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Professor Manley
English 102
27 April 2015
Should Student-Athletes be Compensated?
College student-athletes may be some of the hardest working people
around. Besides the strict rules they have to abide by, they sacrifice and
push their bodies to the limit almost every day. They also have long hours of
intense practice and workouts, little vacation time, and they are always
being watched. Student-athletes should be paid for all of their hard work
and dedication. If they were paid it would lift burdens off of any people and
could be a positive effect. Many families would be in better shape, athletes
could have some money while they are at school, and they just overall
deserve it. The benefits and reasons why student-athletes deserve to get
paid outweighs the reasons why they should not. Some of the players may
come from homes that are struggling every day to get by and they may need
to find a way to help out with some of the expenses around the house. They
may feel like they need to take responsibility of the household to help out
with the bills, other expenses, or overall just taking care of their family. I
have a personal experience about why I believe student-athletes should be
paid. I have a couple friends that play Division 1 basketball at big schools.
Two of them come from homes where going to college was exceptional. One
of them chose to go to school and trust that his family would be able to
continue to just make it by until he had the chance to play somewhere

professional or received a good paying job offer that would move his family
from where they currently live. However, I have another friend that chose to
stay home for a year and get a job to help his family out around the house.
After that year his mother told him to go to school and she would take care
of things back at home. It was a tough decision for him but he did what his
mother told him too. He is now currently competing in the NCAA March
Madness Tournament. College student-athletes deserve to be compensated.
They bring in the millions of dollars to their universities every year, the fans
come to watch them play, and it is their hard work that allows schools to be
sponsored by big businesses. Without these student-athletes these schools
would not be as big as they are.
Being a student athlete requires more than just a nice jump shot or the
most sacks of your high schools history. The NCAA requires student athletes
to meet minimum requirements academically before they are even
considered to play for the college or university. Prior to being able to play for
the college league, a student must have earned their high school diploma
and have finished 14 core classes to play Division 1 and 16 core classes to
play Division 2. Once a student is deemed eligible, they must continue to
meet academia requirements to remain eligible. The NCAA expects all of
their student athletes to stay on track to earning their diplomas. Student
athletes have the burden of waking up before the break of dawn to work out
and then continue their classes for the rest of the day. Their schedules are
usually jam-packed with practices, games, scrimmages, film, and more

importantly, homework so they can keep their GPA up. Being a student
athlete is time consuming and a demanding position to be in, but they go
through the sacrifice because of their love for the game. They meet these
demands through blood, sweat, and tears, and hard work. Though many
students are thought to be at advantage, they really are not. Students who
earn between a 2.0 and 2.3 GPA are eligible for practice but are not allowed
to compete. This strict requirement alone creates more of a burden for those
who are student athletes.
Though the NCAA makes it a priority to supply student athletes with
programs to support their educational need, is a free education enough to
risk your life? The NCAA makes it a priority of theirs to do its best to supply
athletes with programs to support their educational and financial needs.
According to the NCAA, the benefit of being a student athlete includes
multiple scholarships and grants. Division 1 schools have the perks of
access to a fund that can be used to supply student athletes with
educational equipment and service. Provided college completion, Division 1
student athletes are also given multiple completion grants. The NCAA has
these programs and educational services to support their student athletes,
but many people believe that simply giving student athletes access to these
programs is not enough. Given their contribution to supplying the NCAA with
revenue, and no guarantee for anything in return, student athletes and their
supporters believe that they are still not given what they are worth for
playing the sport. Some colleges even produce more revenue the

professional teams, University of Alabama for instance brought in 143.3

million dollars in revenue more than all 30 NHL teams and 25 of 30 NBA
teams. More importantly, not only do student athletes have a major
contribution to the revenue generated by the NCAA and colleges, the most
important thing in the world is at risk every time they step onto the field or
court: their lives.
College Division athletes push their bodies to the absolute limit almost
every day. They are working so hard to get through college or hopes to
being a player in the NBA. A typical day for a college student athlete
consists of waking up around 6 a.m. and continuing their day with morning
workouts, classes, film sessions, practices, games, and mandatory study
halls. On the other hand, a typical day for a NBA player, who is in season,
consists of waking up close to the afternoon, working out, and then relaxing
until the game. Right there shows the difference between how much a
college athlete has to juggle opposed to an NBA player. They get the same
24 hours, but a college player has so much more to do with their time.
Obviously a college student athlete works just as hard, if not harder than an
NBA player. Im not downplaying the fact that an NBA player works very
hard at their craft, but the amount of time a college athlete puts into their
craft, including school work, day in and day out, they deserve some type of
compensation.

A Division 1 college football player devotes nearly 44 hours a week to

their sport and has a football game every Saturday. That means in 24 hours
the spend almost nine hours doing football related activities whether its
practicing, working out, film session, or even team community service. In a
week thats four more hours than the average American work in a 40 hour
work week and these athletes dont deserve compensation? They put their
bodies on the line each week on national television bringing in incredible
ratings to CBS and Time Warner Cable simply for the imaginary gold at the
end road. In college basketball athletes dont spend as much time per day
working on their craft however they spend more time on the road but there
are exceptions. Mainly because compact schedules traveling miles and miles
away to games every other day cause conflicts in academic schedules. How
are they suppose to maintain a certain G.P.A. if they are always excused
from class? These athletes should be treated like regular employees.
Essentially thats what they are by definition an employee is someone who
works for another person or group in exchange for compensation.
The NCAA is a power house with tons of money with no competition.
There are no other organizations competing against it for the top spot. No
other business in college sports is anywhere close to the amount of money
that college division 1 basketball and football brings in. It is basically a
monopoly and doesnt seem fair at all. Athletes are almost forced to perform
on the collegiate stage if they want to play professional basketball one day.
As of 2005 the NBA outlawed that in order for a player to play in the league

they must attend at least one year of college or play abroad then enter. It
was stopped due to Commissioner David Stern saying he wants NBA scouts
out of high school gyms and financial security was a concern. That was a
beneficial move for the NCAA because these high school standouts had to
attend college, bringing that much more attention to the college of their
choice. For a second, just imagine how much nation attention and the
amount of media attention Ohio State would have gotten if Lebron James
would have followed through with his commitment. They would have made
millions off one student and he would have not been able to get a single
dime from it. When you put certain things into a different perspective some
things just may not seem right.
In one article I read it was an interview with President Obama. They
ask if he agrees with the idea of college athletes being compensated;
President Obama disagrees. Although he does disagree with the fact that
the NCAA is making millions of dollars, while an athlete is banished for
getting a tattoo or free use of a car. He believes compensating the athletes
will ruin the sense of college sports. He also talks about how he thinks
college sports would become a bidding war and focus on how much one
player is making compared to someone else, someone maybe in the NBA.
College athletes would become so focused on the money that they may
forget the real reason they are playing, for the love of the game. President
Obama is right about college sports becoming a bidding war, always
focused about how much the next person is making instead of just playing

the game for the love of their craft. However an article I read agrees with
student athletes being paid and it was about Northwestern University
football players. The players started a petition saying they should get paid.
Under National Relation Labor Board in Chicago they qualify as employees,
but some do not have the same mindset. It is acknowledged of the long
hours the players put in and limited vacations they have, but it is still seen as
privilege. This article uses three valid points on why student-athletes
should not get paid. Those points are education and scholarships, money
allocation, and just plain living the dream.
I held a short interview with my assistant coach, Coach John Brennan.
The main question was obviously, Coach, do you think college division 1
student athletes should be paid? His response was, There are different
levels to that question. If youre at a Kentucky or Duke and generate the
amount of revenue they do for the school, they should receive a stipend in
my opinion. That was the jest of the interview. Another question I found
significant was, Would the walk-ons get paid the same amount as the Karl
Towns of the world? His reply was, They would have to in order to make
things easier. It all has to be uniform.
Those who oppose my stand point mention how student athletes get
many perks, one including a free scholarship, always saying how that
should be enough. Well known columnist for Entertainment and Sports
Programming Network and a strong supporter of not paying student athletes

pointed out that Tuition, room and board, books and free food are enough
compensation for athletes. However, many athletes that come from urban
neighborhoods use college as an outlet and place to just get away from the
violence, drugs, the bad message you receive growing up these places.
There isnt money just laying around back home that their guardians can
send to them. When they are in college they basically have to fend for
themselves. Yes, they attend school for free and receive free food and books
but keep in mind what they have to go home to for winter break or spring
break, knowing they are away and cant really provide for families because
they are not allowed to be compensated. Knowing that their families are
back home barely making ends meet while they are at school. Then when
they get back on campus they see their coach pull up to practice in a brand
new car and he didnt even have to shoot a jump shot or throw a football.
Most people never really understand that side of things. They only see the
players and what the players do and receive.
College student-athletes should be compensated for the extreme
sacrifice that they put their bodies through almost every day. Without these
athletes performing on the field there would be no way that much money
would be generated through athletics alone. Paying these athletes a
reasonable amount of money while they are on athletic scholarship is only
beneficial for them; besides where are the millions of dollars going anyway?
Without time for a job and strict NCAA rules there is no way for these players
to have money in their pocket unless it is coming from other sources.

However, many athletes do not come from households where there is extra
money just lying around. They deserve to be paid to help themselves and
their families. Many people will argue that these student-athletes are getting
paid with a free education and that is enough. I argue that it is only right for
them to be paid because although having an education is priceless, that
education isnt putting food in their stomach. Although it may not seem fair
for their peers it really is right. Their peers dont go through the same
practices as them, or the long travels. Their peers may be able to get jobs or
come from backgrounds where money is second nature. Student-athletes
deserve to be compensated. Besides, where is all the money going?

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Works Cited
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Team's."CBSSports.com. CBS Sports, 7 Apr. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
Mirtle, James. "Report: NHL Revenues to Hit Record $3.7-billion." The Globe
and Mail. Globe Sports, 09 June 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.
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Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
"Student-Athletes." NCAA.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2015.
"The Business Of Basketball." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 21 Jan. 2015. Web.
27 Apr. 2015.
Zillgitt, Jeff. "NBA Sees Draft Age Limit Good for Business." USATODAY.COM.
USA Today, 29 Mar. 2012. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.