Analysis: Why College Athletes Should Be Paid

“I talk to student-athletes. I try to get them to remember that they’re not just athletes, but student athletes. You need to get an education, keep your hands clean and try to represent the university. –Earl Campbell. Division I college athletes should be paid a wage or salary because of the revenue that they bring in their schools. College athletes should be paid because of the revenue they bring into the universities, the time they put into athletics, the jersey sales, and injuries from playing. People in today’s world have relied heavily on the entertainment of sports throughout their lifetimes. Sports are an activity that can be played at almost all ages. From a kindergartener playing soccer at recess to a retired man bowling on Wednesday

At Northwestern college, the football team spends an average of thirty-six hours a week year-round training, traveling, and playing football. In the summer, it is the highest and in the late winter, it is the lowest. Once classes begin to start up, it is around 40 to 50 hours per week (Isidore). Student athletes have been exceeding the twenty-hour limit for sports activities. Division I athletes in the NCAA are spending an average of thirty-four hours a week on athletics (Ridpath). Since the athletes are spending more time on athletics than normal, they should be paid for those extra hours. These athletes are doing upwards of forty hours a week, which should inquire them to receive some incentive other than a

For example, NCAA Division I schools generated a total of 9.15 billion dollars of revenue in 2015 (Gaines). Mike Gilleran, from Santa Clara law, makes a point that college sports are like actual businesses that produce a large quantity of income. Another example would be the NCAA and CBS sports making a $10.8 billion dollar del for televising the March Madness tournament between 2011 through 2024 (Wilbon). This means the NCAA alone gets 10.8 billion dollars from annually for one lone TV deal. Since the NCAA is generating billions and billions of dollars, the athletes do deserve to be paid for all of the revenue that they are producing. The NCAA makes almost 11 billion dollars on one TV deal. In my opinion, there is plenty of money to pay the Division I