Persuasive Essay: Compensation For College Athletes

1800 Words8 Pages

Compensation for College Athletes

With all the risks that college athletes take, the demanding schedule they have to work with, and the large sums of money that they make for the NCAA and their own schools, it’s time to stop exploiting the athletes and allow them to receive some of the profit that they are responsible for. College athletics are becoming increasingly popular in the US, football and basketball in particular. With more fans than ever the NCAA and individual colleges are receiving more and more revenue from their athletes.

The NCAA makes hundreds of millions of dollars every year from college athletics. In 2011 the NCAA had $871.6 million in revenue, 81%, or $701 million, of that came from television and marketing fees that Turner and CBS Sports paid for the rights to broadcast sporting events. Another 18% of that comes from ticket sales and merchandising for these events. In 2014 the NCAA’s revenue reached all the way to around $1 billion dollars, and yet the athletes that make it all possible get almost none of it in return. Although the NCAA does give …show more content…

There are many examples of players that don’t see such a fortunate outcome when they are injured. One of the many examples of student athletes who lost their ability to continue playing is Adam Taliaferro. On September 23, 2000 Taliaferro broke his neck and bruised his spinal cord making a tackle. Two days later the promising athlete and bright student underwent spinal–fusion surgery. The bone fragments were removed and a bone graft that was supported by a metal plate replaced the missing vertebra. Taliaferro was given a 3% chance of a full recovery.(Jet) Many believed that Taliaferro would never walk again, fortunately he has regained the use of his legs, however his promising football career is over and he’ll never play again. It is not reasonable for these players to play such a dangerous game with almost no compensation, while the schools that they play for make a profit off of