McLaughlin 1

Monson McLaughlin

Mrs. Ricken

Pre Ap English

April 28 2015

Student Athlete Compensation

Flashback to 2008. The college football world is turned on its head. No longer can we

brush aside the fact that college players should not be paid for their services on the field. How

did this happen? The debate took hold of the college football power brokers when eight Ohio

State University football players came forward after being accused of selling jerseys and other

memorabilia for tattoos (sports.espn.go.com). Maybe it’s a rite of passage for teens and young

people today, but, the consequences had greater reach than what was ever anticipated. The

obvious problem was that these personal belongings were sold to support their activities off

campus activities. Flashforward 2015. This singular incident has the attention of every college

football fan in America and has stirred a national debate today that literally affects all college

sports. Should we or should we not pay student athletes on the field? The NCAA should permit

Student athlete compensation because it benefits students who can’t necessarily pay for college

on their own, the student athletes generate revenue for the school, and they are less likely to feel

the need to sell memorabilia to make enough money to pay bills, buy food, or just to make ends

meet.

The national debate in sports on whether or not to pay college athletes has been an

ongoing issue since the 1900’s. Many players like Cam Newton, Johnny Manziel, and Ohio State

football players have all been the headline of sports because they believe that student athlete

compensation should be allowed. The NCAA has put in the rule book that colleges can’t pay the
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players, but for what reason? Well, in 2011, an interview between Sports Illustrated columnist

Michael Rosenberg and NCAA President Myles Brand took place to discuss if so called

“amateurs” should be paid.

Brand-"They can't be paid."

Rosenberg-"Why?"

Brand-"Because they're amateurs."

Rosenberg-"What makes them amateurs?"

Brand-"Well, they can't be paid."

Rosenberg-"Why not?"

Brand-"Because they're amateurs.”

Rosenberg-" Who decided they are amateurs?

Brand- "We did."

Rosenberg-" Why?"

Brand-"Because we don't pay them."'

(​www.si.com​). According to this interview, the NCAA struggles to give a legitimate reason as to

why they don’t allow the players to be paid. So what they are “amateurs” that doesn’t mean that

the players cannot receive pay. This brings us back to the original question. Should the NCAA

allow teams to pay their student-athletes?

One big reason why the NCAA should permit college athletes to be paid is that it benefits

the players who can’t pay for college on their own. According to an article on

(​www.cbsnews.com​) written by Lynn O’Shaughnessy, college athletes from division III to

division I spend on average about 30-40 hours a week during the season if not more and during
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the off-season, these athletes are spending approximately 20 plus hours practicing. A study done

in 2013 by Tyson Hartnett showed that the average college scholarship could be worth anything

from $1,000 to $14,000 depending if it’s a full ride or not (www.scholarshipstats.com). That is

only $56,000 for the four years you are at the college. These scholarships don’t include leisure

activities, all meals, shopping etc. The scholarships basically cover “unknown fees, meal-plans,

school textbooks, and housing.” That’s about it. These players are usually up early almost every

day beginning with weight training or conditioning, go to classes until 3 p.m, attend study hall,

do homework, then finish studying and any personal matter. The whole system repeats the next

day. Anything to get money beside working a job is considered an NCAA violation

(​www.huffingtonpost.com​). These hard working athletes deserve to be paid because they don’t

have the time to uphold a well paid job to back up the scholarship. They aren’t given enough

time to do so.

The NCAA should allow student-athlete compensation because these athletes help

generate revenue for the school so the school should at least give a portion back. Various

colleges and universities pay their coaches millions of dollars to win games that they don’t even

suit up for. That amount is nothing compared to the amount of money the school obtains from

television network deals, major tournaments like NCAA March Madness, the games, and

ironically, team apparel online and in stores. “Back in 2011, NCAA agreed to a 14 year contract

with CBS which was ultimately worth $10.8 billion”. You can imagine all the other money

coming in from other deals like ESPN and NBC. The NCAA makes about $770 million every

year not including the regular season (www.equities.com). Where does all this money end up?

As stated by Ryan Bhandari, 96% of this money generated goes to the division I conferences and
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even to teams who didn’t compete. The other 4% goes to paying employees of the NCAA. So

what about the player? Well, here’s the problem. Out of all of this money that is coming in left

and right, the players who bring in the money don’t get to see a penny of it. All of this excess

money given to the universities is used to build unneeded facilities instead of just feeding the

players or giving them some profit. Without the players, All of this money would be gone.

Because of this issue, players like “former UConn Basketball player Shabazz Napier and his

teammates went to bed hungry because they didn’t have enough money” for it and they couldn’t

make ends meet (​www.equities.com​). All players from every sport work their butts off and

dedicate all their time to improving their game and don’t get anything for it. This is unacceptable

and has to change.

Although there are many compelling reasons as to why The NCAA should pay players,

there are also various cons to paying “amateur” athletes. Paying college athletes could possibly

detract from the purity of the game. The reason that these athletes play sports is becauses it is

their passion and they love the sport. As these players go further on and move up to the

professional level, they get paid and their love for the game could just turn into greed for money.

Paying these athletes could influence them to play for all the wrong reasons. Paying collegiate

athletes could be unfair to other athletes. In professional sports, the “stars” like Kobe Bryant or

Tom Brady get paid the highest amount. Each team in the NCAA whether they are in division

three, two, or one has at least a few of those star players. If players were paid the same way pros

are, then there would be serious issues. The system can’t work this way. The amount of money

that men get paid would be significantly higher than female athletes which would seem biased

and unfair. Nobody wants to be on the short end of a pay check (apecsec.org). Lastly, colleges
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paying players can create severe budget issues. The money that schools earn and are given could

be affected and decrease if players are added into the money picture. Most Schools won’t have

enough money to fund any extra curricular activities or any new facilities. The overall

atmosphere of the university/college will drastically deteriorate (apecsec.org) Take UAB

(University of Alabama Birmingham) for example. They aren’t a very well known school and

aren’t funded like major schools. They also don’t generate a lot of revenue. Just last year, the

school made the decision to get rid of the football program because of “budget issues”

(espn.go.com). Other schools like Hawaii are in critical condition of shutting sports programs

down. Because of instances like these it makes it hard for the NCAA to permit a student athlete

pay check.

These dedicated student-athletes should receive pay in order to make them feel like they

don’t need to sell memorabilia and personal belongings to pay bills, eat, or just to make ends

meet. In October of 2014, University of Georgia’s Running back, Todd Gurley, was suspended

indefinitely for for signing autographs. That’s right. Gurley didn’t commit a crime, or break a

school rule. He was suspended for signing around 80 items for a total of $400 pocket cash. What

is ironic is that University of Georgia was also selling Gurley’s Jersey but for $130. Where is the

logic in this suspension (​www.bostonglobe.com​). The NCAA encourages Universities to gain

profit by selling players apparel but don’t allow players to see any of the money or sell their own

belongings just to stay on their feet. The same exact event has happened to players like Johnny

Manziel but when it comes to a player sexual conduct, or breaking school rules these players are

reinstated and only get suspended for a game if even that (​www.bostonglobe.com​). If The

NCAA was to pay their college athletes, then they would solve two problems at the same time.
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SInce they strongly believe that it is wrong, the NCAA will continue to punish these players and

they will be the ones who create the problem all because an absurd rule.

The NCAA has put rules in place so that they control a lot of what the student-athletes

do. They provide students with scholarships that only include the price of housing, meal plans,

and unknown fees. It doesn’t cover any other activities or things you want to do outside of

school. In football, a 6”5 250 lb. lineman can get a meal plan but because of his size and all the

exercise he does, his meal plan will only last 4 days and he will go to bed hungry (Ricken). If we

don’t stand up against the NCAA, all of these incidents will continue and athletes will continue

to experience debt, hunger, and won’t be able to do anything outside of school because it

requires money which they clearly don’t obtain from the universities. I believe that the college

world needs to pay their student athletes because without them, almost all colleges/universities

will have money trouble and wouldn’t be able to stay afloat. The change starts with you. The end

result will ultimately be pay or no play.

Sources cited

"Apecsec.org." Apecsecorg. N.p., 13 Apr. 2014. Web. 21 May 2015.

<​http://apecsec.org/paying-college-athletes-pros-and-cons/​>.

"Average Athletic Scholarship per Student Athlete." Scholarship Stats. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 May

2015. <​http://scholarshipstats.com/average-per-athlete.html​>.
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Beck, Chris. "College Athletes Should Get Paid: Heres Why." Sports Networker. N.p., n.d. Web.

22 May 2015.

<​http://www.sportsnetworker.com/2013/10/03/college-athletes-should-get-paid-heres-why/​>.

Bhandari, Ryan. "March Madness 2015: Where's All the Money Going." Www.equities.com.

N.p., 2 Apr. 2015. Web. 21 May 2015.

<​http://www.equities.com/editors-desk/economy-markets/economic-data-news/march-madness-

2015-where-is-all-the-money-going-to​>

BostonGlobe.com. Boston Globe, 12 Oct. 2014. Web. 22 May 2015.

<​http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/10/11/todd-gurley-suspension-ncaa-absurd/3NRycW

bSsKODqe23LpqhSM/story.html​>.

"Five Ohio State Buckeyes, including Terrelle Pryor, Must Sit out Five Games in '11."

ESPN.com. N.p., 26 Dec. 2010. Web. 22 May 2015.

<​http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5950873​>.

Gasper, Christopher L. "Todd Gurley Suspension Is Absurd - The Boston Globe."

<​http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/10/11/todd-gurley-suspension-ncaa-absurd/3NRycW

bSsKODqe23LpqhSM/story.htm​>
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Hartnett, Tyson. "Why College Athletes Should Be Paid." ​The Huffington Post​.

TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Oct. 2013. Web. 22 May 2015.

<​http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tyson-hartnett/college-athletes-should-be-paid_b_4133847.html

>.

"In Major Blow to NCAA, Judge Rules That Colleges Can Pay athletes." Fortune In Major Blow

to NCAA Judge Rules That Colleges Can Payathletes Comments. N.p., 08 Aug. 2014. Web. 22

May 2015.

<​http://fortune.com/2014/08/08/judge-deals-major-blow-to-ncaa-by-ruling-athletes-can-be-paid/

>.

Jacobs, Peter. "Here's The Insane Amount Of Time Student-Athletes Spend On Practice."

Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 27 Jan. 2015. Web. 22 May 2015.

<​http://www.businessinsider.com/college-student-athletes-spend-40-hours-a-week-practicing-20

15-1​>.

Klein, Leigh. "Abuse Shows Players Should Be Paid." 247Sports. N.p., 5 Apr. 2013. Web. 22

May 2015.

<​http://247sports.com/Article/Mike-Rice-situation-shows-us-college-players-should-be-paid-124

913​>
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O'Shaughnessy, Lynn. "Do College Athletes Have Time to Be Students?"​CBSNews​. CBS

Interactive, 18 Feb. 2011. Web. 22 May 2015.

<​http://www.cbsnews.com/news/do-college-athletes-have-time-to-be-students/​>.

Patterson, Tiffany. "Should College Athletes Be Paid?" N.p., 06 Apr. 2015. Web. 22 May 2015.

<​https://www.smartasset.com/insights/should-student-athletes-be-paid​>

"Pros and Cons of Paying College Athletes -." Pros and Cons of Paying College Athletes -. N.p.,

15 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 May 2015.

<​http://www.studentloandebtconsolidation.com/pros-cons-paying-college-athletes/​>.

Steelman, Sarah. "Set up Pro League to Pay College Athletes." Set up a Pro League To Pay

College Athletes. N.p., 23 Feb. 2014. Web.

<​http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=S200004005-0-3578&artno=0000360451&type

=ART​>
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