Dennis Reedy
Eng 102-001
11/23/16
Professor Ingold
Should college athletes be paid?
Across the country, universities and smaller college institutions offer athletic programs to their students. For a lot of schools, hosting athletic events helps generate a healthy amount of revenue for the school. That money is used to install and renovate practice facilities, pay the coaches and assistant coaches’ salaries, as well as purchase the equipment necessary for competition. Depending on the size of the school, the strength of the specific sports program, and the fan base that school may have, are all factors in which determine the amount of revenue a school makes from having an athletics team. College sports have been rapidly growing and seem to show no signs of slowing down. Kids today are involved more than ever in youth sports, and we see more and more kids attempt to take their talents to collegiate level, in hopes of turning professional. With that being said, a question that always becomes a topic when talking about collegiate sports is, should college level athletes be paid?
If you were to ask any college athlete if they should be paid, their obvious answer would be yes. Simply because, who doesn’t want to get paid to play a competitive sport they love? Part of the reason kids grow up idolizing professional athletes is because not only are they are on national television, but they are signing outrageous contracts worth millions of dollars. It is every young person’s dream to grow up and become a professional athlete and sign that lucrative contract. In order to be ready for that level, all kids have to run through the college level to tests their skills. To me, what makes college sports so great is that kids are playing hard-nosed and hungry to get to that next level. You hear people say all the time that professional athletes look lackadaisical and seem to slump after signing a huge contract, and I would hate to see college sports not be as competitive since the athletes are being paid. College sports have a special grit to them that you don’t see every day in a professional sports game.
I believe that college athletes should not be paid because it would take away the integrity of making it the professional level, it will cause schools to make pay cuts in certain areas to be able to pay players, and it will make recruiting even more scandalous. In an article about paying college athletes, I read, “if some "force for good" wants to pay the athletes cash, it seems likely some other party will have to take less,” (Burton 1) which plays perfectly into this situation. Coaches have a responsibility of not only putting together a winning team, but developing hard-working and motivated young men and women. They have worked their way through life and deserve the money they are being paid. With that being said, part of their pay shouldn’t be given up to the kids whom the coaches are trying to develop. I compare it to the drive for the kids to get to the next level in order to receive pay. Coaches worked their way up to receive money, and the player should acknowledge that, and realize they still have another level to reach. Being a college athlete, I could absolutely see how making money as a college athlete could potentially stunt my growth as an athlete. I feel that a college kid isn’t ready to handle the responsibility of making money as an athlete quite yet.
Every now and then, you hear about a school being under investigation by the NCAA for recruiting violations. Often times, you hear those schools were paying athletes to get them to come to their school or whatever it may be. By giving the schools the right of way to pay athletes, it becomes much easier for schools to flaunt their money to recruits. There would have to be regulations of course, but if they are already being broken now, why make the situation more vulnerable and harder to solve?
Although I believe that college athletes shouldn’t be paid, it does make sense in a way to pay the athletes. For example, “A team that makes the Final Four (Basketball) will play in five tournament games, which means it will generate a total of $9.5 million from three weeks of basketball.” (Smith 1) With that stunning fact, it seems reasonable that the athletes who physically made that money with their performance should receive a cut of it. Just like professional organizations, college institutions create revenue from hosting sporting events. The difference is that the professional athletes are paid for performance, jersey sales, and seemingly popularity. Since colleges are able to sell tickets, jerseys, and advertise their teams, the student-athletes involved should be allowed to receive pay for that. Seeing that money is made in very similar ways compared to the pro organizations, it seems obvious that student-athletes should be paid. Either end of the tail will carry its own pro’s and con’s, but we must do what is best for college sports and most importantly, the development of young adults.