Imagine you are a college athlete. The time is 5:28am and you hear the alarm loudly echoing from your phone. You get up, put your practice clothes on and grab a banana to go. Your backpack, jacket, shirt and shorts are all plastered with your college logo. The walk is dark because the sun has not risen yet. Practice starts at 6am, but you know your coach will be mad if you don’t show up at least fifteen minutes early. Practice consists of strenuous drills, scrimmages and conditioning. By the time the two-hour practice is over, you are sore and ready for a nap. Instead, you have to walk to your 8:30am class, which is on the opposite side of campus. Finally, it is 12:30pm, which normally means lunchtime, but not for you. On Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays you are scheduled for strength training in the weight room. By the time you are done with classes and homework, it is 11 pm, and you ask yourself where the day has gone. You crawl into bed and fall asleep, only to wake up the next day and do it all over again. This is the lifestyle of collegiate athletes all over the country. There is no time to rest, and only time to work. Now, how would you like to do this, every day? Oh! Don’t forget, you are not receiving any paycheck for your dedication and endeavors, regardless of how much the school is profiting from your efforts.  

Despite the unfairness to other college sports, Men's Basketball and Football collegiate athletes deserved to be paid because of the economic advances they bring. The world of college sports has grown tremendously in the last few decades into what is now an empire. Today, collegiate sports bring in over $100 million in profit, with 0% going directly to the students in the form of a paycheck. With the advancements in technology, the games, stats and highlight tapes are easily accessible and heavily watched by college sports fanatics all over the world. Men’s Basketball and Football are by far the most watched, followed and attended sports in all of college athletics. That being said, these players are now becoming famous because of their performance on game day and looked at by their respective professional organizations and heavily recognized and loved on campus, some even getting verified on their social media accounts. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is the governing force behind all college sports. The NCAA is a non-profit organization which focuses on the student athlete and regulation between schools. They enlist a set of rules and regulations that must be followed in order for a team and/or athlete to stay eligible to play. In compensation for their efforts on the field/court, college athletes are able to receive scholarship. Even with the millions of dollars made by these players, the NCAA restricts athletes from being able to obtain yearly salaries. It is unfair for these college athletes to be robbed of the cash flow they create. While they do have privileges other students don’t, such as constant access to tutors, full scholarships and merchandise, they aren’t given a cut of the profit and they aren’t even allowed to accept money or offered sponsorships.

From childhood, these players have put in countless hours of blood, sweat and tears to become experts in the sport they love. As soccer star Mia Hamm once said, “Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who’ve pushed you is that little girl who fell in love with the game.” This shows how athletics rules these athletes lives. As early as 9th grade, in a sports such as basketball or football, universities start recruiting the best players to join their school's teams. The goal of a college recruiter is to get the best skilled athletes in order for their team to win and make more money (Cross 155). Why is it important to have a winning team in college football and men’s basketball? The answer is money. Recruiting is the most important part of collegiate sports, D1 to D3. Universities spend countless amounts of money to build the best locker rooms and have the best equipment, in order to attract the best. John Calipari is the head coach of the University of Kentucky Men’s Basketball team, whom is known to produce winning teams and send an extensive amount of players to the NBA. When asked about recruiting he said, “You have to know what [the recruit’s] dreams and aspirations are, and chase those with them. I’m trying to help them succeed, so we become one of the places where everyone wants to work hard” (Petrone). Calipari is a coach who has figured out the key to finding and recruiting the best players in the sport. One way to get 5-star recruits is to have top notch training facilities and technology. For example, here at the University of South Carolina, operations have just begun to start building a $50 million football operations facility with a weight room, locker room, offices and even a lounge to aid players with their studies, fulfilling the “student-athlete” part of their description. Coach Muschamp said, “Once that is completed, I feel we will be on par with anyone in the country, not just the Southeastern Conference. We will give to every young man in the state of South Carolina, if they want to come to Carolina, there’s no reason not to” (Wilson). This proves how Muschamp plans to use this new center to gain better recruits, and produce stronger and smarter athletes, thus having a better team and making more money in the end. Finding the best players out there is important to form a winning team because the more you win, the more fans are interested, more sponsorships are offered and more merchandise is sold. Some high school non-athletes will even choose a school based on how loved the athletics are. Instead of profiting, institutions could use the money brought in by the sports teams to pay the athlete, because, after all, they are the ones who earned it. 

Every year, the NCAA hosts one of the most anticipated collegiate tournaments. In Men’s Basketball, the NCAA tournament is when the top 64 Division I basketball teams play off in order to crown a winner. It is commonly known to the public as March Madness. The name March Madness is given because of the craziness that happens throughout; including major upsets, incredible talent, horrific injuries and a lot of betting.  The tournament, is widely televised and many fans hold parties for the Elite 8, Final Four and Championship rounds. This is where the money is made. The television companies all know that the March Madness tournament is one of the most watched sports programs annually, because of its unpredictable events. In 2016, both CBS and Turner Sports paid an estimated $10 billion to the NCAA for broadcasting rights during the tournament, while a simple 30 second commercial advertisement sold for $1.5 million (Ogus). The event is played out on their channels because of the available reach to target consumer markets, not because of the talent of the athletes. Aside from this, universities are also given extra payments depending on how well they do. The 64 teams invited to the tournament every year are given on average $235,000 per team, while the final four teams receive an additional $1 million for their “programs” (Andre and James 2). These statistics, again, prove why having a winning team is important in order to gross a larger profit. The players are the ones on the court and in the public eye, therefore they should be able to make a profit off of their work. 

In College Football, the best teams are given a chance to play in a Bowl Game. The first ever bowl game was played in 1947 and today, a total of 41 bowl games take place across the country. The increasing number of bowl games is a way for ESPN, television companies and universities to make more money (Lawrence). Some Bowl Games are more popular than others. The “New Year’s Six” are the six bowl games that take place on New Year’s Day, where the best teams play off against one another. The 12 schools that play on New Year’s Day receive on average of $26 million, just for making it (Andre and James 2). For example, this year, the esteemed Rose Bowl, also known as “The Granddaddy of Them All”, was played between the Penn State Nittany Lions and The University of Southern California Trojans. The average ticket sold for about $655, making it the second most expensive bowl game over the last seven years (Lawrence). A friend from home has a brother who plays for the Nittany Lions, so I was lucky enough to attend the game this year. By the end of this one game, I was able to experience the amount of sheer excitement from the fans and also observe, first-hand, the mental and physical exhaustion of the players. The cardboard cutouts of players, the selling of jerseys and logos of the teams and event were plastered all over Los Angeles. This is when I started to question, how is it fair that athletes can perform all the work to make the profit, but not receive any of it? 

The coaches and staff are paid millions, while the athletes get nothing. Today, we see college coaches as celebrities. They drive the nicest cars, have the biggest houses and get the A-list lifestyle. For example, Nick Saban, the head football coach at the University of Alabama, is the highest-paid football coach at any public university. He makes an average of $6.5 million every year and receives bonuses depending on how well his team does. College basketball and football coaches are often times the highest paid figure in a certain state. Why do coaches make all the money, when the players do all the work? A study was conducted in 2014 by the National College Players Association to determine the worth of athlete’s skills. The found on average a “full” scholarship falls short of covering all athletes needs by $3222. This is even causing some athletes to fall below the poverty line. Many people don’t know this, but the NCAA restricts certain athletes from accepting money from others, which includes a job. There is no way for these athletes to make additional money. They study also found that top football players are worth $345,000-$514,000 and top basketball players are worth $620,000-$1 million. The NCAA claims they are restraining athletes from making money because they want their athletes to have and focus on getting an education. Because of this, the athletes who need money will start to do illegal things in order to get it. The news promotes stories of college athletics scandals all the time. We often see star collegiate athletes enter professional leagues at younger ages because it is their best shot to make some cash. Is it so wrong to pay athletes? The excess money the coaches receive is the money that should belong to the players. It is time to stop awarding the staff and start compensating the players. Pay for play must be instated, or soon all athletes will go straight to the professional league and skip college altogether; many already have the talent to do so (Huma & Staurowsky).  

The debate over college athletes and whether or not they should be paid or not has been a hot topic for over twenty years. Surveys have shown that around 64 percent of people have polled against paying college athletes for various reasons, mainly because of questions regarding where the money will come from, how it will impact recruiting, and how they pay all genders of all sports (Griffin 10). Most individuals believe collegiate athletes deserved to be compensated, but they aren’t sure how it could be possible. An ESPN analyst, who believes we should look at collegiate sports like a business platform, said, “Yet the beauty of the debate is once again lost because the foundation of the argument sits on a fault line. There is no system of payment that can be put in place that is fair across the board to all students, all sports and all schools that participate in college athletics” (Jackson). However, despite critics saying it’s impossible to insert the pay for play method, it is certainly possible if the issue is approached in the right way. Another issue people like to focus on is the job of a college or university. Many deem the sole purpose of an institution is to educate, and there are more important matters to focus on than athletics (Griffin 19). As a matter of fact, a major focus should be drawn to a university's athletic department when looking where the money comes from. For example, The University of Alabama has recently been in the spotlight when mentioning the success of sports teams. Over the past decade, their annual income from the athletics department alone increased from $73 million to nearly $147.2 million (Hobson and Rich). That is a crazy amount of money that is made, all thanks to of the performance of the athletes. All things considered, there are honorable reasons as to why many contest for not paying college athletes, but there are also many arguments as to why compensation for players is plausible, and I’m going to show you how it can be done. 

The Pay for Play method is possible for athletes, if approached in the right way. Many economic studies done on sports prove that Men’s Basketball and Football teams of Division I teams profit enough money each year to allow players to be compensated for their efforts (Griffin 11). The accredited Joe Nocera, a sports writer for The New York Times Magazine, came up with the 5-step system in order to pay athletes. College Men’s Basketball and Football collegiate players are the ones who are going to be paid. Some might argue and say that this is not fair. Well, no, it’s not, but they are solely the sports bringing in a combined 92% of the profits every year (Hobson and Rich). The first step is to hold a free market like system in the recruiting process, meaning college coaches are able to offer contracts. This way, each school many think a certain player is worth a different amount than others. The second is a salary cap. This is illustrated by allowing $3 million for a football team, and $650,000 for a basketball team. The football team will drop its scholarship players to 60, and a basketball team will stay at 13 players (Nocera). The third step is a way to get athletes to stay for all 4 years of eligibility. If a player is to stay all 4 years, they will receive an additional 2-year scholarship where they can gain futhur education, if needed. The fourth step is that all players receive lifetime health care. This has to deal with the injuries that can occur from sports prior to and following their college athletic stint. The last, and final, step would be to issue the start of a new organization of past/ current players, in order to regulate the system and deal with issues that may arise (Nocera). This system would adhere to critics, while consistently and fluently meeting the needs of the athletes. Yes, one may see issues which I don’t see surrounding the plan, but nothing is perfect nowadays as the current system has many, many problems.  Not only will this process promote honesty among players, it will also reduce the scandals associated with the issue.  

The life of a collegiate athlete is not an easy one. It takes a devoted, hardworking individual to want to challenge themselves on and off the field. Where do you find college alumni, a science major, a music teacher, and that random kid who lives in your building all in one spot? A major collegiate athletic event. College athletics are the glue that hold a university together. It’s the spirit that connects all these individuals, while forming a love for their university. Thousands flock to the many anticipated games, dressed to the nines in their college apparel to cheer on their team. College sports are a multi-billion dollar industry, where the players of Men’s Basketball and Football players bring in the most profits and deserve to be compensated for their skills. Through the efforts of the NCAA tournaments, ticket sales and apparel, universities bring in more than enough money to install the pay for play method. Isn’t it time to start giving the athletes the money they deserve? It’s never too late for change.     
