College Athletes Should Be Paid

"More than 460,000 college athletes make up the 19,000 teams that send more than 54,000 participants to compete each year in the NCAA's 90 championships in 24 sports across 3 divisions" (NCAA). This statistic is imprinted on the cover page of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) official website. These teams are watched closely by many fans all year and bring in a large amount of money. The issue with the NCAA is that even though these 460,000 college athletes play their desired sport, none of them are payed for the job they are doing. It has been an American tradition for many years that people get payed for the job they do. However, colleges are failing to do this with their athletes. This problem is only getting worse as
From the money colleges make off of athletic events, the athletes performance is a major contribution to this profit made. The most recent year that the revenue made by the NCAA is available is 2011-2012. That year, the NCAA made $871.6 million. This money is distributed to many groups involved in the process of the NCAA and programs affiliated with it. However, the most important group in this process, the players, fail to receive any income from this revenue. This revenue is received by a couple of different sources. These categories of sources include contributions facilities make, sales and services, officials, investments, championships, and largest of all: television and marketing rights fees. These athletes are involved in these athletic events just as much as or more than any coach, manager, owner, broadcaster, or anyone else associated with these sporting events. So why do they not receive a piece of the pie? These players work their butt off year round to compete for one season of the year. It is estimated that college athletes put in about 50 hours a week training or practicing for their specific sport. This is more time than many people work a week, and these student-athletes are doing this on top of taking their classes. Another reason why these athletes deserve to be paid for their performance is due to the high risk they put themselves
Student-athletes would be more responsible if they earned a salary for playing their desired sport. First of all, it would make them more financially stable. Student-athletes would acquire more knowledge in how to handle money if they were able to make it while in college. As college athletes go from playing at the collegiate level to the professional level, they are going from acquiring no income to being payed millions. Many of these players do not know how to handle their money so they can spend it wisely. “According to Sports Illustrated story, as many as 60 percent of NBA stars go broke or face serious financial hardships after only a few years of retirement.” One player in the NBA star that is a part of these 60 percent is Allen Iverson. It was said that that he hated luggage so much that he would buy new outfits every time he went on a road trip (National Public Radio NPR, 2015). The reason why these stars are going bankrupt after retirement is because they do not know how to handle their money correctly. If they were received an income in college, it would give them an insight on how to spend money wisely before they make the big bucks in the pro’s. Student-Athletes would also have to take on responsibility by having a costlier discipline action for going against any NCAA rules. College Athletes who get in trouble often have to pay the price of being