It’s a common refrain heard from college athletes and their fans: college athletes should be paid for their performance. After all, they generate billions of dollars in revenue for their schools and the NCAA through ticket sales, merchandise sales, and broadcast rights fees. Why shouldn’t they be compensated for their efforts?
There are a number of reasons why college athletes should not be paid. First and foremost, college athletics is an educational enterprise. The primary purpose of college sports is to provide students with an opportunity to learn and grow, both academically and athletically. If college athletes were paid, it would distort this educational mission.
Second, paying college athletes would lead to corruption and scandals. There would be strong incentives for colleges to pay athletes under the table in order to attract the best talent to their schools. This would lead to all sorts of problems, including cheating and fraud.
Third, paying college athletes would create an uneven playing field between different schools. Those with more money would be able to attract the best athletes, creating a two-tiered system that would be unfair and could lead to the demise of college athletics altogether.
This issue has been disputed for a long time. There are several debates about it, and both sides have compelling arguments. I believe that student athletes should be compensated since they put in hard work and have shown their ability to outperform their competitors and be the finest they can be. They should be paid since they work hard, have proven that they can succeed in a professional league, and are dedicated to the activity.
While college athletes should be paid, there are a few reasons why they shouldn’t be and this is where the debate lies. The first reason is that college athletes are already getting benefits that other students are not. These benefits can include free tuition, free housing, and free food. In addition, they also get their own gym to work out in, academic advisors who help them stay on track, and world-class facilities. All of these factors show that college athletes already have an advantage over regular students.
The second reason college athletes shouldn’t be paid is because they are already being compensated in other ways. This includes scholarships, which can be worth tens of thousands of dollars. In addition, many college athletes go on to have successful professional careers, which can earn them millions of dollars. So, while college athletes may not be paid directly, they are still being compensated in other ways.
The third reason college athletes shouldn’t be paid is because it would create a competitive advantage for some schools. Schools that could afford to pay their athletes would be able to attract the best talent, which would give them a leg up on the competition. This would create an uneven playing field and make it difficult for smaller schools to compete.
Many of these athletes have worked harder than any of their teammates, and they are ready to train until their lungs bursting. Many of the coaches believe that these athletes are hard workers who will do everything it takes to be the best. “These pupils devote themselves full-time to training throughout the year, as well as consuming, breathing, living, and dreaming about the sport they play” (Keaundrey clark, Reporter). The instructors also notice that these players have tremendous potential for achieving success in a professional league.
Athletes in college should not get paid because they are getting an education while playing the sport they love, and some of these athletes go on to have very successful professional careers.
Some people believe that paying college athletes will keep them from leaving school early to go pro, but that is not the case. In fact, “The NCAA’s own research has shown that only 1.6 percent of men’s basketball players and 2.3 percent of football players who exhaust their eligibility go on to play professional sports”(NCAA). These numbers show that most college athletes are not good enough to go pro, and even if they were, they would not be getting paid very much. College athletes are more likely to graduate if they are not getting paid, and they are also more likely to stay in school for all four years.
Many people believe that college athletes should be paid because they generate a lot of revenue for their schools, but the reality is that only a small percentage of that revenue actually goes to the athletes. The majority of the revenue generated by college sports goes to the coaches, administrators, and other non-athletic staff members. In addition, most of the revenue generated by college sports comes from television contracts, ticket sales, and merchandise sales, none of which goes directly to the athletes.
The bottom line is that college athletes should not be paid because they are already getting a valuable education while playing the sport they love. If they were to be paid, it would only be a small percentage of the revenue generated by college sports, and it would likely lead to more athletes leaving school early to go pro. Paid athletes are also more likely to be involved in illegal activities such as point shaving and game fixing, which would tarnish the image of college sports.
Paying college athletes would also create a competitive disadvantage for schools that could not afford to pay their athletes. This would lead to even more money flowing into the biggest and most successful programs, while the smaller programs would struggle even more. College athletics is already a very competitive landscape, and paying athletes would only make it more so.
They’ve demonstrated that they’re willing to go above and beyond in order to compete at the highest level. These players have been working hard since they were little kids, barely old enough to play, in order to achieve this goal. When you’re younger and learning to play a sport you don’t excel at, you put in a lot of effort because you want it badly. The Fab Five crammed themselves into said lockers after a devastating championship defeat.
The photo of the five would-be one-and-done stars – Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson – sitting on the bench with their heads in their hands is now cemented in college basketball lore.
The lesson of the Fab Five is that even the most precocious of talents need time to grow. It takes more than a season or two for most players to develop into the kinds of stars who can lead a team deep into the NCAA tournament. Simply put, paying college athletes would rob them of that opportunity.
In 2012, Kentucky won the national title with a starting lineup full of future NBA draft picks. But it was not until Anthony Davis and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had been in Lexington for a year that the Wildcats were able to put it all together and win a championship.
Would Kentucky have won that title if Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist had been able to cash in on their talents by leaving for the NBA after their freshman seasons? We’ll never know, but it’s unlikely.
The same can be said of Duke’s 2015 national champions. Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow and Tyus Jones were all one-and-done players, but they stuck around long enough to help lead the Blue Devils to a title. Would they have made that same decision if they could have been paid? Again, we’ll never know, but it seems unlikely.
The fact is, most college athletes are not ready for the NBA when they first step on campus. They need time to develop their skills and learn how to play at the collegiate level before they can make the jump to the professional ranks.
Paying them would only serve to hasten their departure from school, and in the process, rob them of the opportunity to develop as players and as people. College athletics is about more than just winning games; it’s about helping young people grow into responsible adults.
“There’s never been a more delicate moment to be with a team, and it was easy to picture Michigan’s players’ puffy eyes staring ahead blankly, if only to prevent them from rolling.” (The Fab Five) That is exactly what shows that it is difficult for a team to lose in an crucial game, but they bounced back the next year. When they lose a game or have a poor performance, they do not give up hope; instead, they keep pushing forward and show their true potential when waiting for the opportunity to prove themselves again.
Athletes in general don’t give up they find a way to win even if it means they have to run extra laps or do extra sprints. They work extremely hard day in and day out just for the chance to play the sport they love. Athletes also have to juggle school with their sport which can be very difficult because of how time-consuming both can be. A lot of people think that athletes are just handed everything on a silver platter but that’s not true at all. College athletes go through a lot just to try and get where they want to be. So why would you then want to pay them when they’re already going through so much?
Paying college athletes would take away from the essence of what college sports are all about. College sports are about passion, determination, and heart. Athletes play for the love of the game, not for the money. If college athletes were to start getting paid, it would change the dynamic of college sports entirely. The competitive nature of college sports would be gone and it would turn into a business. That’s not what college sports are supposed to be about.
Some people may argue that college athletes generate a lot of revenue for their schools and that they should be compensated for that. However, most of that revenue goes towards things like facility upkeep and salaries for coaches and staff members.
There is very little left over after all of those expenses are covered. In addition, college athletes are already given a ton of benefits, like scholarships and stipends. They also get free gear and apparel, and they get their travel and housing expenses covered. When you consider all of those benefits, paying college athletes would actually end up costing schools more money than they are already spending.