Should college athletes get paid?
April 29, 2014
Imagine this: You are a collegiate athlete, which means that you will be spending hours working out, training, and studying your opponents. Along with all of this, you will need to do homework and study for tests. Do you think that you should be getting paid for being a part-time athlete in college?
The question of whether NCAA athletes should get paid for their performances is one of the most controversial topics in sports. There are many opinions for and against the idea, but ultimately, for many reasons, these athletes should not get paid for playing for their respective sport.
First of all, playing a sport in college either means that a student is dedicating his or her life to reach for the top, or is just playing as a hobby. With that being said, why would the NCAA pay athletes to play in college? If the athletes were getting paid, student athletes would be more focused on the money rather than the competition they face. It would also change the perspective of some students, encouraging the students to play sports in college because of the money that they can receive instead of the opportunity to get a degree.
Minnesota Vikings’ running back Adrian Peterson pointed out that the players are the ones helping universities make money. Although this is true, the university is the one providing the students with professors who teach them, scholarships, and most of all, the opportunity to play the sport that they love on a higher competitive level.
According to the NCAA, less than two percent of the athletes, actually get drafted to play professionally. Since the percentages are so low, it should be obvious that a scholarship to a college should be enough to satisfy these athletes. NCAA athletes should be more focused on their degree just in case they do not make it into the pros.
Also, the NCAA is a nonprofit organization, so all the money that they make during the year must go back into its organization. Yes, they make a fortune every year, and can be considered to be a monopoly, but that money goes into funding things such as giving scholarships to athletes, salaries, equipment and traveling cost.
Some people would argue that athletes need the money for food because they eat more than the average student since they spend a lot of time training and working out. Another reason is some athletes like Shabazz Napier, University of Connecticut’s guard, blatantly stated said that they go to bed hungry sometimes because they don’t have enough money. As a result, the NCAA recently voted that there shall be no bans on any food amounts, meaning that athletes do not need to spend even a dime on food anymore.
In the coming years, calls for collegiate athletes to get paid will increase, but I believe that NCAA will find a solution to appease and alleviate those on both sides of the argument.
