Scholarship Athletes Should Be Paid

Jordan Neely

Dr. Hicks

English 100

Oct. 4, 2017

Argumentation

Scholarship athletes in the NCAA’s scholarship are usually worth $15,000 - $25,000 or more. This scholarship over time could possibly be worth much more than school and board, it is worth a career. For a while now, a big debate upon whether or not college athletes should be paid. Some people feel as if student athletes should be paid for their contributions to their respective schools. Others feel as if a scholarship is payment enough. The NCAA should pay their student-athletes for their contributions to their local society and their respective school(s).

Some people argue that having a scholarship is worth much more than having an athlete’s school and board paid for.

For example, the University of Texas Longhorns brings in approximately $45,000,000 off from ticket sales alone. (Solomon) The rebuttal is that the university pays for most of a student athlete living expenses. Also, some of the athletes are given stipends which vary from school-to-school; on top of the Pell grant, which is the government is money the government issues to its student. The amount or availability of the Pell grant depends on how much the student athlete’s family makes. Some student-athletes go to sleep hungry at night. This is not right considering the fact that the NCAA’s athletic teams funds a bunch of different things like help fund non-revenue athletic programs and etcetera. Yet, the fact of the matter is that, compared to the amount of money that student athletes generate for their colleges, what they receive in return is very small and the NCAA seems to disregard that cold

On the contrary, the university gains $70,000 per year in revenue per scholarship player (this example is just an estimate while the actual number may actually be higher depending on the worth of the scholarship). The university will profit approximately $50,000 per year, per scholarship player, or $200,000 over a four year period. The NCAA just recently upheld a ban on paying athletes. The NCAA was pondering upon paying athletes an extra $5,000 per year on top of stipend and Pell grant; this notion was denied. Ed O’Bannon is a former UCLA Bruin basketball player who sued the NCAA for using his image and likeness without consent. Ed O’Bannon wanted players to have a share in the profits that collegiate conference, schools and the NCAA makes from college sports.