Essay On Why College Athletes Should Be Paid

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College football is a multi billion dollar industry, while the average division I college generates thirty million dollars a year. The money brought in due to football is an astronomical amount, but not everyone in the program receives the same benefits. The average head coach at a division I college will make 1.64 million dollars a year. The players receive scholarships that pay for college, but free school means the players are ineligible to accept money for their play because it is against NCAA rules, and if they do they will be kicked off the team, and may not be able to play collegiate sports ever again. It is unfair for the athletes who are the very product the NCAA uses to generate their revenue to not be able to reap the very …show more content…

According to the NCAA 1.5% of the 16,369 draft eligible players will make it into the NFL, which means only one in sixty seven Division I football players will ever see money made from football. For a lot of college football players they are not just playing for the love of they game, they are playing to support their families, as well as themselfs, but due to “amateurism”(NCAA). The players are not allowed to receive money for their play because colleges believe it is “Crucial to preserve an academic environment and acquiring a quality education is the first priority”(NCAA). It can not be fair for a player to lose his scholarship, and eligibility to play a collegiate sport for accepting a donation that ultimately keeps them from being homeless. This may seem like an extreme example but it is not that far fetched, in the case of a baylor running back he was released because he accepted a place to live because according to his teammates he had been sleeping on floors till he was offered a place of his own “player released from the team for accepting a place to live, NCAA takes someone’s dream because they can not afford to live”(Volk). The NCAA will not even let players accept donations which in some cases could mean the difference between eating and going