Running Head: Paying Collegiate Athletes

Community Problem Report:

Paying Collegiate Athletes
Michael Licon
University of Texas at El Paso

PAYING COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

Abstract
For decades, many upper-tier collegiate sports, such as football and basketball,
have had schools who delved into the athletics taboo of offering athletes incentives
to play for their school, otherwise known as illegal recruiting. This exclusively
included, but wasnt limited to, straight-up cash, buying athletes cars, houses, and
plane tickets for family members to come in town. Although there are many
violations associated with doing this, there are some instances where players need
to be paid. Some players hardly have enough money to eat and provide for their
family, and to add tuition on top of that for them to pay is almost impossible. So
when a booster comes knocking, offering those players tens of thousands of dollars
to play, it would be crazy if they didnt take the money. Its reasons and situations
like these that players should be paid.

PAYING COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

Introduction
Its pretty well known by now that professional football players make a lot of
money by playing football and endorsing energy drinks that they never drink. In
fact, most professional athletes rake in a lot of cash, and the mega franchises that
buy these players support this practice with a satisfied grin and a pocket full of
green bills. The NCAA however frowns upon this ideal; no, they strictly prohibit it,
with many universities in the past paying dearly for crossing the NCAAs invisible
line in the sand by giving players incentives. Im looking at you SMU and USC. The
NCAA believes that maintaining amateurism is crucial to preserving an academic
environment in which acquiring a quality education is the first priority. But is it
really a crime to pay collegiate athletes, athletes that need the money to survive, to
feed their family, to feed themselves? What about the athletes that will never make
it to the professional level? Shouldnt these unspoken workers of the university have
a voice? The price for universities to pay doesnt even have to be extensive;
nevertheless there are points to be made and answers to have pulled into the light.
Point 1: Athletes need the Money
Just like us normal human beings, college athletes have to pay for everyday
items to survive in society: food, clothing, housing, family, school. To compete at the
collegiate level in any sport, the mind of any athlete must be focused, trained, and
have as little distractions as possible. Competing in rigorous sports while detailing
the extent of a limited budget for food and housing down to the last penny, while on
top of that having up to 4 hours of class per day, not including the time spent
studying and doing work, is a strenuous task to say the least. For student athletes of

PAYING COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

East Carolina University, this is the predicament that they find themselves in as
football players Justin Hardy and Shane Carden explain the struggle.
I feel like it could be more, Hardy said of the scholarship provisions given to
Division I athletes. At the beginning of a semester youre good. When you get down
to the last part, December, that time youve really just got to do whats most
important (financially). It could always be more.
We go to grocery stores and try to find discounts and save money on things,
and youre asking your body to perform at the highest level possible, said Carden,
a former quarterback at East Carolina who once wrote a paper for a class detailing
down to the last cent just how tough it is to stay on a budget with scholarship
dollars. And some days youre eating at McDonalds because youre waiting for
your check to drop so that you can go to the grocery store.

PAYING COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

Its not just the less wealthy schools that struggle to help keep their players
on their feet financially. Major
private universities have the
issue where exceptional
athletes want to play, but
cant afford the tuition and
dont have enough
scholarship money to pull
them through the university
without having all the money ripped out of their souls. Student athletes should be
allowed enough money to pay off these outrageous expenses and enjoy a middle to
upper class college experience, an opportunity that only comes once in a young
persons life. Ed OBannon, a former basketball player and national champion from
the UCLA Bruins, preaches this ideal and has emphasized that he doesnt think
there should be huge paydays for student-athletes, but rather said he thinks the
players should take home enough to allow them simple pleasures that many middleand upper-class college students are already afforded.
"I've said a million times that players arent asking for millions of dollars a
year," he said. "Just a couple of dollars to take their girlfriends to dinner and a
movie."
Point 2: Schools Make Money off of Players. Players Cant Receive a
Penny
The NCAA makes a big deal about the importance of amateur status in
collegiate sports; while these athletes compete and win and make streams of
5

PAYING COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

money for the university in merchandising, university heads smile and wave as they
dive into that stream of cash (obviously this is a metaphor. No university president
dives into streaming piles of
money in their office. Or do
they?...) Student athletes,
mostly football players and
basketball players, in the
past and present have
made their universities
millions, and never even got back a check that said thank you, and some never
ended up making it to the professional level to capitalize on the opportunity that
was there for them in college.
One of the best modern examples of this in college football is that Johnny
Manziel made Texas A&M University over $37 million in revenue in his two seasons
as quarterback. In those two years he spent there, he never received any payment
or compensation (obviously) that he earned from his tenure. However, when there is
one incident where Manziel is accused by the NCAA of selling autographed
merchandizing of his memorabilia to fans, hes made out to be a cheat and has
executives clamoring to get a piece of him and declare him ineligible to play any
college sports.

Point 3: Athletes that wont go Professional

PAYING COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

The most important point being made is that not all college athletes are
going to be drafted into the NFL or NBA with huge signing bonuses. Some athletes
just dont have that talent, or just arent that good. Some even excel in their sport,
but are competing in a sport where its almost impossible to make any money off of
it

at
all,

where the love of the sport is really all that can keep one moving ahead. Swimmers
can be defined as the epitome of this ideal. Professional swimmers are only paid
sparsely by being top 15 in the world every year, and compared to NBA salary that
washes players in lavish lump sums of hourly earnings, swimming earnings are
barely enough to put food on the table. To put it into perspective, only a handful of
swimmers have made big money off of swimming (I assume you all know of at least
one swimmer who has). Its athletes like these that help scream at the fault in the
NCAA policy, voices that scream for change, change in an archaic law of school and
sports, change for the better of all student athletes.
Conclusion

PAYING COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

So for those athletes who wont make it to the top of their niche, for those
who just wont make an earning off their sport no matter what, for those that just
deserve it, there deserves to be compensation for their dedication, time and effort
for their training, on top of schoolwork, and the things that theyve sacrificed to get
where theyre standing.

References
Berkes, P. (2013, August 28). Johnny Manziel briefly suspended, ending
NCAA autographs investigation. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
Fox, M. (2015, March 24). College athletes should be paid: Former UCLA
star. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
Strachan, M. (2015, March 23). Ed O'Bannon Takes Even Stronger Stance
On NCAA Player Compensation. Retrieved November 6, 2015.
Strachan, M. (2015, March 27). NCAA Schools Can Absolutely Afford To Pay
College Athletes, Economists

Say. Retrieved October 23, 2015.

Summers, N. (2014, August 4). Scholarship athletes struggle financially |

The Daily Reflector. Retrieved November 6, 2015.