Essay On College Athletes Should Not Be Paid

College athletes are not getting a full college education due to time spent sports, and they should be compensated for it. They are taking easier classes than their fellow peers, but it is possible for them to juggle both athletics and academics. In Sports and Athletes magazine there was an article with the quote, “Not only do typical athletes in big-time sports enter at an academic disadvantage, they often encounter a diluted educational experience while attending their schools. Coaches, under the intense pressure to win, tend to diminish the student side of their athletes by counseling them to take easy courses, choose easy majors, and enroll in courses given by faculty members friendly to the athletic department” (“College Athletes Should”).

College athletes are putting themselves in danger and not getting paid for it, some injuries they get are life threatening and/or career ending, such as Eric LeGrand from Rutgers. In an online article, a point was brought up about college athletes getting terrible injuries, “There have been instances of players becoming paralyzed by hits or tackles on football fields or other injuries that have ended player’s careers before they even get started” (Patterson). A handful of college athletes have had career ending injuries that have kept them from playing professional sports and some severe injuries that kept them from walking. Although they are not professionals, many of these college athletes can get hurt really badly with life-threatening, career ending injuries. For instance, an article written in the aftermath of Eric LeGrand’s paralysis contained an explanation of what happened, “LeGrand remained motionless on the field. When LeGrand was carted off the field a few minutes later, it was obvious he had suffered a significant injury. Those fears were confirmed when LeGrand was diagnosed with a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the neck down” (Duggan). Eric LeGrand was a defensive tackle from Rutgers, on a kickoff return in the fourth quarter of a game against Army, Legrand had a head-on collision with a player from Army, paralyzing himself from the neck down. Some of these college sports injuries are very serious and can require expensive surgery, costing the

Finally, college athletes are doing the same amount of work as professional athletes but are not getting paid like them. They travel and practice for most of the week with little to no time to study and are not getting equal treatment with professionals, even though they do the same thing. An article from late 2015 notes, “The University of Chicago study notes that growing demand for larger tournaments and more televised games means more travel for all teams involved, as well as more games played on weeknights during the school year” (“Point: College Athletes”). Students are spending more time practicing, playing or on the road than they do in class or studying. In essence they are spending as much time playing and practicing as professionals but are not getting paid for it. For example, Aaron Rodgers is the highest ranked quarterback in the NFL, Cody Kessler is the highest ranked quarterback in college football, both do the same amount of work in practice and in games, only Rodgers gets paid. Unless professionals start playing for free, which won’t happen, then college athletes should start getting some respect and money. Likewise an article written on why college athletes should be compensated for their efforts gave examples of professional players compared to college players, “Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, Clayton Kershaw and Cody Kessler are major stars in the Los Angeles sports market; however, while Bryant, Paul and Kershaw are compensated handsomely for leading their