen other sports programs are still active on the campus. 

There is a question that hangs above all athletes’ heads, professional or not, which is; what if a player is to get injured?  There has been cases where athletes would lose their scholarships if they have a career ending injury. Having this thought in the minds of college athletes frightens them, as it would any, one injury can cost you a sixty-five grand scholarship just like that. This is where the NCAA has to make a stand towards compensating towards the student athlete. It’s true that they are easily replaceable and being healthy is a personal concern, however athletes spend day after day to make the schools program where it stands. There has been tons of horror stories about college athletes with career ending injuries that did not receive a penny of compensation towards their injuries. However, an claim by the NCAA shows that 

The NCAA provides all student-athletes at all active member institutions coverage under the catastrophic program, and the NCAA pays 100 percent of the current $13.5 million premium. This program provides $20 million in lifetime benefits to student-athletes who become totally disabled while practicing or playing[1]. These benefits include medical expenses as well as disability benefits. Disability benefits include monthly cash payments, funds to modify a home to accommodate wheelchairs, accessible vehicles, etc., in addition to funds to complete an undergraduate or graduate degree (Sheely). 

Ridiculed by college athletes and demoralized by the media, the NCAA works hard towards the education and the safety of the athlete no matter the cost. Obviously, the NCAA can’t help with injuries not justified by sports play or reckless behavior, which is what happens to most athletes, such as drunk driving and partying. Even in the name, student comes before the athlete in student athlete, meaning that the education you receive is their compensation, not a free pass to anything a player wants in life due to an injury.

If a college athlete decides that a scholarship is worth less than a pay check, they should think again. With scholarships, colleges offer a free place to live, free meals, and the highest form of education all while an athlete plays the sport he or she loves, and having a chance at making a career out of it. Colleges spend the money an athlete supposedly “earns” through their service of playing for the colleges on them, the athletes themselves. Even non-athletic students of the colleges proceed to feed the athletic programs money with their own student fees and tuition, as well taxpayers. All while some college athletes feel they deserve more. Even full coverage on insurance on career ending injuries do not satisfy them. Maybe, before they open their mouths about a paycheck, they should ask themselves this; what am I getting already for playing a game I love? 
