College Athletes Should Not Be Paid

While they may receive full or partial academic scholarships, not a single college athlete is paid. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, which regulates 23 sports at 1,200 schools across the US, has repeatedly argued student-athletes should not get salaries. While Paying students would make sports more competitive, athletes in college should not be paid because college students are financially irresponsible, there is no fair way to pay college athletes, and most college athletes get sports scholarships which is payment enough. First, athletes in college should not be paid because college students are financially irresponsible.While college students acknowledge the importance of being financially responsible, many don’t actually

Ultimately, there is no fair way to pay every college athlete. First, the colleges have to find a feasible way to raise the money to pay such performers without changing the landscape of college sports. According to figures compiled by USA Today in the 2011-2012 year, only 23 of the 228 NCAA Division I public schools made enough money to cover expenses. Of those 23, only eight, including the University of Texas, did not receive subsidies. Sure, football and men’s college basketball bring in a lot of money, but they have to do this in order to pay for all the other sports that lose money. According to the 2013 University of Texas Sports Revenue Report, the only other sports, other than football, to turn a profit were men’s basketball ($10,220,155) and baseball ($4,302,058) during the 2011-2012 season. The 13 others sports lost money, including nine women’s sports. Women’s rowing, soccer, track and field/cross country and volleyball lost more than $1 million and women’s basketball lost more than $3.3 million. Texas and Texas A&M could afford to pay all its athletes equally, but the vast majority of college sports programs are not cash cows. For them, paying all athletes a substantial amount of money is impossible. it would only be fair to pay every athlete on campus equally. But it's not fair to pay the participants of those few revenue sports the same as the non revenue

Most college athletes almost always get their full tuition paid for, or at least significantly discounted. Billions are given to athletes each year, and in some cases, the average athletic scholarship at a school actually exceeds the school’s tuition. For instance, consider Ohio State, one of the biggest and most well known football programs in the nation. The average in-state tuition at the university is just over $10,000 a year, yet the average athletic scholarship is $17,856 for male athletes. In other words, these athletes are having their full tuition paid for, in addition to other perks. Even if a student is not actually receiving money towards tuition, they often get expert, NFL level coaching and freebies such as housing, meals, clothing, medical care, and professional