College Athletes Should Get Paid free essay sample

Pay for Play Today, sports are no longer fun and games, sports are a business, and college sports are no different. Division I college sports provide a huge source of universities’ income. The school receives money from ticket sales, television contracts, and sport-related merchandise, along with many other sports related revenue builders. The athletes on the other hand, receive their scholarship and little more. While the idea 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. Universities are exploiting athletes, and recently the problems that this creates have become more prominent. More and more athletes are now leaving school early to enter the professional leagues in order to make money. There have also 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, if not completely eliminated, by adopting a program for compensating student athletes. College athletes are exploited by their schools, which make millions of dollars off of them. This leads to violations, students leaving college early, and student-athletes that cannot even afford to do anything that their sport doesn’t sponsor. The NCAA and professional leagues can work together to institute a plan to compensate these athletes and remedy all these problems. 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). This means that while the free tuition is nice, they are still going to need money for other expenses that every college student faces. 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 impossible 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, if not 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. The main reason behind not giving college athletes some form of compensation is that college athletes must be amateurs and if they are paid they will lose their status as an amateur. Amateurs are defined in the dictionary as an athlete who has never accepted money, or who accepts money under restrictions specified by a regulatory body, for participating in a competition. Many people say the fact that college athletes are amateurs and not paid gives college sports their appeal (Bruinis 1). However, these rules have been extended so far that athletes can barely get a check from their grandmother in the mail without red flags going up. Under the current rules, universities and colleges cannot recruit athletes who have competed with professionals, accepted money from benefactors to be used for things such as private high school tuition, accepted prize money won in competitions, or played for money in any league. Furthermore, current college athletes cannot be paid for giving lessons in their sport or accept grants from the U. S. Olympic committee (Suggs 54). A player cannot do anything that might jeopardize his or her status as an amateur. This rule is somewhat farfetched, even affecting work outside of the sports world. For example, Darnell Autry, University of Northwestern running back and theater major, went to Italy over the summer and appeared in a motion picture. He could not be paid for his services in the movie because it would damage his amateur status (Greenlee 63). This had nothing to do with college football, yet it was still a violation of NCAA rules. The amateur rules only create more problems and put an infinite number of restrictions on student athletes that just are not fair. Another major argument for not compensating college athletes is the fact that we have never done so in the past. Also, at a time of economic crisis, most Universities have other things to worry about, especially because there is no system in place currently that allows student athletes to receive money. The comparison of what student athletes get versus what they give makes it very obvious that they are exploited. Many of the athletes receive their education free, which can range from about $10,000 to more than $40,000 a year. However, college programs generate thousands more off of the athlete. Recently, the University of Notre Dame signed a five-season 38 million dollar contract with NBC for its home football games (Wulf 94). If there were 100 full scholarship football players for Notre Dame, that would equal $380,000 per player just from the TV revenues, when the limit of scholarships is usually around eighty. This oes not even take into account the ticket revenues, championship or bowl game payouts, and merchandise sold because of the players. Notre Dame is not the only school making million dollar deals like this one. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) makes approximately 242 million dollars off of TV revenues each year, and that number shouldn’t do anything but rise (Bruinius 1). When college athletes only receive a scholarship usually somewhere in the ball park o f $30,000 depending on the school, it would appear that since they can bring in up to 13 million, college athletes are being exploited. The simple fact that the colleges are making millions off of these athletes means that they are exploiting them and the NCAA constitution proves this. This constitution states that, student athletes shall be amateurs†¦and should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises. The problem with this rule is that it fails to acknowledge that university athletic programs are commercial enterprises, especially in recent times. These athletes aren’t amateurs any more but professional athletes some believe. Jeff Brown, author of Compensation of the Student-Athlete: Preservation of Amateurism, says, â€Å"Critics of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) amateurism rules argue that amateurism is an outdated ideal that no longer has a place in college athletics. The rules that worked back in the day are not working today. The objective of college athletic programs is to generate money (Murphy and Pace 168). If colleges are recognized in this way as commercial enterprises, it appears that colleges are violating the NCAA constitution. This means that college athletes are exploited even by universities’ own definition. It is exploitation in a form as obvious as any other form of servitude. Former executive director of the NCAA Walter Byers states, The coaches own the athletes’ feet, the colleges own the athletes’ bodies, and the supervisors retain the large rewards. That reflects a neoplantation mentality on the campuses that is not appropriate at this time of high dollars (Wulf 94). In other words, Byers is saying the universities are using these athletes for a type of slave labor. The big business is making a lot of money, and the ones who make it possible are not seeing a cent of the revenue they generate. Exploitation is a problem in itself, but it also causes many others, and these are increasing at a fast rate. One of these problems is the increase in NCAA violations by student athletes, in particular, gambling. The athletes need money and they can get it by making deals with gamblers. Athletes agree to alter the outcome of the game by playing poorly (shaving points), thus allowing the gamblers to pick the other team and make money.