College Athletes Should be Paid to Play Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

College Athletes Should be Paid to Play - Essay Example Some argue that athletes are paid by virtue of their scholarship and that is sufficient reimbursement for their services. Putting aside for the moment that athletes that participate in the more popular sports earn millions of dollars for the university and that other students reap these benefits as well, athletes are denied the same lack of restrictions to earn while they learn and as a result should be somewhat compensated. The NCAA alone makes hundreds of millions of dollars every year from the men’s March basketball tournament. The bowl games that follow the regular football season supply the conferences with revenues of many million each winter. Now add up ticket and concession proceeds, corporate sponsorships and money gained from merchandise sales that without the presence of sports would not be funneled into a university annually. The athletes know that they generate literally many billions of dollars for their schools, yet are not allowed to earn even pocket change whi le at school, giving their all for ‘ole State U. Athletes are allowed only the most meager of an existence under NCAA regulations. Meanwhile, they witness other students with money enough at least for an occasional date and their coach earning a multi-million dollar salary but know that they are the ones that make the greatest sacrifices. The NCAA reports that of the 1000 schools in its membership, only 40 earn a profit each year, all of which are Division I-A institutions and have either a successful football or basketball program. Though revenues continue to rise for these select schools; the remaining schools are suffering growing deficits. In most cases, schools utilize money gained from its more successful and thus profitable sports programs to fund the other sports activities at the school such as the bulk of women’s athletic programs. The vast majority of schools could not afford to pay for programs that did not pay for themselves if not for the athletes that put ‘butts in seats.’ These athletes are producing enormous revenues that not only pay for other sports programs but pump money into the general scholarship fund. Athletes should be compensated at least minimally but not just athletes that are involved in revenue producing sports. All college athletes should receive a modest salary because all of them allocate so much of their time to their particular sport. Even the non-profitable sports programs provide publicity to the institutions in amounts impossible to quantify. â€Å"There are also student-athletes who have to leave school early because they do not have enough money to continue, or to pay their bills and leaving school for a career in professional sports is an easy way of making money.   The argument is that if student-athletes get paid, they will remain in school and complete their education† (Meshefejian, 2005). When a student-athlete or their family is experiencing financial problems as is the case in m any situations, the pressure to quit school and pursue a professional career is immense. What would motivate an athlete in this predicament to stay and finish school if they were offered even a minor league contract or a backup role at the major league level? Many examples exist where athletes opt to turn professional, then are out of a job within a year or two and cannot return to school because they can no longer be offered a scholarship. If they could have justified, financially speaking, staying in school, many may have graduated and whether or not they succeeded at the professional level, they would have had a diploma and therefore a solid career and a