The question whether to pay college athletes has been a debatable topic over the past few years. College athletes devote many hours to not only their sport but to their academics. Just imagine yourself being a college athlete, taking your game to the next level. Devoting your hard work and dedication to the sport you love. The question that arises from many people is: Why aren't these college athletes getting paid for doing the same thing that professional athletes do? Well, there is more to why college athletes are not receiving pay. Many college athletes already are going to school and receiving a free education through scholarships. Giving athletes pay will create a competitive disadvantage within the schools. Would the pay be given out …show more content…
The probability of these high school athletes, competing beyond the high school level go from 8 million to 480,000. The numbers are only going to decline when considering how many athletes will go from the college level to professional level. The likelihood of a high school or college athlete receiving professional opportunities is very low. For example, there are 73,660 football players that play for the NCAA. Only 16,369 are eligible to be part of the draft even though only about 253 players are drafted to the professional level. This means the percentage college athletes that will play professional football is 1.5%. The same thing goes for basketball, only 60 players out of 18,684 make it to the professional playing field, which is a 1.1%. The positive outlook on these statistics would be that there is a significantly greater chance that an NCAA athlete will receive a college education. According to ncaa.org “graduation success rates are 86% in Division I, 71% in Division II and 87% in Division III.” The graduation rates are ultimately higher for college athletes then the rest of the student body. This just proves how important a college education is to college athletes. College athletics promote athletes to pursue a career in professional sports, providing them with new experiences and life lessons to help them be