College Athletes Shouldn't Be Paid | Teen Ink

College Athletes Shouldn't Be Paid

June 4, 2015
By l2ljeterl2l BRONZE, Amherst, New York
l2ljeterl2l BRONZE, Amherst, New York
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Do athletes only care about the money? Or do they think about what a privilege it is to play for a college team and be one step closer to the big show. We see this as an amazing opportunity to be in their footsteps and be that successful in what they do. Also college athletes should not be paid because they aren't professional.

   

Being paid isn't the only thing us athletes should be caring about. For them it's a privilege for the students to play college sports and young kids and teens dream about having that opportunity to play when they are older. For athletes stress becomes a major factor in how they think in life, they need to concentrate on sports and what is on the field. Mark Emmert says “Traditions and keeping them (athletes) are very important to universities”. “These individuals are not professionals”. Emmert also talks about “ these beloved traditions go hand in hand with model of amateurism, and if amateurism goes away and so will the sports”. These are amateur athletes who are not ready for the “Big Show” and some will get carried away with the money they earn and not focus on what they are really doing here. These amateur athletes aren't professional who wake up everyday and get to the field to early in the morning to do drills, they need to finish their school day first to participate in the game. It’s said that over $1 billion was saved up from students tuition and scholarships fees were transferred annually to the NCAA division 1 instead of to the students. They also have to wake up early in the morning to perform good in school and maintain a high enough grade point average so they can play sports.


If athletes get paid how will it affect themselves and the game of sports in general. Some people say that they see their scholarships as being paid because they basically pay for a good part of their expenses that they don't need to spend their own money. As a direct result to athletes being paid it will cause more students to pay more attention to the money than staying in school and concentrating on grades and actually playing in the games. Also NCAA president says "if college athletes start being paid many schools would end up leaving division 1 sports.
Is it schools choice to not pay their athletes or do they just not have the money to afford to spend a few grand a year on each top performing athletes. The NCAA requests that 25 sports teams across the United States and have argued that athletes shouldn't be paid and that they are students and not employees. Some authors argue that payment caps set by the NCAA that are holding back athletes being paid. Another factor that has been affecting the NCAA is that $1 billion from tuitions were given to the NCAA department of athletics that couldn't been spent on paying athletes. Lastly a case between Ed O'bannon and the NCAA says that athletes could theoretically be paid five thousand a year but they have denied too and O'bannon lost the case which allowed the NCAA to keep their money and not pay athletes.

 

Students athletes have to have many obstacles to ensure they will be able to play what they love to do. They have to balance things between homework, practice, studying and playing sports. They need to meet the required GPA to be able to play and they have to ensure that they have their grades up and they have to have up to 6 hours of study table. Also athletes need to stay out of any illegal trouble and also with school policies as well . All universities estimate that actual cost of attendance goes between $1,500 and $2,500 a year based on fees, books and tuitions from school but scholarships don't cover the extra money needed to pay.


On the other hand many people argue that student athletes should have the rights to be paid since they work so hard in practice and on the field and that they have played their part and that they need to do theirs. The NLRB in Chicago sees their athletes as employees based in all of their hours put into training and performing on the field and that they deserve more than nothing at all. Athletes put their lives at risk by playing sports in return of what? One slight play could end their career and schools won't have any use for them anymore.


These athletes shouldn't be paid players because they aren't professionals and are seen as amateurs trying to make their way up to the big show. A big factor that changes people's thinking around athletes not being paid is that these students are important to universities and they are scared that if money gets in the way of things, players might not perform as great.



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