Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay

College athletics is a core part of society, especially the colleges. Colleges themselves make a lot of money off of their college athletes, however, they do not treat them with the same respect. College athletes face terrible obstacles in their life balancing both their athletics and academic life. These problems lead to the debate over whether or not college athletes should be paid, to lessen the burden of college life. Throughout time, there has been an ongoing debate about whether or not college athletes should be paid to play. Many people, including the general community or fans of the college, believe that college athletes provide so much for colleges in terms of money that the athletes deserve respect and money. Others argue that college

For the athletes, the money made from their sport would allow increased concentration on their studies due to less focus on tuition and living costs. As statistics have previously shown about the minimal chances of ever going pro as an athlete, a salary would make the time the college athletes spent on their sport worthwhile, and they can also have a higher chance of being better off financially post college. If their time as a college athlete is made valuable, it will also increase motivation and potential to further hone their skills to perform better in their sport. Though giving college athletes a salary would be exceptionally beneficial for them, it also has negative aspects as well, pertaining to the colleges’ perspective about it. One major argument made against college athletes salaries is that if they get paid, then they would become regular employees, and are then subject to being laid off. In his March Madness interview, Mark Emmert, the head of the NCAA, states how it would be “utterly unacceptable…to convert students into employees” (PBS). There would also be little to no difference between college and professional sports, and would fail to preserve the “amateurism”, as valued by the NCAA. Emmert justified this principle by claiming that “college athletes can’t be paid for their labor or commercial use of their names, images…because such pay would be exploitative” (O’Bannon). This arbitrary line between how college athletes are paid compared to their coaches and their performance on the field does little to fully explain to the extent to which college athletes cannot profit off anything during their college careers. While college athletes receive virtually little to no compensation for their contributions to their sports, their coaches can make up to an average of $1.75 million dollars. Additionally, the NCAA that regulates the rules, standards, and