College athletics: Should College Athletes be paid (Research Paper Sample)

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College athletics: Should College Athletes be paid
In the recent years, there has been a major debate as to whether college athletes should be paid for participating in sport events whilst representing their respective colleges and universities. Proponents in this debate argue that they are ‘professionals’ given that they are participating in activities that generate revenue. In contrast, opponents claim that, since most college athletes are on scholarship, they do not deserve to be remunerated. From the over $6 billion make by the NCAA annually, Athletic conferences earn millions of dollars, while the players don’t receive any of that money (USNews). This controversial issue has been the basis for many students to come together to form unions that will serve as a medium through which they will channel their concerns. Consequently, many lawsuits have been brought up against college sports boards regarding compensation of the college sports men and women. Among the leading sports in colleges that are firing up the debate about payment are football, soccer and basketball. The colossal amounts of money institutions make off college athletics continue to spark unresolved debates on whether students should be paid for their efforts, and this paper presents an argument and provides evidence that college athletes should be paid as a way of appreciating them for their commitments and sacrifice for their institutions and to the nation.
The United States is one of the countries whose college athletes are most sought after by professional sporting the clubs. In the open market, these players could get up to hundreds of thousands of dollars, or even more (Koba 1). Given some of the outstanding talents that have been spotted in the colleges, the clubs have continually stepped up their biddings, even sponsoring these students and offering them goodies to attract them to their clubs once they have finished their studies. Estimates show that the bidding war for these athletes per year sums up to millions of dollars. Every year, the value of these players continues increasing. For instance, players who were worth a few thousands of dollars while they were freshmen end up being worth millions of dollars by the time they are in their last year of college. While looking college athletes from this perspective, the question of the effect of this interest from clubs on them and their counterparts comes into question. Those who do not get this much attention from the professional football clubs may feel worthless, and this may end up adversely affecting their education, social life and even future in sport. These players may feel that the college sport boards and the professional sporting unions have forsaken them. It is not sensible for a student to put so much effort into education and sport but gets forgotten at the end of the day. Aspen says that payment should then act as a form of encouragement and motivation to make them put more effort in their endeavors (25). Additionally, there have been reports that the fair market value that has been calculated by America’s leading sports associations, the National Football League (NFL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) should be used to share revenue to the schools and the federal government. It would only make sense that the college athletes get a fair share of the monies.
There have been other arguments regarding the effect of sporting activities on the students’ schooling. For instance, for schools that made it to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) finals in the year 2014, these students had to miss up to 17 days of their classes, which translates to 24.4 percent of the spring classes (Edelman 1). Going back in time, one of the Universities’ men basketball coach is an outspoken critic against the issue of improving the economic status of the college athletes by paying them. According to Jim Boehin, Syracuse University male basketball coach, paying students is idiotic, because they are already getting a tremendous opportunity from scholarships. Going back to the issue of missing a considerable amount of their tuition time, the value of this ‘free education’ is decreased significantly. When looking at most school’s timetables, the students lose so much time because of holidays. As for college athletes, they lose even more time due to league and tournament commitments. This rolls the debate back to the argument of compensation, appreciation and motivation. These students have to squeeze their timetables and schedules in order to cover up for the lost time while they were due to commitment. Furthermore, the claim by some sports officials about preserving the educational experience of college athletes should be carefully questioned (Edelman 1). It is getting to be a reality that college athletes need to be considered not only academically, but also financially.
There are those fans that are adamantly against the issue of paying college athletes. According to Frederick, a big number of fans are not in favor of this argument (1). The reason that these fans are against remunerating the college athletes is that they consider them as amateurs, and often support their argument on the basis of free education that these college athletes get. What seems to be forgotten by these fans is that these students’ health is not covered in the education packages that they receive in scholarships. When these athletes get injured, the colleges and university administrators often look the other way, and the noble ideals of ‘free education’ are suddenly discarded. The biggest question is how these injured athletes get to pay for their medical fee in order to get back to representing their schools and entertaining the fans in the stadiums. Sometimes, sporting injuries are so serious that the victims end up having a total change of lifestyle (Hutson & Speed 417; Taylor & Wilson 204).
There is the case of the opponents of paying college athletes forgetting that college sports are as corrupt as professional sports. College athletics, as argued earlier, has entangled with professional sports, in a manner that it has become a kind of business franchise. The money that is obtained from the college sporting activities ends up in the pockets of the coaches, college sports union directors and other media executives who cover the sporting activities. According to Edelman, the NCCA oversees nearly every aspect of the $11 billion that is obtained from the college sports industry (1). This money is obtained from activities such as scheduling the championship events, overseeing commercial contracts and fining members, a venture that has seen the association become increasingly wealthy. In fact, the association gets revenue increments of about $100 million per year, however, with their cleverly tailored rules, the members, such as the student athletes, are denied an opportunity to get to enjoy part of this treasure. NCCA has a "no pay" rule, which Edelman argues that is a violation of section one of section I of the Sherman Act. The rule is constructed around the...