
The topic of paying college student athletes is very controversial, it involves a lot of money, time, and effort.  This argument has been controversial for about the past 20 years or so.  The argument being that whether athletes deserve to get paid or should they be compensated for their work.  Some of the pros about compensating student athletes would give them a greater motivation to work harder, as well as pursue an education more seriously.  On the contrary, some of the cons would affect the amount of money being spent on the athletes, and all of the complications involved with finding money to give student athletes. I believe student athletes should receive some type of compensation for their performance and the amount of time they give towards their sport, which brings in millions each year to the schools.  The NCAA makes approximately $11 billion annually based off of TV contracts, sponsorships, and their athletes (Edelman).  Some of that money needs to be given back to the athletes which influenced the NCAA’s profits.  I believe this needs to happen because student athletes do not have job opportunities or internship opportunities because they are solely focused on practicing their sport and becoming the best athlete they can be.  Do student athletes deserve to be compensated for their involvement in athletics at college universities?  

The idea of paying college athletes dates back to what is considered to be the first intercollegiate competition, which was between Harvard and Yale (Johnson).  In the late 1800’s, football was the most brutal sport but was enjoyed by many fans.  However, from 1900 to 1905, there were 45 players who died playing the sport.  This prompted Theodore Roosevelt to summon the presidents of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and threaten them with a ban unless the sport was modified (Johnson).  As a result of that meeting, a group of 62 university presidents convened to form the Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1906, which later evolved into the NCAA in 1910.  Athletes during the early and mid-1900’s were routinely recruited and paid to play; and there were several instances where individuals representing the schools were not enrolled as students. An example would be a report of a Midwestern university using seven members of its team that included the town blacksmith, a lawyer, a livery man, and four railroad employees (Johnson).  In 1948, the NCAA adopted a “Sanity Code” that limited financial aid for athletes to tuition and fees, and required that aid otherwise be given based solely on need. But in the 1950’s with threats from multiple southern schools leaving the NCAA, the code was revised to allow athletic scholarships to cover tuition, fees, and a living stipend.  In the mid 1970’s, Title IX was passed, allowing women to participate in collegiate sports. Over the past 50 years, the NCAA has expanded into three divisions with a multitude of championship events on a yearly basis. There are more than 1,300 member institutions that represent about 400,000 student athletes who participate in sport. NCAA president, Mark Emmert, reports the NCAA revenues for the 2010-2011 fiscal year projected at $757 million, where $452.2 goes to Division I members (Johnson).  

Paying student athletes does not necessarily mean giving them money or some type of salary based on their performance. It could mean a multitude of things, such as giving them more scholarship money, giving them job opportunities, etc. Along with those options, giving student athletes some type of salary or extra stipend is also an option. The problem would be finding the amount of money to pay each athlete and how much each athlete deserves to get each month. College athletes devote much of their time and energy to their teams, and in return the teams often receive a great amount of money, so student athletes deserve to get a portion of that money; injuries also cut athletic careers short, even among those who become professional, which is more of an incentive to pay college athletes. 

The NCAA makes anywhere from $10-11 billion annually each year based on TV contracts, sponsorships, and profits from ticket sales and merchandise (Edelman).  While NCAA coaches make anywhere from $2-7 million each year, which surpasses any salary of state employees, doctors, or dentists. I do not really believe that money is an issue for the NCAA and they could use that money for compensating their athletes.  Many student athletes find it difficult to make money while in college because they usually are very busy meeting practice schedules, maintaining grades, and trying to socialize with friends.  Traditional students have many more opportunities to make money because they do not have to practice a sport every afternoon for four hours each day.  This is one of the many reasons why student athletes need to be compensated.  Although student athletes do have opportunities for athletic scholarships, not all student athletes have the ability to receive full scholarships (Bolton).  A new NCAA rule that has taken place for some sports is a minimum of a 25% scholarship to each athlete; if the student athlete receives a 0% scholarship for that year, then the athlete will be considered a walk-on.  Once the athlete is considered to be on the team, the athlete is required to follow all of the team rules and responsible for being at all of the practices and games.  This is what makes getting a job or making any sort of extra money seem almost impossible to student athletes.  

The first reason of why I believe student athletes should be compensated for their athletic involvement is because student athletes do not have enough time in the day to do extra activities or extra jobs.  I wish I could explain the amount of hours’ athletes put into their sport each day, if I had to guess I would say close to 5-7 hours each day.  Those 5-7 hours could be spent on making money with a job somewhere or studying for classes, but athletes have to make constant sacrifices to put their team’s priorities first. One study had found that student athletes spend approximately 43.3 hours per week dedicated to their sport, which includes training, games, travel, and other required sessions that student athletes must attend in order to remain on the team and keep their scholarship (Anderson).  Student athletes are so over-scheduled with study halls, practices, weight-training sessions, film study, individual workouts, more practice, traveling, and competitions, all in an attempt to help maintain focus on their sport.  

Another reason I believe student athletes deserve to make money, is that the NCAA makes $11 billion annually (Anderson).  11 billion dollars is more than the annual revenue of the entire NBA or the NHL, I would say that is plenty of money to divide among all of their athletes (Anderson).  The student athletes would not make nearly as much as the professional athletes do, just enough money to live off of and budget.  While there is nothing wrong with a non-profit organization taking on huge amounts of revenue, it seems that the wealth could be distributed amongst those who are the heart and soul of the organization: the players.  Top coaches are paid six to seven figures each year and they do not bring in the bulk of the fan support, the players usually bring in the most amount of fans more than anything.  The NCAA pays its top executives million dollar salaries; parents, students, and fans do not scramble to get the best season tickets to watch some executives play sports (Anderson).  The fans are invested in the players, which many of them are akin to famous and pronounced professional athletes.  

Another huge advantage a student athlete would gain if they were paid, while they spent their time in college, would be the skill of budgeting and saving money.  Managing money is one of the most important skills a person can have (Anderson).  If a person is unable to budget their money, then they will not have any when they are older and actually need it the most.  It would be spent on pointless and irrelevant items.  Proper teaching of budgeting would so beneficial to many student athletes and they will use it for the rest of their lives.  Saving money is also a very beneficial skill to have and it would be used every day in a student athlete’s life.  Teaching student athletes how to save correctly will benefit them in the long run because the more money that a person saves now, it will result in more money that will be acquired over time and later in life.  If student athletes were able to be paid a small salary, then it would allow them to acquire these skills.  Along with gaining these necessary skills in life, they would also have the opportunity to mess up and not lose everything if they do mess up.  Since the salary would be so small, the athletes would not lose all of their money if they messed up or decided to spend it all, so this allows them a second chance with budgeting and controlling their money before they even leave college.  I believe this is a skill that any person should have and giving student athletes this opportunity will greater enhance their time spent in college.

Although student athletes pursue the dream of playing professionally in their sport, majority of NCAA athletes do not make it professionally due to many reasons.  Not being good enough, injuries, and personal reasons are all examples of why student athletes could not make it to the next level.  Injuries are a very good reason why student athletes deserve to be compensated.  For example, an athlete tears his or her ACL in their knee, they are a senior and they are almost done with school.  Most professional teams are not going to pursue the athlete because she has to have surgery and could possibly never play again.  If this were to happen, I believe that the athlete should receive some type of compensation for the injury that has happened.  It would help the athlete recover a little better knowing that he or she can have some type of income of money and can finish his or her degree.  Injuries are a very important aspect of being a student athlete and each athlete knows the risk every time he or she steps on the field, so why not compensate each athlete for the risks they have to take each and every day?

Many people oppose the idea of paying student athletes and compensating them for their time in college.  Many reasons being that athletes have more opportunities than traditional students, which is true.  But what they fail to realize is that from a financial perspective, they are actually at a disadvantage.  Many believe that student athletes should work hard to maintain and education because they are paying for it in the long run, which is also true.  But trying to maintain good grades while being on an athletics team is very difficult to do.  I think that is what traditional students fail to realize, they do not realize the amount of hours that are required to be spent each day on athletics.  But there are also reasons why athletes should not be paid.  The old saying, “It’s college, you are here to have fun,” is one reason why student athletes may not deserve to be paid.  Most student athletes will spend all of their money on pointless items and waste majority of it.  Student athletes are very wild like traditional college students, which is not a smart idea, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.  Another reason why people do not think student athletes should be paid is because they are in college for an education, not athletics.  Whether it may be true or not, everyone needs to experience something in college and what better way to do it than be on a sports team.  A college education is more important than anything, especially in the world we live in today.  Students are unable to get jobs because they do not have a college education.  The importance of student athletes actually pursuing an education is one of the most significant aspects of why they went to college in the first place.  

Another reason why student athletes should not get paid is because most of the colleges cannot afford to pay their athletes (Anderson).  Although there is a lot of money accumulated in colleges with tuitions, scholarships, and donors, some smaller colleges are unable to afford paying their athletes.  Many colleges would rather use that money to benefit the student population as a whole instead of just for athletes, which is understandable.  The last two main reasons why student athletes should not get paid is because there is no fair way to pay each athlete and the bottom line, student athletes are not professionals.  There have been many different attempts to find a way to pay each athlete fairly and it just has not worked out (Anderson).  My last point is that college students are not professionals so they do not deserve to be paid anything (Anderson).  Professionals are called professional for a reason, they spend countless amounts of hours on training and preparing for season.  They deserve to be paid within reason, but college students are not in the same situation as professionals.  College students have too much on their plates while professionals can focus on their sport every single minute of every single day, that is what makes them professionals.  College students should not be paid because they cannot handle the amount of time that is needed to be considered a professional athlete, plus they need something to look forward to after college. 

Whichever side you agree with, I would suggest to actually put yourself in a student athlete’s shoes and think about the amount of time that has to be sacrificed from a college student.  I believe student athletes deserve to be compensated because they do not have the same opportunities as traditional students and they make a tremendous amount of sacrifice each day, such as putting off friends, skipping studying, sleeping, and even eating.  Student athletes are very blessed to have the ability to play at the collegiate level and they spend the first 18 years of their lives to preparing to play in college, student athletes deserve to be compensated to compete at such a high level. 
