Should College Athletes Get Paid To Play

Essay, Research Paper

“Should College Athletes Get Paid To Play”

Forget about the game-winning touchdown, forget about the cheerleader girlfriend, and forget the pageantry. What about the hard earned money college athletes will never see and earned? In the world of college sports its win or go home, and to the winners go the spoils.

Most successful college sports teams rake in millions of dollars in revenue. Steve Spurrier, the coach for the Florida Gators signed a six year contract where he would make a little over 2.5 million dollars a year not including certain benefits like a free car for his wife. So with the institutions and coaches getting rich off their player who is to say that the player does not deserve a share of the wealth? Most college athletes get around 200-250 dollars a month for living expenses and spending money, this is very small compared to the student who has time to work. Some people say that athletes get paid by having a scholarship but if you look at the ulterior motive behind scholarships I think people would change their minds. Coaches try to get players who they think have the talent to make them win and to persuade them to come to their school they try to give them scholarships. So the whole idea behind a scholarship is to lure the student to come to your school. Scholarships are just a recruitment tactic. Don’t confuse what I am saying though I don’t think college players should be making millions of dollars but there should be a set salary for all players no matter if they make the highlights everyday or ride the pine. The players should make at least what a person who works making eight dollars and hour would make in a year, and that is a modest salary too. Every player of a college sport puts in countless man-hours of work to their sport instead of going out and getting a job they have to devote all their time to this.

A huge debate is should players have the right to their likenesses? If you go to a bookstore in Jacksonville you would probably find a Rex Grosseman jersey for sale for about one-hundred-and-fifty dollars. Now even though it has his name on it and his number none of the money that was used to purchase the jersey will ever see Grossemans hand’s, the money usually goes to many departments including the Dean of the school but none of the money goes to the athletic department. So who has the right to decide if the kids who put in their hearts and souls into their sport should not get paid?

The NCAA has banned college players from receiving extra benefits from anybody. Recently though the NCAA has begun to re-think their decision on this subject, with players and college getting caught all the time for giving and receiving extra benefits the NCAA are starting to think about reforming their laws. It is detrimental to both the school’s name and the player’s for being caught for extra benefit scandals. Some people say that there is too much under the table payment going on to enforce anyways. If the athletes got what they deserved and got paid to play this would not be an issue.

Paying athletes to play should be legal they put too much time into it not to get paid. So while the coaches get paid more than the President of the United States does players sit back and have to be content with the sweat off their back as payment. Without the players coaches would not get paid as much as they do nobody goes to see a college game to see the coach in action they go to see the players. Nobody turns on the television to see how well the coach will react in a game they watch it to see their team, their players in action. So there is much conflict in the world of college sports about where the money should go. Should it all go to the schools and coaches? Or should the players that make the games possible and make the coaches salaries and jobs available get a cut of the check also? This is a question that will go unanswered until somebody takes a stand against the corrupt underbelly of college sports. In conclusion should college athletes get paid to play? In my opinion yes they should there is too much money that they have earned floating around going unanswered for the players not to get their cut. So never mind the winning touchdown, never mind the cheerleader girlfriend, what about the student athlete?