College athletes are not currently paid, but deserve to be paid for what they do for the school and the athletic department.  Sports in the United states are a big deal and are important to our country.  College athletics specifically are a big part of the sports industry and can potentially have implications on everyone.  Most people in this country associate with a sports team.  This is especially prominent in college sports, because many associate with the University they attended or the school that is within the state they live.  Inherently, college sports generate a lot of revenue for the schools.  Due to these high revenue totals, that is one reason that the athletes deserve money.  College athletes do a lot for the University they choose to attend on an off the playing field.  They work hard on and off the field in many ways.  These athletes are looked at as amateurs and do not currently receive money or a stipend.  Although they do not receive any money or stipend, they do get something of value, that should not be taken for granted.  They are given a scholarship.  A scholarship is not something that is useless, but the athletes may deserve just a little something extra that a scholarship does not include.  By looking at how much revenue college athletes generate, some of the restrictions they have put on them, and how little time they have we can see that most college athletes should be paid in some type of form other than just a scholarship.  Although there are many reasons that are also brought up for why it is not possible to pay the student athletes, there are ways around it to get the athletes what they deserve.  These student athletes just deserve something extra in the pocket that they don’t have.  The athletes are bringing in the money, have no time, and are restricted in so many ways.  It can be seen that these students are more than just students, they basically have a full time job, and for that the kids can be given a little help other than in the form of scholarship.

To begin with the athletic departments at these Universities are making absurd amounts of money off the athletes.  Not only are the school and athletic departments making money, the supposed to be non-profit NCAA is making money.  They are making money in multiple ways.  The schools are making this money as a direct result of the student athletes time and commitment. They are making the money for the school on the field with their talents.  The main question I could think of with this is where is the money they are making going? Is it going to the school, the athletic department, the athletes directly?  The argument here is that why can’t a portion of that money just go in the student athletes pocket.  The money is being made because of them.  People come and sit at the events to watch the student athlete.  The athletic department is making money off the tickets and other things at the event, which are all because of the student athlete.  To put in perspective of how much money is being brought in, according to the Crimson White, in 2015 the Alabama football program generated $95,132,301.  That money was just how much the program made, it does not take in account the expenses the football team has.  They had $48,640,971 in expenses, which includes salaries and much more.  The expenses are taking into account the 7 million dollar salary that head coach of the team, Nick Saban made that year.  With the expenses they still turned a $46 million profit.  So the team and program is making money.  It can be argued that the money they profited should result in a portion going towards the athletes. This 46 million dollars is a lot of money, and only a portion and a small one at that can go to the athlete.  Obviously every school is not at the level that Alabama is and does not have that money when it comes to revenue, but they still have some to give to the athletes.  According to Marc Edelman of Forbes.com the University of Alabama reported $143.3 Million in all athletic revenues, which is more than all 30 NHL teams and 25 of the 30 NBA teams. Basically these college athletics programs are businesses. Another argument is with how much Alabama made is that Nick Saban made 7 million dollars that year.  He is also not the only coach, and football coaches are not the only people making that much for a salary.  College basketball coaches are making huge salaries now.  According to Boston university news service, the 2015 basketball championship games combined salaries were $12,628,032.  The two coaches were coach K and Bo Ryan.  This shows two things.  It shows that not only is football making money so is basketball, and schools have the money to pay the athletes.  

Still along the lines of who is making money, the media deals being signed are outrageous now.  To begin with, the NCAA is supposed to be a non-profit, so when they sign these deals what the NCAA does with the money is unknown.  It is media deals, sponsors, and advertisements that are bringing in a large portion of the money.  Technology is playing a big role as well.  As it becomes more and more easy to watch games on TV or by streaming it, that just means more media deals and bigger contracts. To begin with, basketball and march madness brought in money from a media deal and sponsors.  SB Nation said that the NCAA and Turner/CBS agreed to a deal in 2010 that is 14 years for 10.8 billion dollars.  The 10.8 billion deal is only for the television nothing else.  That does not include sponsors or anything else that the NCAA does to make money.  ESPN.com has the numbers for the deal the sec signed with ESPN.  The article was written in 2008 and it says the sec signed a deal with ESPN for 15 years, and is worth more 2 billion dollars.  The SEC may be the most well-known college athletic conference.  It would be thought that being a known conference would bring in more money. Jon Solomon of CBS sports wrote that the SEC reported $527.4 million in revenue during the first year of the College Football Playoff and the SEC Network in 2014-15.  CBS Sports also says that the SEC divided money between all 14 schools and they received an average of $32.7million per school.  Looking at what is reported here with the numbers and how much schools, conferences and the NCAA are all making makes it indicates that it is possible to pay the athletes a stipend.  Michael Wilbon of ESPN gives a good take on the money and tv deals.  He is talking about the amount of money of the deals and what would happen and writes, “would the games not be televised? Would the quality of the broadcasts or the coverage or the staging of the events be somehow diminished? What if people in the business of money took $1.3 billion off the top, invested it, sheltered it and made it available to provide a stipend to college athletes, how could anybody stand on principal and argue against paying the people who make the events possible in the first place?” (Wilbon).  This is a great point if they just take the money from the TV deals and put some to the side for the athletes, it would be possible to pay them.  The biggest issue with all the revenue that they are making is that is being made off of the athletes.  The NCAA is signing billion dollar deals as a non-profit.  They are a non-profit and taking advantage of the student first idea is a good one. It is fine that the NCAA is a not for profit, but give the athletes a little bit of what the NCAA is making.  All in all, the NCAA is a nonprofit and is signing mega deals along with other conferences and making profits off of the talents of the athletes.  

Now that it is known how much money that the NCAA and schools are making, college athletes deserve to be paid, because of the issues with the scholarship.  People always just bring up that a college athlete does not deserve to be paid due to the fact that they are getting paid in scholarship. A scholarship is covering the food, room, and tuition.  The scholarship is great and all, but there are still some issues with just giving them a scholarship and that everything is all good.  Some do not realize it, but a college athlete is not guaranteed a scholarship for the entire time that they are at the school.  It can be taken away after only being at the school for a year.  If the scholarship can be pulled after only being there a short time, it does not mean as much.  Another issue with just giving them a scholarship, is that it only covers room, food, tuition, and few other things.  Yes, all that is good, but that is all that it covers.  It does not give them anything extra or any extra spending money.  Basically the scholarship is great value due to the fact that they are supposed to be students first, but they sometimes are not students first.  The other issue with the scholarship is that they cannot get a job.  The reason they can't get a job is they simply don't have the time for their sport, studies and a job. Since they can't get a job it leaves them without spending money. So the scholarship is restricting the athlete not allowing them to work.  The athlete may just want side money to go to a movie.  Some may counter that saying that the athlete’s family can give them money, but that is not always a possibility.  If a family is struggling, they cannot send money to their child to use.  So, an answer to this side money issue, is just give the athlete the stipend.  They aren’t allowed to work for the money and the school cannot give it to them, so just make it where they have a stipend.  Many may think that the scholarship is a great thing, but it does not always help the athlete and restricts them, and that is why they deserve to be paid.  

The final reason that the hard working college athletes deserve to be paid, is that they have absolutely no free time.  They are pretty much working a full time job and going to school at the same time, but are getting a scholarship and no extra spending money.  This is where the issue comes in.  The argument is made that the student athletes are being compensated with a scholarship, but why should that be done when they are not always a student first.  The reason why they are not looked at as students first is because they are not splitting athletics and school time equally.  What is happening is that they are spending so much time at practice, workouts, meetings, and more.  Due to the fact that they are not being a student first, then how are you going to give them a scholarship for devoting the time they are.  That is one reason that they should be compensated with a little bit of money along with the scholarship.  Another idea to go along with academics first, is that the athletes miss a lot of school time.  The athletes may have to travel, play a midweek game, or have a game during class time.  For instance, the NCAA basketball tournament is a huge revenue event for the NCAA and the student athletes miss a lot of time for the tournament games.  “At some schools, the road to the NCAA men's basketball championship may require student-athletes to miss up to a quarter of all class days during their Spring semester” (Edelman).  If athletes are missing that much class time, then they should not be compensated with academics.  Another way to think about it, is that the athlete is getting a scholarship, but is not receiving a full education.  The athlete should be given a little money, for the reason that if they are missing classes they would not being receiving a full education and should be given a little money for that.  Another reason that should be given money due to the fact that they devote time, is that they cannot get a job.  Even if they were allowed to get a job they would not have the time to work much, because of the time they devote for the sport and school.  The main way to look at all this, is that they basically have no time at all.  They are doing everything related to the sport they play and also studying.  Yes, they miss class and cannot get a job, but the main thing is that they are just devoting all this time to the University.  The athlete does all he can for the school and has no extra time.  This can relate back to the revenue that the school is making.  If they are devoting time to the school, and the school is making money off the time they are devoting, they can just give them a sliver of the money.  The podcast from the Seattle Medium was an interview with a former Washington football player, and he believes that the athletes were a huge part of the program.  What to take away from that, is that they are big part of the program, because they are dedicated to their sport resulting in the revenue.  This time they devote in athletics, indicates why they should receive a little pocket money.  

It can be seen that there are many good reasons why college athletes should be compensated, but many will always be against it.  There are ways around the issues they bring up.  Title 9 is always brought up due to the fact that it makes it hard to pay them.  First off, many girls’ sports do not generate revenue.  One way around this is that they can just be paid less of what the athletic department makes.  If a team is making money but is still not winning they should still get paid over a sport winning but not making money.  This is due to the fact that the sport is making the money so that means that it is there money.  People also bring up that many smaller schools cannot afford to pay the athletes.  One solution to this issue, is that since the NCAA is making so much money than they can give each school a very little bit for the athletes. The next issue people say is that all sports cannot be paid.  If all sports cannot be paid, then the sports that make revenue get a little bit more, because they are bringing in the money.  The last reason people try to use is that they give a scholarship to the athletes.  That was talked about earlier, and it’s a good value but they deserve more and are not always considered students first.  

It can now be seen that collegiate athletes deserve to be paid.  College athletics are a business.  They are many reasons for and against paying the athletes a small stipend for the contribution they make towards the University or college.  It may be difficult but it is hard to not want to pay them.  These athletes deserve to get paid for what they do.  Currently they are getting the scholarship and that is great but they need more.  By looking at how much revenue college athletes generate, some of the restrictions they have put on them, and how little time they have we can see that most college athletes should be paid in some type of form other than just a scholarship.  All in all, athletes mean too much to the school they attend to only receive the scholarship when the schools are making absurd amounts of money. 
