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Mitchell Walters
Gloria Creed-Dikeogu
Research Techniques and Technology
6/24/15
Should College Student Athletes Be Paid To Play?
Abstract
This bibliographic essay can be used to help in the decision on whether college student
athletes should be paid to play or not. The fight between college athletes representatives and the
NCAA has been going on for five years or more on whether college athletes should be paid.
There are reasons on why universities should pay athletes to play and one being that according to
the U.S. labor law, student athletes are qualified as employees of their universities. A collective
bargaining agreementwould pay them in plenty of other different ways such as paying for all
college expenses, medical coverage, and postgraduate benefits. The main argument to pay
athletes is that the universities and the NCAA are making so much money off of them through
ticket sales, merchandise sales, television revenue and many more opportunities. There are more
people saying that paying athletes is a bad idea one being that they are already getting an
adequate amount by tuition being paid for along with room and board plus playing in state of the
art facilities. Coaches of these top athletic teams are being paid millions of dollars for what they
do, so why can't the athletes be paid for what they do. There have been lawsuits against the
NCAA the two most notably the Ed OBannon case and the Northwestern football players. The
importance of this topic is discussed throughout the paper from the scholarly sources. While they
might be scholarly articles they are explained in the paper at a level that can easily be understood
and comprehended by the general public.

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Introduction
There have always been a lot of questions about whether college athletes should be paid a
salary instead of scholarships for playing sports. Division 1 athletes at the colleges such as the
University of Kansas, Kansas State University, or Wichita State University, make a lot of money
off the hard work of these athletes. The money made off of these athletes play comes from
television revenue, merchandise sales, ticket sales, and many other things, but these athletes do
not get compensation for it. The whole idea is to make money for their college institution so they
then can spend the money on athletes, but in different ways. There have been lawsuits, a recent
one by Northwestern University football players, to see if a court can overturn these rules. The
researcher will look into the advantages and disadvantages of whether college athletes should be
paid or not and then also what plans are afoot regarding this situation, that move athletes forward
past recent lawsuits about this topic.
Reasons to Pay College Student Athletes
In the article, Should College Athletes Be Paid to Play? by Kenneth Cooper, Robert
and Amy McCormick are Michigan State law professors. After extensive research, they
concluded that according to U.S. labor law, college student athletes are qualified as employees.
The student athletes are entitled to negotiate wages, hours, and working conditions especially at
public universities. This article is a great example of an opportunity to explain why student
athletes should be paid a salary. The researchers background as law professors should be enough
evidence tobelieve that they are more than capable of making this argument. The most important
thing that they are saying is that student athletes have full time jobs just like anyone else who
works 40 hours per week. They have practices that are mandatory, film sessions, meetings, study

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hall hours, fundraising, and on top of all that they have to play their games. According to this
article since student athletes qualify as employees, they should be rewarded with those benefits.
In a letter, "Collective Bargaining in College Sports?", that Emmett L. Gill writes to the
editor found in The Chronicle of Higher Education database, he ponders why there is not a
collective bargaining agreement between the student athletes and the NCAA. Like the NFL,
NBA, MLB or any other professional league, the collective bargaining agreement is in place so
that the athletes get the benefits they deserve from playing. An example shared in the letter
would be postgraduate benefits such as receiving scholarship money to get into a graduate
program. Another benefit that is really important would be medical insurance for anything that
happens to an athlete during or after their college experience. Gill is a highly intelligent man
being an assistant professor in the department of social work at North Carolina Central
University. This is a great idea for the student athletes and this would be an alternative way for
them to get paid.
The article Should College Student-Athletes Be Paid? is a debate involving Horace
Mitchell and Marc Edelman. Edelman is an associate professor of law from Zicklin School of
Business, Baruch College who explains information about the annual revenue that was gained
and how the student athletes are a part of that, and so should be paid. The annual revenue being
gained is coming from ticket sales, merchandise sales, sponsorships, television revenue and
many more, but out of all of that there is no compensation for the student athletes as employees.
Yes they get their education paid for and plenty of other things too, but they are not being paid as
an employee even though they are making the NCAA and the universities billions of dollars. Due
to their scholarly background this information can be trustedand original since it is strictly the
two debating against one another.

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Reasons Not to Pay College Student Athletes

The article D-I Athletes Already Nicely Compensated from the newspaper USA Today
was written by an unnamed college softball coach. She writes that students have plenty of perks
including tuition scholarships, books, room and board, medical attention and much more. There
is no doubt that everyone knows that college is expensive and athletes work hard to get these
benefits. What she is trying to say is that the athletes need to appreciate what they are receiving
and for the D-1 athletes having state of the art facilities for them to compete in. She compares
different sports and clubs to footballprograms saying the other sports and clubs deserve the same
things even though the football program makes more money. Football has more opportunities to
gain money because of the space in the stadium that gains money and the TV deals that are in
place to show their games. The scholarship money that the college athletes receive is also tax
free for them. This article is credible because it was written by a sports columnist for a wellknown paper, USA Today. This article is original because the writer is of the opinion that this is a
hot topic in the college sports world.
In the article An Open Letter to Division I College Presidents and Governing Boards:
Fix Skewed Incentives in Your Sports Programs, Arne Duncan and C. Thomas McMillen wrote
a letter to division one colleges, University Presidents, and University Trustees claiming they
would like to see a better alignment between athletics and academics. They claim that most
athletic departments in the country would not be able to cover their expenses without receiving
money from student fees or other institutional funds. There have been instances where a team
might do exceptional throughout the year, but is later penalized because of poor academic
performance.Another example of a problem would be the one and done rule in college basketball

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where freshman can enter the NBA draft after one year in college so that might not be trying hard
in their classes because they know they are done.
The article Student Athletes Shouldnt Unionize by Patrick T. Harker focuses on the
ruling made with Northwestern University saying that college athletes are employees and are
allowed to unionize. The author along with the President of the University of Delaware and a
Board of Directors member of the NCAA writes that it would be bad to unionize. They claim it
would not be good for the sports and the fans of the sports. If the players were to unionize there
would be more bargaining with the NCAA which could lead to problems if either side is not
satisfied. The article originates from the newspaper The New York Times so it is credible plus the
contributors are prestigious themselves. The intended audience of this article would be everyone.
The article Should College Student-Athletes Be Paid? is a debate involving Horace
Mitchell and Marc Edelman. Mitchell is arguing that college athletes are not considered
professional athletes and therefore cannot be paid. If any college player had received some type
of payment of anyone during their recruiting or while they are at school, they are considered a
professional player and deemed ineligible to play according to NCAA rules. College players are
also not allowed to do endorsement deals or receive money from selling memorabilia.This article
does is original and the contributors to the article make it a creditable article because of the
opinion base it has from scholarly contributors.
In the article How to Save the NCAA from Itself, writer Allen Sack is a former college
football player from the University of Notre Dame and is writing about how the NCAA is
destroying itself. He talks about how college football is creating so much revenue and how the
coaches are so well paid, but the students are not compensated financially. Lawsuits such as the
Ed OBannon case are discussed and the College Athlete Protection Act is introduced to protect

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the players more. In this act he discusses examples of benefits for the players that include
covering all costs of college for athletes and medical benefits. This article is credible because of
the database it comes from, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the fact that the writer is a
former college football player. The intended audience for this article was for more educated
people including people from the NCAA so they can see what they can improve on.
The article To the Coaches Go the Spoils from the newspaper USA Today, has four
different columnists giving their opinions on paying college athletes. For they most part they are
against playing college student athletes to pay. They say that the athletes are getting a free
education and if they do things correctly they will have many paths in the future. Colleges do not
really need the big money to keep up on everything, but since they do make the money people
are bound to complain that it is not going to the right place. It also points out how much coaches
are getting paid especially those at the top division one football and basketball teams. Some say
schools use the term student athlete as an escape to claim them as employees and then there are
the different views discussing whether or not they should be paid. This article is credible because
it comes from a well known newspaper, USA Today. For the most part this article seems original
because it is using statistics and opinions.
Lawsuits OverPaying College Student Athletes
The website article College Athletes Win Landmark Lawsuit but NCAA Keeps Power to
Cap Revenue Sharing by Roger Groves, goes into detail about the Ed O'Bannon case and how it
helped the athletes saying that universities are not allowed to prohibit them from using their
name to generate revenue. What it also says about the case is that it is just the beginning of what
could be many lawsuits against the NCAA and the universities. There are plenty of other issues
besides the antitrust laws that will come up to surface that they will have to deal with and

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possibly take all the way to the Supreme Courts. This article is credible because of the website it
was published on and the author is a professor in a couple of different programsfrom the Florida
Coastal School of Law. The article was intended for anyone that has a computer and can do a
Google search about the subject.
The article Northwestern Football Team Holds Union Vote, but Result Is Cliffhanger by
Jason Hanna from CNN.com, discusses the first actions the Northwestern football players are
trying to make after being granted the right to unionize as college student athletes and being
deemed as employees of their respective universities. There was a vote whether there should
actually be a union and members that should be in charge. The vote was not made public at first
and said it could take months before they do so. The athletes are not necessarily looking for a
salary, but just more benefits like medical, full four year pay to attend college and benefits are
graduating.The article was published on CNN's website so it is be credible. For that reason the
intended audience is anyone who has access to CNN whether on TV or the Internet.
The article Players: 0 Colleges: $10,000,000,000, explains a U.S. federal court ruling
claiming that the NCAA violated antitrust laws by using images and likenesses of the student
athletes without any compensation. This topic that is Ed O'Bannon lawsuit against the NCAA
and another factor he discussed was about having money set aside for students for when they
graduate. He explains in his lawsuit how there was barely enough time for his academics because
of basketball. There are many things the NCAA could do to protect their athletes more including
giving them benefits during and after college. The intended audience for this article was written
for more educated people because of the journal it was published in. The article is credible
stating what already happened when the NCAA violated antitrust laws and there was the Ed
O'Bannon lawsuit.

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In the article 'I Was an Athlete Masquerading as a Student: Ed O'Bannon Testifies as
Antitrust Trial against NCAA Opens by Brad Wolverton, discusses the first day of trial in the Ed
OBannon case against the NCAA. In court, OBannon explains how he was at school, but he
was not a student because of all the time that basketball took him away from the classroom. He
also explains how all college student athletes and even younger kids such as Little League
baseball players are generating revenue, but are not being compensated for it. If kids are not
allowed to take money from anyone before and during college then why is there so much money
being made off of them and no benefits in return. This article is credible because of the database
it came from, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and the fact that it was covering a live event in
a court room. The intended audience for this article was people who are interested on keeping up
on the case probably mostly college athletics fans and NCAA executives.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there have been many faults by the NCAA as explained in this paper and
that has been publicized in the past five years. Athletes are not completely at fault, but there has
to be some action taken and soon. The beginning question and the title of the paper was should
college student athletes be paid to play? From the research conducted there were more people
around the country saying no that should not happen. However, there should be more benefits for
these players like full coverage cost on school, medical and concussion tests, and help to finding
careers after they finish college. They give so much to the universities in their four years there so
why not give them som help.

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References
COOPER, KENNETH J. "Should College Athletes Be Paid To Play?." Diverse: Issues In Higher
Education 28.10 (2011): 12-13. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 June 2015.
"D-I Athletes Already Nicely Compensated." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Premier. Web. 16
June 2015.
Duncan, Arne, and C. Thomas McMillen. "An Open Letter to Division I College Presidents and
Governing Boards: Fix Skewed Incentives in Your Sports Programs." (n.d.): n. page.The
Chronicle of Higher Education. Web. 24 June 2015.
Gill, Emmett L., Jr. "Collective Bargaining in College Sports?" Letter. 13 Mar. 2011. MS. North
Carolina Central University, Durham, North Carolina.
Groves, Roger. "College Athletes Win Landmark Lawsuit but NCAA Keeps Power to Cap
Revenue Sharing." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 08 Aug. 2014. Web. 17 June 2015.
Hanna, Jason. "Northwestern Football Team Holds Union Vote, but Result Is Cliffhanger CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network, 25 Apr. 2014. Web. 18 June 2015.
Harker, Patrick T. "Student Athletes Shouldnt Unionize." New York Times 02 Apr. 2014: A27.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 June 2015.
Mitchell, Horace, and Marc Edelman. "Should College Student-Athletes Be Paid?." U.S. News
Digital Weekly 5.52 (2013): 17. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 June 2015.
"Players: 0 Colleges: $10,000,000,000." Economist 412.8900 (2014): 21-22. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 16 June 2015.
Sack, Allen. "How to Save the NCAA From Itself." (n.d.): n. page. The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Web. 24 June 2015.
"To the coaches go the spoils." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 June 2015.
Wolverton, Brad. "'I Was an Athlete Masquerading as a Student: Ed O'Bannon Testifies as
Antitrust Trial against NCAA Opens." (n.d.): n. page. The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Web. 24 June 2015.

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