 As society we are witnesses to the unfairness of how the world works. Sometimes there is nothing any one person can do to change something that is going on or happened, but in the case of college athletes there is something that can and should be done. In the circumstance of college athletes getting paid, it is outright unfair that the top generating athletic programs, generally Men’s basketball and football don’t get paid and I believe something should be done about it. Title IX states that universities have to spend the same amount on each sport and should not be discriminated against because the basis of sex (Title IX Frequently Asked Questions). Although this makes life fair to all athletes that play a Division I sport, this neglects to reward the Men’s basketball and football athletes for all they do for the university. All the time and effort of all the work they put into these sports ultimately makes millions and millions of dollars for there respective university, and additionally the NCAA makes billion dollar deals for the rights to play these games. Due to the difference in amounts of money being generated by different sports it is time for Men’s basketball and football players to get paid. 

The controversy of college athletes getting paid comes up a lot in the sports world today because of the more and more money they keep creating. As easy as it sounds, it’s not because of the political correctness that Title IX states. Since Title IX states a university cannot discriminate against a sport on the basis of sex, one specific sports team at a university can’t get paid because that would be a violation of Title IX. This means a Duke Men’s basketball player and a Women’s Duke volleyball player would have to get paid the same amount if college athletes were getting paid. Why should they be under the same rules when the difference of money generated is so great? When in fact, the basketball team is helping fund the volleyball team. I propose that Men’s basketball and football players to get paid money that is sufficient enough for them to cover the costs of college that is not covered by there scholarship. 

The NCAA is very adamant on not paying these athletes, but the value these athletes bring justifies why they should get paid. The NCAA likes to refer to these groups of kids as student athletes because they are going to school, but also play their respective sport. Although, this is mostly true for college athletes, for the sports of basketball and football it is very often that these student athletes don’t actually get the education they were promised, so saying they are just as much of athletes as they are students is false. For example, Kentucky basketball guidance counselor states that making a schedule is one of the hardest things she had to do for these athletes and for them, stated by the guidance counselor, “picking a major is pointless” (Smith, 0:35-0:38). Further explaining, they don’t care what classes they are taking because majority of them leave early for the NBA after a year. A lot of them don’t even stay in school long enough to receive a final grade. (Smith, 1:36-1:38). They aren’t the ones at fault for this because they are recruited to play basketball. Additionally, players don’t seem to care about the education, for example Ben Simmons admitted he never went to class. It was presumed that he was going to be the number one overall pick in the NBA draft since he was in high school, but no one could blame him because there was no point (Ben, para. 11). His season people say was a waste of time because the only people that benefited were the NCAA and his draft stock went down, but still was number one overall pick (Ben, para. 4). 

Ben Simmons was one of the best high school talents college basketball has seen in years. When he went to college he was around 6’10, but had the skills of a point guard. Being drafted number one overall to the 76er’s, he has now grown to just under seven feet. The NCAA was able to benefit off of Ben Simmons coming to LSU to play basketball for one season and he benefited none (Ben, para. 4). After a superstar like Ben Simmons commits to LSU the coaches get more money because of the superstar they just brought in, schools get more money by filling there arena because everyone wants to watch, conferences receive more money from TV vendors wanting them to put them on TV and lets not forget about the broadcasters receiving advertising dollars and better ratings. Everyone benefited off of Ben Simmons that played for one season at LSU, but Simmons himself (Ben, para. 4). At most Simmons got some great training from college level coaches, but people say it’s hard to argue Simmons became that much better of a player (Ben, para. 4 and 5). Superstars are beginning to generate tons of money for everyone, so its time they get additional money to help with outside college expenses. 

The time that these athletes put in to the sport they are playing is like a full time job. According to an article on Business Insider, athletes may spend 40+ hours a week practicing (Jacobs, para. 1). This leaves little time for academic commitments and gives very little time for these athletes to also get a job to make extra money. That is normally what college students do, but these are not normal students. A full time job is considered to be 40 hours a week, these students have a full time job in their respective sport and on top of that have the commitments of school. Why shouldn’t they be compensated for their full time commitment when they are generating all of this money? The NCAA also has a 20 hour limit on practice, but this is clearly broken because administrative meetings, weight lifting sessions, condition, film room, activates with accidental participation, visiting the trainer and rehabilitation does not count towards the 20 hours (Jacobs, para. 9). 

 On the other hand, there are those that do say these college athletes should not deserve to get paid. In an article by Kieran McCauley, she explains why college athletes shouldn’t get paid, but should get compensated. Further explaining, they do get compensated with a full scholarship and get to play a certain sport for that school (McCauley, para. 3). They don’t have the financial hardship of paying for college. There scholarship includes room and board, books, meal plan, so they will never have to worry about student loans (McCauley, para. 3). Everything is covered and they receive benefits of athletic apparel from the university. This proves to be very important because most of these college athletes wouldn’t be able to afford college tuitions because of the backgrounds that these players come from. Ultimately everything seems to be covered, but still a lot of these kids struggle with college expenses. 

Furthermore, in another article, Christopher M. Parent also feels strongly against college athletes getting paid. Agreeing with the fact that the football and Men’s basketball programs generate millions and millions of dollars he believes that there is no reason for them to receive any of it. The reason being thus, these athletes can be awarded grants, the money that is made is put back into the athletic programs and through the passage of NCAA Proposal No. 2002-201 athletes during the summer are able to earn the difference between their scholarship funds and the cost of their university (Parent, pg. 238-239). Although this sounds awesome, athletes are able to do all this, so they are able to get money, but there are flaws to everything Parent said. First, the Grant that these players would want to apply for they wouldn’t qualify for because Men’s basketball and football players are awarded a full ride. Second, money generated from Men’s basketball and football is put back into the program, but the money they generate, a large sum goes to other sports at their university. UCLA’s athletic program generated 38 million dollars in 2001-2002; 20 out of the 38 million came from the Men’s basketball and football team (Parent, pg. 239). Lastly, its great that these athletes are given the chance to earn money in the summer, but a full time job doesn’t end. Just because the season ended does not mean they stop putting endless time in the gym. The summer is the time for these athletes to gain an edge over their competitors, so giving them a chance to earn money in the summer is the worst possible time you could give them this opportunity. 

On a normal day athletes will wake up and attend a lifting or conditioning session, after they will attend class till about 3pm, head over to practice and then study or finish any homework they have (Jacobs, para. 8). As a college student the work load and time you put into school is enough stress on a student, the last priority on their schedule seems to be there school, not by there choice, but the schools choice. In the paragraph above it explains these athletes are compensated, and partially they are because they are granted a phenomenal opportunity to get a free education while playing a their respective sport. The workload and time of what these athletes have to put in emasculates the benefits they are receiving compared to everyone around them.   

According to a study done in the NCAA, majority of these students who receive these scholarships are African American. Additionally, majority of them also come from poverty areas and can’t afford additional needs at college. It was reported that 86 percent of college athletes live below the poverty line (Hayes, para. 1). The issue that people have with this, these players are valued at very high prices. For example, Texas Football players were valued at $513,922 and Duke Basketball players were valued at $1,025,656 (Hayes, para. 10-11). Colleges and the NCAA are making billion dollar television deals and very small portion has been put back into the student-athletes. CBS reserved the rights to the NCAA March Madness tournament through 2024 for 10.8 billion dollars (Wilbon, para. 2). Not just that, ESPN and the BCS made a 4 year 500 million dollar deal (Wilbon, para. 2). Between those two deals 11.3 billion dollars was exchanged for the rights of these athletes (Wilbon, para. 2). Most of these athletes live below the poverty line, are generating billions and billions of dollars, so why can’t they receive supplemental money to support outside college expenses. 

As stated above, most of these college athletes come from areas below the poverty line. Obtaining a full division I scholarship is there way out of a bad situation, therefore any money they receive is more than what they had. The NCAA/universities don’t need to pay these athletes large sums of money, but one to two thousand dollars a semester would cover things such as buying gas, going out to dinner, seeing a movie or an activity with a bunch of guys like paintball. This would also benefit these athletes in life itself, for the athletes that come from nothing; they have never had the responsibility of having to manage money. That is why we see players after they retire go dead broke because they have no idea how to manage money and spend it all. Giving these athletes small sums of money like this would give them the opportunity to be able to manage money on their own and afford expenses outside of there scholarship. They are sent off into the real world to manage millions and millions of dollars, but most of them have had zero experience managing any type of money. To continue, its not a secret that most of the sports world would like to see student athletes who know they are going professional to stay longer to increase the level of talent in college sports. Providing athletes with supplemental money would give them motivation to do so. It is no comparison the deal they sign once they are drafted, but knowing in the back of their mind they are getting additional money for all the work and money given to the university would have athletes rethink there decision.  

The NCAA is a non-profit organization, which means they do not profit off of the revenue that the NCAA makes. However, its hard not to notice that the executives are making significant money off the tax exemption, even after making money off of these athletes they won’t allow them to get paid. In 2013, The NCAA president, Mark Emmert received a pay raise of five percent and instead of receiving 1.2 million dollars he received 1.7 million dollars (Westerholm, para. 1). That same year the chief operating officer received 1.013 million dollars and the external vice president received $619,663 (Westerholm, para. 2). The Executives pay out for the year totaled around 6 million in 2014 (Sander, para. 1). Additionally, the NCAA is building a new headquarters that is worth 1.1 billion dollars (Johnson, para. 2). The NCAA can afford a 1.1 billion dollar headquarter, but won’t pay players. The executives earn their salary from tax exemption, so they are not directly profiting from the players; however, to see this money be tossed around to the executives and hear players struggle to pay for three meals a day is enough to fight for these players. 

Moreover, it seems as though people are benefiting more from these players than some of them are getting out of the university. Not only are broadcasters, the NCAA, and coaches benefiting from the Men’s basketball and football teams, but also so are the women athletics. In 2001-2002 the UCLA women’s Olympic teams generated $165,677 (Parent, pg. 329). Obviously that is a lot less than basketball and football teams. The UCLA women’s Olympic teams spent $4,211,967, which is clearly over the budget (Parent, pg. 329). Where did the money come from to be able to pay this? The answer is the Men’s basketball and football team. There should be money that helps these programs out because not everyone has the opportunity to generate this amount of money due to popularity status of that sport, but in this case the Men’s Basketball and football teams, they are working to provide for most of the other sports teams. 

There’s no doubts the athletes of College Football and Basketball have proven that they generate tons of money. No disrespect to any other athletic sport team, weather it be male or female, they are simply not generating money like the Men’s basketball and football. The time and effort they put into the sport is like a full time job with additional school obligations. They don’t receive the education that everyone does because they don’t have as much time for there academic studies. A lot of them come from the social class of being below the poverty line and are valued at such a high price, but they are the ones not benefiting. Everyone around them uses there tremendous skill to make tons of money and it is time for the Men’s basketball and football players to be paid to give back for what they are giving to everyone around them. 
