Dylan Hazelwood

Mrs Mantalo

English IV

March 12, 2017

Research Paper

The conversation of college athletes being paid has erupted in the last couple of

years due to the fact that athletes feel as if they do not get compensated. Ripping the

love of the game straight from the hearts of players and fans. Some athletes feel as if

they put their bodies on the line for their college every moment their on the field and

they feel like they need to be paid for their efforts especially when they are the ones that

bring in the crowd. Not to mention their not stupid, the players among the rest of the

world acknowledge that colleges acquire millions of dollars just due to ticket and

merchandise revenue, which was paid by fans that love the players and the players feel

entitled to some of that revenue. However, when you look at the fact that college

athletes on a full ride get free tuition, free food, free housing, free books, and tons of

other commodities. It almost outweighs the amount they would even be offered if they

were to get paid. The students are at the university to get an education and everyone

needs to acknowledge that college athletes should not be paid.

In the article Should College athletes be paid? by Kenneth J, Cooper he states

that student athletes are given limitations on their daily routines which in turn they
should be repaid for the time they spend being strictly athletes. However, after doing a

little digging you can find that most colleges set their training and practice times during

the hours players are free, mostly in the mornings giving them the rest of the day for

class and personal needs. Some athletes have even found it made them more time

accountable. Findings suggest student-athletes... have developed strategies to better

manage their time. (Hoover) Some like to try to say that if you are an athlete in college

you are more an employee than a student. student-athletes are not employees, under

the law, and that they should not be treated as employees either by the law or by the

schools they attend. (Cooper) You can consider a sport as a job if you may but the

student chooses to be there, at no point are they forced to be there. It takes a lot of

blood, sweat, and heart to go train almost everyday and then go perform at your best for

your school. Paying them to do it would take the heart out of the game. Which no one

wants. The proof is in the pudding however. The name student athlete means exactly

what it says. Being a student comes first and every school stands by that. Even the

smallest university makes their players meet a certain GPA and if a player falls below

the minimum they are cut from the team. They are there to get their education and then

be an athlete.

Here recently the NCAA has agreed to allow the top five schools to pay their

players for playing. By doing this the NCAA has spread mass chaos, potentially creating

overpowered schools in the process as well. No athlete in his right mind would go to a

college just for the fun of it if he had the choice of attending a school where he would be

paid to do the same thing. This in turn gives more power and recruiting possibilities to
bigger schools who can offer money. Which takes the interest out of the recruiting

process and takes the competition out of sports. This may cause financial issues as

well. Funds and support that should be directed to the academic success of students

may, under this approval, be directed to athletes well beyond the necessary support of

full tuition and fees and the cost of attendance. (Sullivan) This could lead to normal

students having to pay more for just attending the school, yet the student athletes

already are given almost everything they need.

Depending on how you look at it, college athletes are already being paid to play

and they have been being paid for a while now. Once a student is offered a full ride to a

school to play a sport they are not required to pay to go to the desired college along

with many other grants. Then they also have the safety net of the Student Assistance

Fund. The money has helped colleges reimburse players for such things as clothing,

health insurance, summer school, and many other costs that their scholarships do not

cover. (Wolverton) With whatever money is left the athletic department gets the chance

to buy what the team needs like field house improvements, new turf, new scoreboards,

etc. It all comes back to the players in the end. Besides the athletic help they get they

also receive free books, housing and a meal plan customized just for them.

Part of playing sports is trying to get good enough to make it to the pros to make

the big bucks. Yes the NCAA makes a lot of money for the performance of their athletes

but when you take a solid look into everything the student athletes receive its kind of

hard to say that they have it hard and that they need more money. They are there

getting a great education, they have a roof over their head, and food in their stomach for
no cost at all. Sports are loved for the journey you see people go through. The players

strive to get to the pros to make the millions they want, while the fans love seeing the

30for30 stories on ESPN of how the players got to where they are now playing on

sunday nights making millions. It is all for the love of the game and if we pay our

beloved players before their time has come we would lose not only time but

entertainment, college athletes should not be paid for the sake of sports.

Cooper, Kenneth J. Should College Athletes Be Paid to Play? Issues in Higher Education, v28

n10 p12-13 Jun 2011. ERIC jun 23, 2011.

https://eric.ed.gov/?q=should+college+athletes+be+paid&id=EJ931405

Sullivan, Tom. NCAA's Latest Pay-to-Play Scheme Would Sack Concept of Amateur Student

Athlete, Raise Antitrust Questions. New England Journal of Higher Education, Oct 2014
 ERIC October 16, 2014. https://eric.ed.gov/?

q=should+college+athletes+be+paid&id=EJ1044100

Wolverton, Brad. NCAA Money for Student Assistance Lands in Many Pockets, Big Ten
Document Shows. Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan 2013. ERIC January 31, 2013.
https://eric.ed.gov/?q=athletes+paid&id=EJ992927

Hoover, Daniel R., Jr. A Balancing Act: Division III Student-Athletes Time Demands and

Life Roles. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, The College of William and Mary 2012.

ERIC 2012 https://eric.ed.gov/?

q=should+college+athletes+be+paid&pg=7&id=ED549212