Why Should College Athletes Be Paid?

Do you think that a group of more than 460,000 people would go out and volunteer to work for a company bringing in about 1 billion dollars a year, make that company more and more money, and sacrifice all of their time for them? And, the company doesn't pay them, but claim that they do pay them, when the money just goes back to the company anyway. Do you think that someone would do that? No because that would be foolish, right? Then why do the college athletes do it? The answer is simply because the NCAA, or the company in the example, won't pay them, and they don't have anywhere else to go and play (except for LaVar Ball’s league). Therefore, college athletes should be paid because of the financial benefits to the NCAA and the sacrifice
Right? Wrong. If you were to give me 100 thousand dollars worth of dog food, that’s not like giving me $100,000. Most athletes wouldn't pay 100 thousand dollars for school just as I wouldn't spend 100 thousand dollars on dog food. For many reasons, a college education is worth much less to college athletes than it is to normal students (Vaughn). Normal students prepare themselves for college in high school and work hard in college, in order to get a good job. Athletes, generally speaking, are extremely unprepared for the college course work expected of normal students. With the help of an army of tutors they can just try to stay eligible (Vaughn).

In conclusion, student athletes should be paid not only because of the financial benefits to the NCAA, but also because of the sacrifice of their time. It would only make sense if the athletes got rewarded for all of their hard work. What if you spent all of your life trying to get better at something, finally get your big chance, but just end up being used to make money for someone else. You wouldn't like that, would