The National College Athletic Association (NCAA) is one of the most popular sports leagues in the world today. The nation’s colleges understand the prestige and appeal sports bring to them that is why they aggressively recruit top high school players and offer full or partial academic scholarships to athlete students for at least four years. This begs the question whether academic scholarships are appropriate compensation or reward for student athletes who do not only have to manage academic workload but also spend considerable efforts and time on practice. We cannot ignore the fact that the efforts of these players result in valuable economic benefits for their respective colleges in addition to enhancing their reputation in the nation. Thus, college students should be compensation in addition to academic scholarships because it will not only be ethically the right thing to do due to their economic contributions but will also inspire college athletes to stay longer in school, further benefitting their respective colleges.
If college students are paid, it will inspire them to stay in college longer which will not only be good for the athlete students since college education teaches valuable life skills but will also benefit the colleges because individual athletes have the ability to single-handedly draw crowds to the games. Former South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney and an expected top-five pick in the NFL draft claims he might have stayed in college for another year if he were being paid. Clowney argues he has expenses and a family to take care of (ESPN, 2014). Clowney’s argument makes sense because every year a athlete student stays in college, he may be foregoing a lucrative salary in the NFL and if colleges pay, it will at least given an incentive to the students to lengthen their college experience. These economic factors matter even more to student athletes because many of them come from low-income backgrounds and personal costs of delaying a professional career are even higher for them.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Should College Athletes Be Paid".
College students should also be paid because college sports contribute tens of millions of dollars to their respective colleges in many instances if not more. For example, the top five colleges by sports revenue in the nation raked over $100 million each in the year 2008 and all five were profitable. We should also not ignore the fact that coaches at every single one of these five top colleges earned at least $13 million during the same year. Even Oregon which stood at 40th position in terms of total sports revenues earned approximately $56.62 million and was profitable (ESPN). These figures are also important because 2008 was a difficult year for the U.S. in terms of the state of the economy yet college sports were still in the green in economic terms. It is only fair that athlete students also share some. One may argue that they get academic scholarships but so do many other students who mostly don’t make any contribution to the colleges’ economic bottom line.
Athlete students should also be paid because their efforts do not only benefit their respective countries but also contribute towards the greater economy. According to Forbes’ Chris Smith, CBA and Turner Broadcasting earn a total of over $1 billion from games broadcast as each 30-second ad costs $700,000 during the Final Four. The NCAA as a whole makes $6 billion annually (US News). Give the wide economic impact of college sports at both local and national level, it is only fair that college athletes get a bigger share of the pie.
Thus, college athletes should be paid because it will not only better reflect their economic contributions but may also motivate them to stay longer in school. Thus, paying them may even benefit the colleges. The efforts of college athletes contribute billions of dollars to the NCAA as well the private sector and in America, we believe in a direct relation between one’s rewards and economic contributions.
- ESPN. (2014, February 13). Clowney: Pay college athletes. Retrieved April 3, 2014, from http://espn.go.com/nfl/draft2014/story/_/id/10449257/jadeveon-clowney-says-college-athletes-paid
- ESPN. (n.d.). College Athletics Revenues and Expenses – 2008. Retrieved April 3, 2014, from http://espn.go.com/ncaa/revenue
- US News. (n.d.). Should NCAA Athletes Be Paid? Retrieved April 3, 2014, from http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-ncaa-athletes-be-paid
