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Jack Berger
Adam Padgett
English 101-125
April 4, 2016
Should College Athletes Get Paid?
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a non-profit organization that organizes
and regulates college athletes and athletic programs of many colleges and universities. The way
the NCAA and college sports have changed since the beginning of its existence, is extremely
shocking. In other words, the NCAA like stated before, started as a non-profit organization, and
although it still is considered such, they received $871.6 million in revenue due to
entertainment that these collegiate athletes provide. Given they gave a large portion of that
money back to the Division I universities and colleges, they make a lot more money than in the
past. Also, whether it be the different styles of play, the different type of players, the rule changes
in the game, or the rules that the NCAA enforce, there have been many changes for this industry.
The most current and most talked about topic related to college sports today is the argument over
whether or not college athletes should be paid. Now this argument about possibly paying these
college athletes has so much more than what appears. There are questions about players
receiving salaries, players being able to sign endorsement deals, and players being able to receive
money for things like signing autographs. It is believed that college sports have become way
bigger than what the founding fathers of the National Collegiate Athletic Association had
intended or expected. If the empire of college sports that has been created continues, college
student athletes should be monetarily compensated.

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The first thing people think about when they hear the topic of college athletes possibly
getting paid is each individual receiving a salary. Now although these players receiving salaries
is totally out of the question, if college athletes end up getting paid, it is probably one of the less
likely answers to this argument. The fact of the matter is, most every school with a big Division I
college sport, do not make very much profit if any profit at all of those sports. So according to
ESPN Senior Writer Scoop Jackson, The bottom line is that athletes should not be paid a salary.
They should get something more than what they are currently getting. Say these schools did pay
their athletes salaries though, that would just kick up another huge controversy in deciding which
athletes should get paid and how much. Going back to what these athletes should be paid for are
things like merchandise and endorsements. John Brill, who is a writer for The Shirley Povich
Center for Sports Journalism, writes in an article that Areas in which the NCAA defies its own
devotion to amateurism are the sale of video games licenses, game merchandise, footage, etc.,
that provide direct profit for the association. The players directly promote these examples, but
the benefits received are to the NCAA and schools alone. Giving at least a percentage of the
money resulted from the sales of these things is a practical fix because it moves away from the
schools directly paying these student athletes and just rewarding them with the money that is
created from their hard work.
Sports jerseys are a very trendy and demanded product in the sports industry and a jersey
is not truly complete without a number on the back of it. Big time merchandise companies like
Nike and Under Armor have the license to sell these collegiate jerseys. These jerseys that those
companies were selling wore the numbers that represented big time athletes and because of this,
there was eventually a huge revelation that cause the NCAA to make changes. According to
ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Billas, these jerseys were searchable by player name,

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although no surname is present on the jersey. Therefore, searching Johnny Manziel jersey
directs users to Texas A&Ms website and displays a jersey bearing his number. What causes
this situation to be an issue is that states have enacted right of publicity statutes to protect the
misappropriation of an individuals image. Using a players number on the jersey of his
corresponding school is arguably a misappropriation in itself. So if the NCAA claims to have
always treated each student athlete as an amateur, they should have been compensating these
athletes for the sales of the jerseys that corresponded to them. Lastly on the topic of jerseys, the
changes the NCAA has made to protect the players publicity statues has caused fans frustrations.
Speaking from personal experience, it is frustrating when you want to buy your favorite players
jersey and all you can find is a jersey with the number one on it or a jersey with a 16 on it for
the 2016 season.
Certain people are disgusted by the talk about college athletes being paid and the main
argument is that these kids are student athletes. This means that they are students first and
athletes second. Now, if this were actually the case, there wouldnt be much of an argument to
pay them and there should not even be a discussion about it. John Brill again, makes a strong
point that between weight training sessions, film room, practice, individual workouts, travel,
and finally competition, these student-athletes cannot feel much like students. Not only are all
of these activities required by coaches and take up a significant amount of effort, but this takes
time away from their education. Athletic scholarships are not guaranteed anymore like they used
to be. If the coach is unhappy with the athletes commitment to the team or has a valid reason,
they can strip them of their scholarship. So now not only does this intense sports schedule
possibly take time away from their education, but it eliminates the opportunity for the kids to try
to seek out part time jobs to provide for their family. For example, if they miss a number of team

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meetings, strength sessions, or practices, their scholarship can be taken away and possibly even
force these kids to drop out of college. Former Duke and NBA basketball player Shane Battier
once stated in a round table discussion with Congress that college athletics are more demanding
than professional athletics. Although you could say that he is only a basketball player and
cannot speak for the rest of the sports, basketball is not considered to be an easy sport in the
peoples eyes all around the world.
The second argument against paying college athletes is that these kids are getting paid
with sometimes a cheap if not free education. But I see this argument to be faulty because the
education of a big time Division I athlete is not of the same quality of a non-athlete. Brill states
coaches will at times schedule less challenging classes, or ones that will fit easier into a practice
schedule. An example of this is when there were players on the University of North Carolinas
football team taking fake classes in order to easily pass and reach the minimum GPA requirement
for athletes to remain on sport teams. Situations like this do no sound like fair forms of payment.
The other point Brill makes is that if the school says they are compensating these athletes with an
education, the college would have to assume that a college degree always pays off in the long
run. In reality, the glut of bachelor degrees entering the workforce is lessening their value.
Without actually experiencing the class room and receiving the right networking and advising
opportunities, it cannot be assumed that the degree is worth the athletes time. Essentially the
college is cheating them out of a true education and still making revenue from the blood, sweat,
and tears these athletes shed while trying to represent the school in a positive manner.
The NCAA and Division I schools like to say that these student athletes are all amateurs
and they should be treated as such. But Allen Sack, a former Notre Dame football player in the
1960s, says that the NCAA had already compromised its half-century commitment to amateur

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principles. What he means by this is that the NCAA was cracked and finally gave into allowing
these athletes to receive scholarships and once that happened, there is no going back to college
athletes being strictly amateurs. Sack believes that no one noticed this crossover to this treatment
of half amateurism and half professionalism because it occurred so slowly and over such a long
period of time. The only athletes that are truly treated as amateurs are the ones that attend
Division III schools. Having my best friend play on a Division III soccer team at Roger Williams
University, I know the type of time commitment he gives to the program and this commitment is
significantly less that Division I players and even Division II. This is the case because there are
limits on the amount of time coaches can require their Division III players to give to the team
allowing these kids to receive a complete education and one equal to those of non-athletes.
I also have a friend that plays soccer on the other end of the spectrum. He is is on the
Division I soccer team at College of Charleston. From what he has told me, the only down time
from the team that he gets is during the winter months however it still is not all break. They are
always expected to be training on their own so that they are in shape when the team reconvenes
for the season. These Division one teams for any sport pretty much have two seasons although
only one of them really counts for anything. For example, the mens College of Charleston
soccer teams timeline looks a little like this: The whole team has to be on campus in the summer
way before the rest of the non-athletes come and actually start classes to being training. Then the
real college fall soccer season begins in late August or early September and runs all the way until
possibly November depending on if the team qualifies for the post season. Then a break occurs
until around February or March and the team begins to prepare for their spring season that will
last until nearly the end of school. December and January being the only months that these
athletes are free, it makes these kids come across as more professional that an amateur.

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The National Collegiate Athletic Association started in1906 as an organization with the
purpose of protecting student athletes from the dangerous and exploitive athletic practices of the
time. With the NCAA in the current state that it is now, the line between creating revenue and
actually looking out for the best interest of the student athletes gets blurry. And the way things
are looking, its only going to get worse as time goes by because of the selfishness of NCAA and
these universities that depend on these athletes so much. I do not think that there is any specific
route that the NCAA should follow in order to fix the major argument and problem we have
today, but there should start to be at least some small steps to towards helping these student
athletes after all they sacrifice to represent their school well.
Work Cited
Afshar, Arash. "The Conflict Between NCAA Amateurism and a Student Athletes right of
publicity." EBSCOhost. N.p., 2013. Web. 8 Apr. 2016.
Brill, John. "Should College Athletes Be Paid?" The Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism
RSS. 2013. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.
Goplerud, Peter. "Redirecting..." HeinOnline. Web. 8 Feb. 2016.
<http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/stexlr38>.
Grimmett, Edward H. "NCAA Amateurism and Athletics." ESCOhost. N.p., 1 July 2014. Web. 8
Apr. 2016.
Parasuraman, Rohith A. "Unionizing NCAA Division I Athletics: A Viable Solution?" Duke
University School of Law, Dec. 2007. Web. Mar. 2015.
Sack, Allen. "Go All Amateur, or Give Them Pro Benefits." The Christian Science Monitor. 7
Mar. 2008. Web. 8 Feb. 2016. <http://www.newhaven.edu/20719.pdf>.
Sanderson, Allen R. "The Case for Paying College Athletes." American Economic Association.

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N.p., Dec. 2015. Web. Mar. 2016.
"So You Want to Be a Millionaire While You Go to College?" The JBHE Foundation, Apr. 2000.
Web. Mar. 2016.