Should College Athletes Be Paid - 1390 Words

A highly debated topic in college sports today is whether or not schools should begin to pay their athletes. As major college sports become more popular, more money is being brought into universities because of their athletics. High level Division 1 coaches and athletic directors make millions of dollars, and some are the highest paid state employees if they are at a public institution. Because of the profits athletes can generate for schools, student-athletes should receive some amount of compensation in addition to any scholarships they have. In my essay, I will present the argument for and against paying college athletes on an economic level. I will also examine recent court cases involving the issue. Athletes being paid illegally†¦show more content†¦Personally, I am a pitcher on the baseball team. I hope that I can get a shot one day at playing professionally. In order to do this, I workout on my own time, throw on my own during Christmas break, and I playing su mmer baseball that spans all but about 2 weeks over my summer. With all of this time dedicated to keeping in shape and able to perform well to keep a scholarship, as well as school, there is no time to get a job on campus or during break to start paying off loans. In the case of California State University-Fresno, the school’s paper writer suggests, â€Å"The school mandates that no student should be paid more than 20 hours per week while school is in session. That sounds like a fair deal† (Livingston). He says this because he is suggesting that since athletes don’t get the chance to have a job, why not pay them for the allowed times to work for any other student. Athletes generally have at least 20 hours a week dedicated to practices, so it would be a fair trade off. One other argument that paying college athletes should be done is that because of the large profits that they generate, they should see some of the money. To give an idea of just how much the N CAA alone makes, â€Å"The NCAA had $60,908,876 in net assets for the year ending Aug. 31, 2013, bringing its total net assets of $627,325,275. It distributed nearly $504 million to Division I members† (Doyle). Later, I will discuss individual programs and how much individual schools can make in a year off