Division one college athletics, especially basketball and football, are some of the most popular events in the country. In 2017, the College Football Playoff Championship game was the tenth-most viewed television program in the U.S. at 24.42 million total viewers, and the NCAA Men’s basketball championship game was the thirteenth-most at 23.01 million total viewers (Mitchell). This means that college sports generate large amounts at money from television ratings and exposure. Lots of money is also made by colleges from merchandise sold due to recognition gained by their sports teams. Because of this, many people believe that college athletes should be paid to play their sports. At first, this thought seems like it could be a good idea, but when one takes a more detailed look at the subject, it is apparent that this could never work. Division one college athletes should not be paid for their participation is sports for three reasons: college is a place to further your education and not a place of work, no college has enough money to pay all of its athletes, and the paying of college athletes …show more content…
After all, colleges are founded with the purpose of educating people. The first concern with a college should not be sports, it should be education, no matter how much money they make off of athletics. So with this in mind, why would you give extra money to athletes instead of students? Many division one student athletes already receive full-ride scholarships that cover all of their college-related costs even though they are less qualified academically than many other students who are not athletes. If colleges are going to give extra money to anybody, it should be the outstanding students who are more qualified academically because the theme and purpose of a college is