College Athletes Should Be Paid

College sports in America are massive in terms of popularity and coverage. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) have many sponsored division I sports including, basketball, baseball, American football, soccer, and many more. College athletes have been putting their health and time to the side with little to no financial security. The NCAA, while supposedly a non-profit organization, profits greatly from the sports with no compensation to the players. Most players spend north of 40 hours weekly in practices and games, which is as much as a full-time job, with their only benefits being a possible scholarship and boarding. With no financial security, those who fail to succeed in their sport at the professional level are often left

To avoid paying their athletes they have claimed that the students are amateurs and do not deserve to be paid. The primary reason the “student-athletes” deserve to be paid is because of the amount of revenue and profit colleges earn from these sports. They profit from ticket sales, TV contracts, sponsors, and merchandise. The NCAA are sponsored by the following companies, AT&T, CapitalOne, Coca-Cola, Amazon, Lowes, Nabasico, and more (NCAA.org). In a 2013 controversy the NCAA discontinued the sales of individuals jerseys, after being exposed for selling jerseys and not compensating the corresponding player, they immediately removed that function from their website. President of the NCAA, Mark Emmert, had this to say, "In the national office, we can certainly recognize why that could be seen as hypocritical, and indeed I think the business of having the NCAA selling those kinds of goods is a mistake, and we're going to exit that business immediately" (Schlabach, 2013). This highlights the shady activity of the NCAA over the years. While the NCAA is considered a non-profit organization, President Mark Emmert, has a base salary of over $1.3 million USD (Berkowitz, 2015). Because the NCAA is a non-profit organization, they are exempt from most taxes. That being said, the NCAA makes a large profit, they do not pay their athletes, and they are tax exempt, that is a pitiful way to run a non-profit

Now should they be paid like professional athletes? Probably not all of them. That being said the “all or nothing” way of the NCAA should be a way of the past. I think all players should be compensated, but just like the professionals, it depends on the players worth. At this moment, it seems as if the NCAA values all of their athletes at $0, which is preposterous due to how much profit they receive. How much does the NCAA and their colleges make? From 2015 to 2016 the NCAA saw a $85 million USD increase in revenue, from just under $1 billion in 2015 to nearly $1.1 billion in 2016 (Berkowitz, 2017). This number is staggering for a non-profit organization. Another quote from Emmert in 2014 stated, "We want to make sure they get degrees, and that they really have the education that sets them up for life," Emmert said. "That's the game-changer here. Not the 3 to 4 percent who make it to the NBA" (Morganteen, 2014). Whilst that is all well and good, a sizable portion of these players enter into college sports to pursue a professional career. For those outside the 3-4% of players who make it to the NBA, they are setback drastically as most of their time is consumed by their sport and the popularity that is brought upon