College Athletes Should Be Paid

by Maia

Should college athletes be paid? A question that has been debated for years, but not answered. Some argue that getting a scholarship to college is payment enough, but I think that athletes deserve to get paid just as much as any other person. The thing is, most athletes don't end up going pro, and then what? With not a lot of money, they have to find something entirely new to devote their lives to, and fast…

The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) says that getting a scholarship is payment enough. However, Michael Skolove, the author of The Last Temptation of Rick Pitino (which was written in 2018), said, “The [University of] Louisville, generates about $45 million a year in revenue. They give out 13 scholarships. That adds up to about $400,000 a year. The rest of it gets spread out to the coach, who makes $8 million a year, to the assistant coaches, who make as much as half-million dollars a year. All throughout the athletic department, people are making six-figure salaries. It does not go to the players, what I call the unpaid workforce.” That was 13 scholarships for one college, who probably has at least 15 players. Even those 2 people that don’t have a scholarship can make a huge difference. They then have to pay for college and play college basketball without earning any money.

To put it simply, it's not easy for them, or, as Eton Thomas, former NBA and NCAA superstar said in a youtube video from the Matter of Fact channel, “It’s just not economically fair.” Yes, sponsorships do make it easier for the player, but they still deserve to be paid.

The Governor of California (Gavin Newsom) said, “Collegiate student athletes put everything on the line - their physical health, future career prospects, and years of their lives to compete. Colleges reap billions from these student athletes’ sacrifices and success but, in the same breath, block them from earning a single dollar. That’s a bankrupt model.” I agree. Athletes are risking their everyday health in order to play a sport that only pays the head coaches and actual league itself. Athletes have to be incredibly fit in order to even have a chance at playing their sport well. On top of that they have to stretch 24/7, practice like maniacs, keep a healthy diet, and drink tons of water. Many retired, once-pro athletes end up having really bad health problems, mostly from not stretching or taking care of their bodies. Zachary Kerr, PhD, and researcher at the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Study of Retired Athletes stated, “I definitely think research indicates strong evidence that injuries during one’s sports career can potentially be associated with adverse health outcomes later in life.” Injuries are a big risk when you play a sport, and when you’re devoting so much of your time to it, you deserve to get even just a little bit of money. But where does all that money come from?

When people pay for tickets at games and different sports gear, all of that money is going to the universities, as well as the coaches and sports agents, but not to the athletes. How is that fair? Without the players, that money wouldn’t be there. An article titled Paying College Athletes - 3 Pros and Cons said that in 2017 alone, the NCAA earned more than $1.06 billion in only revenue. In 2018, the president of the NCAA, Mark Emmert, was paid over $2.7 million. There were also nine other executives working for the NCAA that were paid at least $500,000 in 2018. One of them was even paid over $1.3 million. How come the players don’t get even a little bit of that huge amount of money? Like I said earlier, most players don’t get into pro, which means they aren’t playing as competitively anymore. They have to find something new to do as a job with very little money and have to choose fast. They deserve to get paid for the money they work hard for.

As you can see, there are many arguments that a person can make to say that athletes shouldn’t get paid, but when they state them, they’re not really thinking about the athlete. A scholarship is very helpful, but not enough in the long run. Players deserve a chance to earn money through playing a college sport, because it’s pretty much like a full-time job for them, and someone working a full-time job should be paid. College athletes need to make a living, and getting paid for playing their sport will help them achieve that.