Reimbursed College Athletes

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A college athlete by the definition, a person that does work for another in exchange for compensation, is an employee of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (Alessi). These athletes are not given compensation for their service. College athletes should be reimbursed for their skills and athletic abilities. As high school students they are recruited to universities for scholarships and educational opportunities. The National Collegiate Athletic Association requires that college athletes may not be given any form of compensation for their skills, but this is an outdated ruling that does not take in to account the financial pressure of being a student athlete without the ability to provide for his or herself financially, therefore student …show more content…

The National Collegiate Athletic Association claims that college athletes receive ample education but the athletes are out of class significant amounts of time for practice and travel (Alessi). Colleges take away scholarships and give them to other athletes when ones eligibility in a sport is over to bring the National Collegiate Athletic Association more money (Watkins 90). Normal people are paid for work while a college athlete works hard every day and receive no compensation. College athletes have to be successful academically and athletically or they can even be stripped of their scholarships (Watkins 89-90). Doing this requires extensive amounts of time and effort by the college athlete. College athletes work over ten hours a day either studying or practicing for their sport late into the afternoons. The average college athlete has 43.3 hours a week on his or her sport …show more content…

These students lead to believe that they will be compensated for their abilities with a quality education that will be paid for with scholarship funds. Instead they often find that they participate in a minimal academic program to allow for excessive hours of practice and travel for sports participation. While scholarships may cover the majority of the scholastic financial burden they do not account for the cost of living for an unemployed student athlete. The National Collegiate Athletic Association profits millions of dollars off the skills of it’s players and until recently was not required to share any of this monetary gain with these students. Careful consideration should be given to rulings prohibiting student athletes from receiving financial reimbursement for collegiate play. These students require adequate compensation for the time, effort, and passion they pour into their sport which in turn pours millions of dollars into the bank accounts of the National Collegiate Athletic