Throughout the years, Division I college athletes have been putting incredible amounts of blood, sweat, tears, and time into their respective sports. These athletes, most of whom have played their sport since they were children, have dedicated huge amounts of their lives to build their talent that they showcase to the entire nation. Despite this hard work, most athletes still play for the love of the game, college sports have been transformed into an industry or business to promote or profit the schools that they play for. Players are somewhat compensated by receiving full rides to schools, however the NCAA makes significantly more than the average amount of money they provide the athletes for a full ride and many believe they should be paid more along with their scholarships. With a popularized understanding of the way NCAA sports function in recent years, the question arises: Should college athletes be paid for playing? While big time NBA …show more content…
The money that is made doesn’t go at all to the athletes that brought in the funds in the first place, but to the coaches, staff and schools. For example, take March Madness for NCAA men’s basketball. Every year in March, 68 of the best basketball schools in the world play in a tournament to name just one team the NCAA Champions. This tournament annually earns over $ 1 billion through National Television and advertising and with a viewer rating of millions of people, which is continuing to grow each year (Jonnelle Marte, 2013). After the Super Bowl, March Madness is the largest in business when it comes to ad sales for a postseason sporting event. In 2012, the cost of a 30-second ad during the championship game cost $1.34 million, which is almost 3 times more than the cost during the NBA Championship (Jonnelle Marte, 2013). After all of this money is made, I don’t see why the players involved in the tournament do not receive at least some small form of