Andor Vas

English 120
Professor Bruner
April 19, 2015
College Athletes Should Be Paid
In the 21st century, college athletic programs are a huge business in the USA. The NCAA
is making billions of dollars from the athletic events and other things involved in athletic
programs. Student athletes should definitely be paid because of the effort they put into studying,
as well as the time they spend practicing and playing tournaments for the universities. Being a
student-athlete is not easy at all; it takes a lot of time and sacrifice to be a successful studentathlete.
There are two groups of people with different opinions about this situation; one group of
people say student-athletes should be paid and the other group of people say they should not be
paid. The thing that makes it more interesting is that there are famous people and also politicians
that are in both groups. In these groups, people have made very good points for their arguments
and both sides are sure that they are right. This makes it harder for people to support a side as
they do not know what is right or wrong.
According to Tyson Hartnett, the scholarships that athletes receive are not worth much. It
may seem as though the numbers are big on paper, however most or all of these scholarships are
used for unknown university fees, tuition, housing, meal-plans and multiple hundred dollar
textbooks. Most of the athletes do not even play for four years due getting injured or other

circumstances that prevent them from playing. Also, if an athlete gets injured the university is
allowed to take away the scholarship from them, and just say We dont need you anymore.
(The Blog).
Even though the coaches receive bonuses for getting to the playoffs or winning
championships, the athletes do not receive anything for success during the season. Marc
Edelmans article published by the Forbes magazine 21 Reasons Why Student-Athletes Are
Employees and Should Be Allowed to Unionize stated that last year the average salary for a
BCS football coach was $2.05 million. It is also really interesting that this year, the University of
Alabama reported $143.3 Million in Athletic revenues- more than all 30 NHL and 25 of the 30
NBA teams. (Forbes).
Athletic programs are producing huge revenues for universities all around the US, and
while big amounts of these revenues are staying in the hands of the coaches, athletic directors,
and administrators, athletes are not receiving any of it. This is really disappointing. For instance,
we have a lot off really good athletes that are on full scholarships, however, they cant work and
accept any help, even if they do not have enough money to buy food after a night practice. These
athletes spend the majority of their time practicing and studying, and many consider being an
athlete a full time job, leaving no free time for a job or even to have fun.
However, there is a huge group of people on the other side of this argument, who agree
that student-athletes should not be paid. Horace Mitchell, a president from California State
University, stated in his article published in the US News that Students are not professional
athletes who are paid salaries and incentives for a career in sports. They are students receiving
access to a college education through their participation in sports, for which they earn
scholarships to pay tuition, fees, room and board, and other allowable expenses. Collegiate sports

is not a career or profession. It is the students' vehicle to a higher education degree. This access is
contingent upon continued enrollment, participation in the sport for which they received the
scholarship, and academic eligibility(US News). He makes a good point by saying that student
athletes are not professionals, and that not that many universities can be profitable from their
athletic programs, therefore the scholarships they give away to students are enough to serve like
their payment.
Marc Emmert, the president of the NCAA, says that if college athletes would be paid the
players would picking college based on how much they would make. He also says that people
cannot compare the NCAA organization with some of the professional organizations because
they operate on very different levels. Emmert also made the point that The majority of NCAAsanctioned programs actually work in the red on an annual basis. Data shows only approximately
two dozen athletic departments are able to earn profit, and those that do almost always have
Division I football to thank (CBS Sports).
After researching this topic and consider different perspectives it seems that athletes
should be paid for competing in sports in college. There are many reasons why I believe this,
with one of them being that the average athlete practices just as much as someone would spend
at their job. With this being said, being an athlete is a job. Even though these athletes receive
scholarships, they are limited to earning money outside of scholarships due to their participation
in sports and the time they spend practicing. The NCAA makes $900 million a year from
revenues earned by the college athletic programs. These earnings staying in the hands of the
NCAA, with the athletes not receiving anything. The correct solution for this situation would be
that the NCAA distribute the money to the athletes based on a finical aid bases. They would
provide athletes from lower income families with more money while also providing athletes

from higher income families with money but not as much. Another reason why athletes should be
paid for their sports, is that the money earned by them in college will allow them to have a
savings when they graduate which will then give them time to find a job and start a career. One
last reason, is that while it seems as though the NCAA acts as an employer for these studentathletes, they should provide all the benefits that a regular employee receives.
The NCAA has created impossible rules and standards for athletes to follow in order
for them to participate in their sports, by limiting their activities with a very strict rules. Maybe
the most important reason of all is, for student athletes there is no option to choose, because the
NCAA is the one and only institution working with college athletes what makes it even more
unfair because they can do whatever they want, making even more and more strict rules and the
athletes cant do anything against because thats the only institution. They never make contracts
about injuries with athletes, what actually means that if an athlete get injured the school can just
take away his scholarship and with that they take everything from him. What this actually means
is that Universities along with the NCAA just use athletes for their benefits.
At the end of the day, I really enjoyed researching about this topic. I found several
different opinions and strong arguments supporting whether students should or should not be
paid. Overall, I believe students should be paid as the benefits or positives outweigh the
negatives within this argument. Student athletes deserve to get paid solely based on the sacrifice
and efforts they are required to put in. This very much reflects the attitude adults have when they
get a job and thus, it is only fair that student athletes receive the same rewards and
compensations for their efforts.

As a student athlete myself, I can confirm that I truly believe in the fact that the NCAA
should make some changes in their rules, and add some financial help to the athletes who truly
need some back up for they work and devotion to the universities.

Works Cited:
Edelman, Marc. "21 Reasons Why Student-Athletes Are Employees And
Should Be Allowed To Unionize." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 Jan. 2014. Web. 22
Apr. 2015.
Hartnett, Tyson. "Why College Athletes Should Be Paid." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.
Mitchell, Horacce. "Students Are Not Professional Athletes." US News.
U.S.News & World Report, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.
Norlander, Matt. "Emmert Testimony: College Athletes Should Not Be Paid for
Name/image." CBSSports.com. CBS Sports, 19 June 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.

Reflection Paper
The hardest part of this writing assignment was the resources; I always find it difficult to
find good sources for my paper. I also find it hard to put words together to have strong, adequate
sentences. The worst part is the citations, as I want to make them proper and eligible because I
dont want to have plagiarism.
The most significant change was when someone revised and gave me some advice on my
paper; it helped me out a lot. I prefer to write papers in which I care about and most interest me
as I think I write much better when I know a great deal of information about the topic. It is also
good for the audience as they will be interested as well, hopefully, and it will be pleasurable for
them to read. I chose this topic because it is really important to me to support that college
athletes should be paid.
The best part of my essay I would say is the researching because I am really interested
about this topic,so it was easier to just sit down and start writing. Usually starting my essays I
generally have difficulty as it takes me a while to think of an effective introduction with a strong
format.
In each paper I write I feel I have a little more confidence in myself since I dont enjoy
writing. I would definitely enhance and improve my essay to make it sound better, but I think I
had plenty time to correct it so I dont think I needed more time.