Should College Athletes Be Paid?

Why College Athletes Should be Paid

By: Dominic Rizzo

            The increasing popularity for college sports is bound to come up with talk of scandals and illegal acts that the universities takes part in. Colleges paying athletes coming out of high school has long been talked about but never really has brought into public until now. Recent FBI investigations discovered that the Arizona Wildcats have paid their more recent basketball commits. A star freshman Deandre Ayton has been caught being paid over $100,000 for his commitment to Arizona. Other schools supposedly involved are Duke, North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Michigan State, USC, and Alabama. Arizona’s head coach Sean Miller came under the spotlight which led to the decommitment of a highly rated prospect Shareef O’ Neal who recently committed to UCLA. Miller is still the coach at Arizona, but he will have a hard time recovering from the scandal.

All this controversy can simply be avoided if schools would be allowed to pay college athletes. Student athletes bring in most of revenue especially with sports like football and basketball. Of course, payment would be dependent on the individual performance of players and the overall success of the school. Which gives players the incentive to work harder to give their school more television time and money. This would help students pay off possible student debt which is an increasingly big problem or just overall support for themselves. Paying them would also end most of the scandals going on, due to everyone getting paid they wouldn’t be committed just because a school is paying them, and the other is not. A study of revenue for NCAA DI revealed they made $9.15 billion in that year alone. You would figure at least some of the money would be distributed to the athletes that made it for them.

            Earning money as a college athlete is hard enough, try balancing a job and playing on a sports team. Not only does earning money support them but it also gives them a proper education on how to use it. Really good athletes leave college early to pursue their dreams as a pro player, but they don’t just leave because they want to become pro. It’s because they want to start earning money. Leaving college in a hurry could lead to disaster, some athletes won’t finish their education, others won’t even go pro. This issue has been delayed long enough it’s about time we act and help support these students.

Why Paying Student Athletes is a Bigger Problem Than You May Think

By: Noah Bieniek

This issue has gone mainstream since the FBI recently came out with a report on many Division I basketball schools who were in contact with an NBA Agent who was paying the students to go to that specific school recommended by the coach. The FBI wiretapped a phone call by the NBA Agent and University of Arizona Head Basketball coach Sean Miller, where Miller asked the agent to pay star player DeAndre Ayton $100,000 to guarantee Ayton’s enrollment in Arizona. arguments for students being paid are understandable because they put their bodies on the line just like the pros, suffer the same injuries and play for the same goal to play NCAA sports but there are too many complications to make it work fairly.

Student athletes are already getting many benefits within their school, such as free tuition, and room and board. These college athletes also often receive extra money to help toward books and other basic needs, which is an advantage they have over regular students at their school.

Another possibility is that it may take away from the purity of the game. People  in the country often favor college sports over Pro sports, and that is just because you think it is more exciting. Student athletes play for their own future in the pros and if there is one less sense of wanting to get to the pros to make the “Big Bucks,” then, Would the game be the same?

The top reason for why I am against paying college athletes is that it would be too

confusing! When this topic comes up in many households they only think about two

sports in particular, football, and basketball, which in their defense those two sports

bring in the most money for schools, but what about soccer, hockey, track, baseball, lacrosse,volleyball, tennis etc. Should they pay the football, and basketball players more than

those in any other sport? If you say yes than my follow up would be, what makes one student athlete more important than another? Should all student athletes be paid the same amount of money? If you say yes than my follow up would be, how can you pay a pole vaulter the same amount of money as your quarterback or point guard?

Even though there may be more reasons that favor student athletes being paid, these three

reasons may be the only thing holding back this situation. The people supporting the

payment of College Athletes need to remember that it is STUDENT-Athlete for a

reason.