Rhetorical Analysis Of Should College Athletes Be Paid

Is it equivocal for the NCAA to produce more than $1 billion and for the players, who are the ones who are generating majority of the revenue, to not get paid a single penny? This topic has been widely debated for the past few years, and in “Viewpoint: College Athletes Should Be Paid,” Raman Mama sets forward an argument in favor of the monetary payment of college athletes. The title of the article clearly demonstrates what the author’s intended goal is in writing this article and it seems as if the audience of the article is the general population. In this persuasion article, the author fittingly appeals to two of the three modes of persuasion: pathos and logos. The author appeals to pathos in discussion of the bankruptcy of many professional

This creates an emotional response of empathy to convince the audience that college athletes should get paid. On the other hand, the author directly appeals to logos, when he says, “There’s one fact we must confront: Without the hardworking student athletes who fuel the programs year after year, none of that money would exist. It’s only fitting that we fairly compensate those that power one of the highest grossing sporting enterprises in the United States” (2). The author logically demonstrates the relationship between the athletes and the revenue they create yearly. Simply put, the NCAA amounts to nothing without its athletes. In addition to this logical statement, many other examples of statistics are used to substantiate the uneven balance of business in the NCAA, such as the fact that the University of Michigan’s very own, Jim Harbaugh, gets paid $9,004,000 (1), while his

One thing that the author could improve is the frequent use of generalization. For example, the article states, “‘One and done’ basketball players who spend one year playing college basketball and then declare for the NBA draft are becoming more common, as contracts become more lucrative” (2), however, according to collegesportsscholarships.com, from 2006 to 2012, only 51 players left after their 1st year to be drafted in the first two rounds. In addition, in 2017, only 18 “one and done” players were drafted. In the NCAA Division I basketball, there are approximately 4500 players, and 18 of 4500 only amounts 0.004%. These players only represent a tiny percentage of the NCAA, therefore they become an inaccurate representation of the NCAA. Additionally, the author could better improve this article by appealing to ethos. He already has appealed to logos and pathos, and it would only make his argument stronger by appealing to