Should College Athletes Be Paid?

Should college athletes be paid? College sports provide a huge source of the universities' income. The school takes in money from ticket sales, television contracts, and sport-related merchandise, just to name a few. The athletes, however, receive their scholarship and little more. While the prospect of receiving a free college education is something few would complain about, when the issue is more closely examined it becomes evident that it is not enough. The trend for athletes is to leave school early for the professional leagues because of the money. There have been more reports of violations surrounding university boosters and alumni paying players. Furthermore, athletes have been accused of making deals with gamblers and altering the outcome of games. All of these problems could be minimized, by adopting a program for compensating student athletes. College athletes are exploited by their schools, which make millions of dollars off of them. The NCAA and professional leagues can work together to institute a plan to compensate these athletes and remedy all these problems. (165) Student athletes need money just like any other college students, and many of them need it even more. According to Steve Wulf, many college athletes come from disadvantaged backgrounds (94). The NCAA finally realized this recently and decided to allow athletes to have a job earning up to $2000 during the school year (Greenlee 63). This, while well intended, is an impossibility for many, if not the majority of college athletes. As Greenlee states, "The hours athletes would spend working at a job are already spoken for" (63). The sport they play is their job; it takes up as much time or more as the normal student's job at the cafeteria or student center, yet they do not get paid. The schools have to make up for this by finding some way to compensate these athletes. (132)

The main reason behind not giving college athletes some form of compensation is that college athletes

Cited: page Greenlee, Criag "College Athletes Deserve Some Equity." Black Issues in Higher Education (2000): 62-63 Bruinius, Harry. "College Players Still Amateurs but barely." Christian Science Monitor 92 (2000) 1. Wulf, Steve. "Tote that Ball, Lift that Revenue." Time 148, 21 Oct. 1996- 94 Murphy, Pace, and Jonathan Pace. "A Plan for Compensating Student-Athletes." Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal (1994): 167-186. Suggs, Welch. "The NCAA Debates the Meaning of Amateurism." Chronicle of Higher Education 46 (2000): 53-54. Smith, Stevin, and Don Yaeger. "Confessions of a Point Shaver." Sports Illustrated 89, 9 Nov. 1998: 92-99.