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Terrell Mensah
8-1-17
ENGLISH CHISM 4
Paid Amateurs

The audience for this paper is complex. On one side we have college athletes that want to be
paid. Part of the reason why some advocate for the pay of college athletes is because many of
them come from poor backgrounds. Clearly, paying college athletes would have an affect on not
only them, but their families and loved ones. These people will probably argue that playing for
free would only be acceptable if their home situations were fine. We also have college athletes
that, though they wouldnt mind being paid, are not necessarily advocating for the opportunity to
be paid. These guys will most likely count for the casual readers of this paper. They might be
reading this article out of curiosity. On the other side, we have the institutions that granted these
athletes full or partial scholarships. This spans from coaches to the people part of the medical
staff. I cant speak for coaches, but I find it hard to believe paying their players is something
theyd approve of. There's only so much money to go around. They would probably believe their
money would be affected. Also, if we were to pay college athletes, it would be very probable for
key players to transfer due to a potentially higher salary. Somebody part of the medical staff
would probably believe their money would be affected too. Also, how might a fan react?
Knowing they cant relate to their favorite player because theyre being paid. These are all
people part of my complex audience. Clearly, there are many different people on different sides.

Paid Amateurs?

The average college student, that graduated from the class of 2016, had an estimated

$37,172 in student loan debt. This statistic is very important. For decades, there has been an

ongoing debate as to whether or not college athletes should be paid. There is no denying that

their workload is immense. In a matter of fact, the amount of time they dedicate to their

respective sports is comparable to people in the workforce. However, if colleges were to paid,

where would the money come from? The reason why I decided to point out the student loan debt
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statistic is because that number would only increase if we actually paid college athletes. If

colleges were to pay athletes, that would decrease the funds for schools. This would have a

domino effect because it would lead to increased tuition and boarding prices. There are about

460,000 NCAA college athletes but there are about 20.5 million students. This means that, on

average, only 2% of the college students play sports. It wouldnt be fair to put the best interests

of 2% of the student body over everybody else simply because theyre athletes. Sadly enough,

this is only one of the various reasons as to why paying college athletes would cause more

problems than it would solve. However, there is an alternative solution to this problem. I believe

there is way to restrict the pay of athletes, but at the same time, eliminate some of the loopholes

that restrict them from getting paid at all.

'Student Debt' Money owed on a loan taken out to pay for educational expenses.

Rapidly rising college tuition costs have made student debt the only option to pay for college for

many students. This term is very relevant in my argument because student debt is a number that

could very well increase if we pay college athletes. Athletes are often found selling autographed

jerseys, game balls, shoes, helmets, gloves etc. These are all examples of memorabilia,

something the NCAA has restricted college athletes from selling. This has been the topic for

debate for many years. A couple years ago, Todd Gurley, was indefinitely suspended by the

University of Georgia over an alleged violation of NCAA rules. It only took two days of

investigation to determine that Gurley had received $3,000 over two years for signed autographs

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and memorabilia. Gurley would miss the Missouri and Arkansas games before the NCAA upheld

its decision to suspend Gurley for four total games. On August 4, 2012, ESPN reported that the

NCAA was investigating whether Manziel accepted payments from autographs that he had

signed in January 2013. The NCAA did not find any evidence that Manziel accepted money for

the autographs, but reached an agreement with Texas A&M to suspend him for the first half of

the season opener against Rice University, due to an "inadvertent violation" of NCAA rules.

These are only two popular examples of athletes being caught trying to profit from their

memorabilia.

In this essay, I will discuss why athletes shouldn't be paid. I already brought up, in my

intro, why student loans and tuition prices connect with my argument. Now I will bring up how

paying college athletes would negatively affect athletic collegiate programs. I will also analyze

documents that prove how paying college athletes could negatively affect the college athletes.

Another point my sources will clarify is the differences between a professional and an amatuer

and why that has a lot to do with my argument. After this, I will bring up some reasons as to why

my point could be refuted. After all of this, I will state my proposed solution to the matter.

While some researchers claim that paying college athletes is the only fair thing to do,

my research suggests that it would create more problems than we already have if the NCAA were

to do so. In 2013, Ron Katz, Isac Vaughn and Mike Gilleran teamed up to write a journal, NINE

POINTS TO CONSIDER REGARDING THE PAYMENT OF COLLEGE ATHLETES. In the

journal they state, Athletic scholarships, however, have represented a form of pay-for-play

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that has avoided unionization, workers compensation and wages for college athletes (Katz,

2013). Their thinking is that scholarships basically serve as the wage that people argue college
athletes should be getting. Technically speaking, most college athletes are paid in free food, free

rooming and board, free books and free education. It is easier for a superb high school athlete to

get full scholarship over a regular student with a with a significantly gpa and test scores. In the

journal, it also states, Colleges shouldnt be able to choose on a sport-by-sport basis whether

they opt for the business model or not (Katz, 2013). This means that if colleges were to pay

basketball or football players, they would have to pay everybody else. In Maurice Reed Joness

article for the Odyssey, Why college athletes should not be paid, He states how it would be

against the law to pay specific teams in a college. This would be violating the federal Title IX

law. This law stipulates equal compensation for male and female athletes. Imagine the conflict

this would cause. The average NCAA school has around 20 teams. It would be hard to believe

that they could afford to pay every player of every team, every year.

Never bite the hand that feeds you (Burke,Edmund). That old saying shows some

relevance in Dennis A. Johnson and John Acquavivas argument in their journal Paying College

Athletes. In the journal, it states, The university can indeed make money from the sports

programs; however, for those that do, the money simply goes back into the athletic program to

fund the non-revenue sports (Johnson, Acquaviva, 2015). Maurice Reed Jones also makes a

similar argument, If colleges were to pay their athletes, there would not be as much money to go

around for any of the other things like the facilities or the coaches (Reed, 2016). The point that

Dennis A. Johnson, John Acquaviva and Maurice Reed Jones is trying to make is that paying

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athletes would be biting the hand that feeds them. This is due to the fact that it would be taking

the money away from the program that gave them the free education in the first place. Coaches

need to be paid, the medical staff needs to paid and the facilities need money as well.
 Certain people believe that, after analyzing the numbers, giving collegiate athletes a

salary would negatively affect them directly. Last year, John R. Theilen published an article for

time magazine called Here's Why We Shouldn't Pay College Athletes. In the article, Theilen

brings up what would happen if college athletes were to have a $100,00 salary. So, a student-

athlete paid a salary would owe $23,800 in federal income tax and $6,700 in state taxes, a total

of $30,500. In cities that levy an employee payroll tax, the salaried students taxes go up about

$2,400 per year. Income taxes than are $32,900 (Theilen, 2016). Theilen then expands on the

negatives a salary would have on a college player. As an employee, the player would have to

pay at least $2,000 in other taxes, such as Social Security, for a total of $34,900. This leaves the

college player with $65,100. Since college bills come to $65,000, the player has $100 left

(Theilen, 2016). By stating this, Theilen proves that college athletes are better off with a

scholarship. If a college athlete doesnt want to be treated like an amatuer, they should have deal

with the reality professionals deal with everyday.

Marc Edelman published an article for Forbes in 2015 giving 21 reasons as to why

athletes should be paid. Edelman believes that college athletes are treated like workers. One of

Edelmans claims were that On average, they devote 43.3 hours a week to the sport, 3.3 hours

more than the typical American work week. He also makes the argument that the way college

athletes tweets are regulated is comparable to that of a worker. The way I can refute this is by

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simply backtracking to John R. Thielen's point on how if we were to actually pay college athletes

as workers, we would have to make them pay taxes and bills, as if they were workers.

I believe I have a proposal that would effectively keep both sides happy. College athletes

should be able to sell their rightfully owned memorabilia. This would help college athletes
without the NCAA having to pay them. Also, the NCAA should allow EA sports to bring back

NCAA video games. EAs NCAA Football 14 football game made 443 million in total sales. The

2013 version made almost 550 million dollars.The revenue from these video games should go

directly to a fund that supports college athletes in need. This way, both sides are happy, including

gamers.

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WORKS CITED

Makuch, Eddie. NPD: NCAA Football 14 Tops Slumping July US Sales.

Gamespot, 15 Aug. 2013,

Jones, Maurice Reed. Why College Athletes Should Not Be Paid.

Odyssey, 18 July 2016,
Edelman, Marc. 21 Reasons Why Student-Athletes Are Employees And Should Be Allowed To
Unionize.
Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 6 Jan. 2015,

Katz, Ron. Should College Athletes Be Paid? Santa Clara Law,

Institute of Sports Law and Ethics, Santa Clara University, 15 July 2013,

Theilen, John R. Here's Why We Shouldn't Pay College Athletes Money.

Time, 1 Mar. 2016

Academy, U.S. Sports. Point/Counterpoint: Paying College Athletes.

The Sport Journal, United States Sports Academy, 31 Jan. 2015, .