Student athletes are being exploited in today’s college-athletics program by the NCAA. The reason the NCAA won’t pay their athletes because it is apparently too difficult. There is a consensus that every NCAA college athlete would need to earn a salary if they were to start paying them a direct salary, but that would not be the most efficient. If they were to implement a system that paid them a direct salary, only the players from high revenue men’s basketball and football teams should be able to earn a small salary. These athletes generate billions of dollars for their universities and the NCAA and should be given a portion of the profits. These athletes are also putting in countless hours a week to put on a show for the NCAA to sell to its viewers. This new system should be able to let these players earn outside income by exposing their image. This system is the fairest because the high-profile players are the players making the big bills for their universities. If an outside company approaches an athlete and wants to use him for his image, this athlete should be able to accept those payments. In addition, if someone is willing to pay an athlete for their autograph, I believe they should be able to sell their autograph. These athletes are generating hundreds of millions of dollars for their respective universities and aren’t given the ability to be paid by their universities because of the NCAA regulations. The NCAA should change their regulations and let these universities pay their athletes. The NCAA should also let college athlete be able to get an outside job if they need to. The NCAA has implemented a bunch of rules to prohibit these athletes from making. The NCAA has these rules in place because of the education they are giving these athletes. The “education” these athletes are receiving is not enough to repay them for the revenues they are generating. 

In 1843, a group of privileged students created the first college sports club at Yale University. The beginnings of collegiate-level sports began with rowing as the most popular sport of the time. A year later, Harvard created a rowing team to compete with Yale. Collegiate-level athletics was played with “commercial interests at mind” in 1852 when Yale and Harvard competed in a rowing competition. (Zimbalist 6). High class Harvard and Yale students created these athletics so their viewers and themselves could gamble on their rowing races. Once people saw the popularity that Harvard and Yale were receiving, other sports started to pop up everywhere across the US. By 1880, college football had already began creating mass revenue for the universities involved. A football game between Princeton and Yale “generated an excess of $25,000 (approximately $420,000 in 1998)” and attracted around 40,000 viewers (7). Zimbalist also gives examples of the situations college athletes are put in nowadays. The actions of these athletes can create or lose mass amounts of revenue for their teams. For example, the field goal kicker of Notre Dame University “blew an $8 million extra point” which caused the “loss that quashed Notre Dame’s bid to go to the alliance bowl” (3). College athletes are the backbone of the billion-dollar industry of collegiate-level sports. These athletes train endlessly to put on a show for the viewers who pay for it and should be repaid for their efforts. College sports have grown tremendously since their creation in 1843, but the athletes are still treated the same. The NCAA have not changed their rules because of this tremendous growth and many believe this is morally wrong for the athletes. 

The NCAA does not allow their athletes to earn a revenue because they are technically considered “amateurs.” This principle of amateur competition is key to the difference between professional and college sports. The first priority of college level sports is to get a good education instead of to play sports. The rules the NCAA have in place does not call for a better education. These athletes are still spending these hours on athletics and the lack of a salary does not benefit their education. After their education, then these athletes can focus on their athletics. The NCAA has adopted a sense of amateurism to ensure that these athletes focus on their academics before their respective sport. Because of the amateurism rule, these athletes are not allowed to earn a direct salary, prize money above actual and necessary expenses, to play, tryout, practice or receive contracts with professional teams. They are also not allowed to receive benefits from an agent or prospective agent or any delayed initial full-time collegiate enrollment to participate in organized sports competition. (NCAA.com). 

These athletes have to handle responsibilities for their academics, image, and their respective sports without the ability to even have a side job. Instead of focusing on the mass revenues, Sobocinski uses the rules the NCAA have already implemented to show how the rules should be changed in the athlete’s favor. The NCAA believes these student athletes are considered amateurs because they are students before they are athlete. Academics are often overlooked by both the athletes and the universities. This means that universities often give athletes special privileges when it comes to their academics so the NCAA won’t prohibit them from participating in their sport. Eric Sobocinski agrees with me that the student athlete is being taking advantage because: 

“Reform movements have consistently challenged two aspects of intercollegiate athletics: overemphasis and duty to the student athlete. Challenges have been posted to both the NCAA and its member colleges and universities for failing to provide the proper academic environment for the student athlete. There have been many instances in which student athletes have graduated with grade school reading levels or never graduated because they were not directed to pursue any specific degree path. These scenarios are unfair to the student athlete and paint a grim picture of the integrity of higher learning as a whole. The plight of the student athlete is mind-numbing to the unbiased onlooker. Most colleges participating in athletics have a “relaxed” admission standard for student athletes” (Sobocinski 260-261). 

Many of these athletes are accepted into universities that are too hard for them to keep up with the education. Universities are overlooking academics and giving these athletes special privileges. This is hurting the student athlete because athletes aren’t receiving the same educations as other students. These athletes aren’t allowed to benefit from their performances because of the education they are receiving, but some universities give their athletes special privileges and pass them just so they are given permission to play. If a collegiate-level athlete is unable to earn a contract with a professional team, they then have a huge disadvantage when it comes to getting a real job. Unlike full-time students, these athletes had to handle sports and academics and aren’t receiving the benefits they should be. 

College athletes put immense effort into performing for the NCAA’s benefits. They spend at least 40+ hours a week devoted to practicing when they could be working or studying. These student-athletes almost have a full time job when it comes to practicing while they still have to manage their school work as well. This gives the athlete little to no time to generate a living income for themselves when that income could come from their participation in athletics. In addition, if an athlete gets injured performing during college, they are left behind and the chances of a professional contract go down the drain. For example, Kevin Ware suffered a horrific leg injury during the March Madness tournament. Six months later, he was lucky enough to return to playing basketball but he was never as good as he was before his injury. These athletes put their bodies on the line for their sports and aren’t given the compensation that the professional athletes are receiving (Patterson).

These athletes also generate mass amounts of revenue for their universities and the NCAA. These athletes generate free advertising for their universities which attracts new students and donations towards the university. The NCAA also pays each university for their participation in college athletics. The NCAA are the real money makers though. For the March Madness tournament alone, The NCAA will make around 11 billion dollars in their TV deal with CBS/Turner Sports over the years of 2011 from 2024. The NCAA will profit a little less than a billion dollars every march for 13 years straight but the stars of this tournament are not given the ability to share those profits. Without these athlete’s participation, The NCAA would be bankrupt instead of a multi-billion-dollar industry. The amount of money and viewers the NCAA receive for these athletes’ performances should earn them the right to be able to earn a profit from their hard work and determination (Walch)(Bolton). 

There is a consensus between viewers of college level sports that these sports are more of an entertainment business than an amateur league. Of course, it is also believed that not every athletic program generates these mass profits. The men’s basketball and football programs at a select number of schools are the main money makers for the NCAA and their respective schools. These programs not only generate billions of dollars for the NCAA, but they also generate millions for their respected universities as well. Because collegiate-level athletics is now being looked at as an entertainment business, there is a consensus that these students could be looked at as “employees” instead of athletes. It is difficult for the NCAA to treat them as full employees because these athletes are also receiving other benefits like scholarships and other stipends. As a business that creates mass revenue, it is only fair for the NCAA to allow the people who create their revenues to create a revenue themselves. The question at hand should be what is the best way to pay these athletes instead of whether or not they should be paid. A fair business model should be put into place that keeps in mind that these athletes are getting a free education and other stipends as well (Karcher).   

Paying college athletes would also teach these athletes how to be more responsible with their money as well. These athletes have the ability to earn millions of dollars per year in the professionals. A smaller contract in college would help teach these athletes some financial awareness that prevent them from going broke in the future. According to Tiffany Patterson “The ESPN documentary Broke gave an inside view of the financial woes of many professional athletes, noting that around 60% of NBA players are broke within five years of retirement.” These athletes are given mass amounts of money and often blow through it because they are unaware how to invest and save it. If universities started paying these athletes, these athletes would be able to meet an agent who cares more about themselves than the money they are making. This would lead to a better financial future for the athletes who end up going professional and the athletes who go into the work force instead (Patterson). 

Those who don’t believe these athletes should be paid believe it is just too hard to do. The NCAA refuses to pay athletes especially because the majority of college athletic programs lose money. In addition, there is a debate on whether the NCAA or The Universities will pay these athletes. The NCAA prohibits universities from paying their athletes and prohibits these athletes from selling their image. These athletes put in tremendous amounts of work to put on entertainment for the NCAA’s viewers, and it is only logical to pay them. Unfortunately, it would be very hard to find a fair way to pay these athletes. Instead of giving these athletes a direct salary, the NCAA allows universities to give these athletes scholarships and stipends. The reasons the NCAA does this instead of a salary is because it is important that these athletes don’t forget they are students before athletes. These athletes picked college athletics over minor league athletics and must respect that college athletics involves college and athletics. Because of that decision, these athletes are considered amateurs and not professions and must be treated as so. Both Christopher Parent and the NCAA believe it is near impossible to find a fair way to give these athletes scholarships and a salary (Parent). 

Many college athletic purists believe introducing a salary would ruin the purity of college athletics. College athletics has a special aura that is more special to viewers than professional sports. That aura is that these athletes are participating because they want to and not because they are being paid to. These athletes play with another level of love or passion for the game because they want to earn that contract. Players in the major leagues have already earned that contract and don’t need to impress anyone else. They can avoid playing at 100 percent at all times because of injury concerns or fatigue. The purity of college athletics doesn’t let these athletes go any less than 100 percent. In addition, many fans believe college athletics would lose that aura of purity if these athletes were paid because they would lose the motivation to try and join the professionals (Patterson). 

College athletics do have a special aura of purity to it. Athletes playing at the collegiate-level play their respective sport because they have an immense amount of passion and love for the game, not because they are earning a salary. The hard work and dedication put in by these athletes will earn the NCAA about eleven billion dollars between 2011 and 2024 for just the March Madness Tournament alone, as noted by their TV deal with CBS and Turner Sports. These athletes should be rewarded by being given the opportunity to profit from their name. A direct salary could ruin that purity but it isn’t guaranteed. An outside income like an advertisement deal or selling autographs insures that only the high profile money making athletes will be recognized. The best of the best will be sharing the profits of collegiate-level sports. The men’s basketball and football athletes that play for the high-revenue generating universities are being taken advantage of by the NCAA. Many people believe the scholarships and stipends these athletes are already receiving is enough of a salary. While others believe it is near impossible to live life without a salary when these athletes are already devoting so much time to school and their respective sport. These athletes are prohibited by the NCAA from getting an outside job. I do not believe that these payments are enough to put an athlete through college. These athletes generate billions of dollars for their universities and the NCAA and should share a portion of the profits. These athletes are also practicing for 40+ hours a week to entertain millions of Americans per viewing. The NCAA should change their rules and let these players earn outside income by exposing their image. A devastating injury to one of these athletes can easily ruin their chances of ever making the professionals and getting the paycheck they deserve. These athletes put in so much effort and heart into playing their respective sports. Student athletes are being exploited in today’s college-athletics program and should share in the NCAA’s riches. 
