Why Student Athletes Should be Paid
Weather they should or should not be paid is a huge controversy that could be discussed for hours on end. Both sides have very reasonable points, but we will now go into full depth for each side. We will first look as to why the student athletes should be paid. In modern day society, this is the most supported side as a lot of people in media believe that college athletes should be paid. It is by far the most popular opinion to have. Especially from the ex-professionals who have been through it all and have experienced everything from the inside.
Student Athletes themselves earn their school millions of dollars, increase enrollment and if they do well at the sport they get an edge of recruiting the top talents. Through ticket sales, media rights, advertising, and anything else with a price tag, these athletes are symbols for their school and their program. Earlier we went over March Madness and how popular it is, but even though it is one of the most successful sporting events every year, the student athletes themselves do not get paid. During last years March Madness, the NCAA made $900 million while $9.2 billion was gambled on the outcome. Obviosuly, there are crazy amounts of money being made by the NCAA, but the athletes that put on the show themselves have nothing to show for it. They are playing in large sold out arenas getting their names chanted, but they have no financial outcome. Imagine planning and paying for a family trip down to the beach, but your younger brother gets all the praise and love for it just because he is the "favorite child." He did nothing to plan that trip, but he gets thanked every five minutes for "putting this family trip together." That is what being a student athlete is like.
Playing on a college sport team is basically like a job. Everyday they wake up early to workout, watch film, go to practice and then go to do academic responsibilities. Unlike a job though, they do not get paid. They put in intense amounts of time and effort into their schools athletic program and they get no financial benefit from it. Another point that is being made in favor of them being paid is that it would build a foundation on how to manage their money. A lot of professional athletes go broke after their glamour years of being a pro. If they got paid in college they would be acustom to having money knowing how to manage it. Another point that must be made is that college athletes are risking their health every game for their team. Specifically in football, injuries happen every game and it is not guaranteed that you will make it to the pros in a healthy condition. Just one wrong tweak of the leg and your career could be over. Some athletes careers have even ended in practice while doing drills. The worst part about this is that for some kids their sport is everything, they have no plan B. If you take away sports from them they are "nothing." If they sadly were to get injured they would have no financial stability to rely on. The NCAA paying college student athletes would all around make college sports a better environment.
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