Should college athletes get paid?

With all the money that colleges and universities bring in from the ticket sales, memorabilia sales, and other items sold from the school athletics many people are questioning the fact if college athletes should get paid. Every year the NCAA and colleges bring in millions and millions of dollars from ticket sales and jersey sellings that come from the hard work of the athletes. The athletes risk career ending injuries and do not get anything in return. College athletes should get a cut from all of the money they bring into the school. Tyson Hartnett from the Huffington Post says that even though athletes get their school paid for the athletes still will need money for clothes and food to spend on items everyday people need. They do not need a million dollar salary like NFL players, but just enough money so they can have some spending money to buy everyday necessities. (Hartnett)

The average club box seat season tickets for a Division 1 college football stadium is 2,000 dollars, and the average college replica football jersey is sold for around 90 dollars. The average division 1 college football team brings in around 6 million dollars annually and the players get virtually nothing. The NCAA signed a 10.8 billion dollar TV contract for the men’s basketball tournament and none of that is going to benefit the athletes. Some athletes have gotten caught and gotten in trouble for selling autographs and memorabilia for money. The most recent case of a college athlete getting in trouble for selling memorabilia for money was Johnny Manziel in August. Manziel sold his autograph for $7,500 and was under NCAA investigation for many weeks. Manziel and his teamates helped Texas A&M bring in 37 million dollars to the university in 2012 and they will not see any of that money back. (Travis). Some athletes do not need the extra cash with financial help coming from their parents but athletes that are in a tough financial situation could really use the extra money from playing