Should Student - Athletes be Paid? Discussion Questions (Essay Sample)

Should student-athletes be paid?
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course Name
Date
Introduction.
The college sports is a billion dollar industry, generating approximately $11 billion in revenue every year. Out of the colleges involved fifty colleges report annual revenues over $50 million annually in college sports. These revenues are generated from various sources such as the sale of broadcast rights, returns from ticket sales and sponsorship rights. College students are the backbone of the college sports industry. Just like other successful entities in other industries, student’s athletes work hard in practice as well as in the tournaments in order to represent their colleges in full capacity. In return, their respective schools have over time offered them scholarships covering their school fees expenses, transport, food, and accommodation.
Over the past decades, the growing college athletic industry has been gaining immense popularity among the American people since college sports form an integral part of the American culture. However, over time the issue of participation of student’s athletes off late has sparked a heated debate, generating divided opinions am Americans. Some are in the view that college students make a lot of revenues in sports, and they are a need for them to be allocated part of the revenue. Others are of the opinion that the college sponsorship contracted to the students by the college is sufficient in leveling their contributions. Revenues from college sports over time have always been passed to the NCCA and colleges who pay their coaches. The fact the returns from college sports are restricted to the hands of a few administrators, coaches, and athletic directors has resulted in various opposing views. The issue of students getting an extra cut apart from the educational expenses there are catered for has received a nearly unanimous support among the general American society. While the NCCA, college coaches, college administration and a few members of the American Society opposed the allocation of revenue generated in college sports to student athletes.
With the massive, controversial debate on the payment of student’s athletes, the future of college sports is unclear. College Sports play a very vital role both socially and economically. The competitive nature of the sport brings together the American people creating social various ties in both in our college system as well as in the general public. The increasing debate over the welfare of the student-athletes is continuously threatening the college sports culture that we have created for many years. The future of the college industry is also uncertain if the debate on student payment debate continues unsolved. I am going to research on whether student athletes should be paid. I will research on the topic question; should student athletes be paid? Under the following subtopics, reasons why students should be paid, the reason students should not be paid and conclusion.
Background information.
Should student athletes be paid? Is a question facing the popular American college sports, it is a question that is born of disparity. Students generate a lot of money in various college sports making college sport to become a million dollar industry in the recent past. Popularity in the college sports has seen the industry reap a lot of benefits in terms tickets and broadcasting rights. Despite they effort, student athletes receive a paltry cut of the revenues generated via scholarships. Many over many decades ago before the true professional college league was established, "amateur" student college athletes received cash payments. But the current amateurism that has been modeled by NCAA has put forward strict rules that forbid student-athletes from getting a salary for taking part in college sports. To achieve this NCAA has come up with antitrust law, which regulates student-athletes’ access to college revenues. The NCAA defends its plan of no pay because paying students athletes would lead to the destruction of the competitive nature of the college sports. According NCAA if students-athletes are paid to play they might lose eligibility; they might sign contracts with agents, or play on professional teams. Amateur sport stands out for positive values in comparison to professional which is the opposite. Amateur sport is good for students since it brings elevation while professional sport is degrading and bad. However, several groups and individuals have come out championing for Inclusion of students in the paycheck from the massive profits generated. Their argument for student athletes’ inclusion on the paid to play comes down to economic efficiency, collaborative justice and reasonable adjustment of the antitrust law. Student athletes are deemed to be hard workers who have to ensure success by balancing their school work and sports. They usually have to work extra hard in college games so to make scholarship offered them count. The debate on whether the student-athletes should be paid has also captured the attention of the president. The leader of the free world, Barrack Obama in an interview said that colleges ought to take greater responsibility for the welfare of student-athletes (McGuire, 2015). He also said that they were the need for NCAA to address rules enforced on student-athletes since the scholarship plan was a slippery slope. The power conference in college sports are moving in autonomy in the quest to come up with a viable solution on the student-athletes pay tussle. The NCAA has struggled on regulating collegiate sports guidelines. However, it has come under massive criticism since it generates so much revenue at the expense of the student’s athletes who receive a lesser money in terms of scholarship. The president has joined many more in pointing out the problem. The majority of the former college student-athletes expressed they frustration at the management of college sports. They are frustrated by the fact that coaches and athletic directors get paid millions of dollars at the expense of student athletes who work very hard and only receive a scholarship as part of the bargain. In the recent times, various lawsuit have emerged. Judges have been finding it hard in addressing cases on payment of college athletes. For instance, on August last year, a federal judge ruled that the NCAA policy that barred college athletes from receiving payments had violated the antitrust laws. In his ruling, the judge said that student-athletes in top sports such as basketball and football should be able to receive the small amount of many at the end of their career. The judge’s decision sparked a lot of controversies as the NCAA sort to appeal the decision (Green, 2015). A group of former student-athletes have also emerged in pursuit of reforming the NCAA. They have filed a lawsuit alleging that student athletes should be entitled to a portion of the money that NCAA generates from using their likeness, names on merchandise such as video games and jerseys. Off late interviews that tend at addressing the issue of students, payment have emerged off late. Sports analyst, fans, and former student-athletes have been interviewed putting more weight on the topic of payment on student athletes. A majority of the former student-athletes who have been interviewed criticized the NCAA and the various college managements in the country pointing out that students-athletes are being exploited by the current laws. On the hand, analyst have had a neutral opinion in relation to the issue of payment of student-athlete. They point out the despite each opposing group having reasonable opinions; they are a need for the opposing parties to come up with a common ground. Arguing that college sports are part of our American culture and should be safeguarded.
Reasons why student athletes should be paid
Jay Bilas, a former student-athlete, who after years as a college athlete has been making a case for paying student-athlete. He argues that student athletes should receive compensation. His argument is based on the fact sports organizations and colleges benefit a lot from student athletes’ efforts. Bilas say that by paying athletes we will be solving the problem of fundamental fairness. He thinks that is not fair for NCCA to be running professional sports and students are only restricted to their allowance and nothing more. He says, "it is not only limited to the jersey, but student-athletes have value in everything that is sold." In his opinion college athletics should be treated with the same measure as other people in other industry (Chen, 2013). According to Marc, the no pay rules that has been formulated by the NCCA violates Part 1 of the Sherman Antitrust. The Act states that every conspiracy or combination restraining trade is illegal. Applying the law to the decision of the NCAA members on the abolishment of payment of student athletes violates the antitrust law. Hence, it is only logical to pay students, athletes, since failing to you will restraining trade which wrong according to antitrust law. Marc also argues that, college games cost the students part of the semester while participating in college games. They have to maintain good grades while balancing college sports. He argues that college student-athletes have to work extra hard, and it is only logical for the NCAA to appreciate them by paying them. Groups of former student athlete have over time criticized NCAA seeking for compensation of student athletes. They argue that scholarship given doesn’t correspond to the level of contribution student-athletes’ offer during college sports. According to these groups, NCAA should compensate student-athletes for using they licenses in promotional activities.
Tyson, who is a former profe...