Should College Athletes Be Paid?

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In a YouTube video, a panel of media asked the question should college athletes be getting paid to play in college, to the nation’s top recruits and the video reveled that more than half of the recruits questioned said that they would love to be paid but they should not be paid. The two main reasons for their answer is that they are going to college for free and receiving and education without paying anything, and the second reason was that they were there to be a student and that sports is an extracurricular activity that is a privilege to be a part of. In my personal opinion I feel that the recruits and athletes that say they should be paid and that they don’t have enough time for a job are just flat out lazy and irresponsible. As pointed out, there are many other means for these players to bring in their own means of money so they can go out and be a normal college student and buy what they want. They don’t seem to understand what is being given to them free of charge and the value of their opportunity. I also feel that by demanding to be paid they don’t truly love the game that they play. If you truly love your sport then you shouldn’t have to be paid to play because you love the sport that much all you want is to just play. In fact if you really want to be paid then that should make you strive to work harder than anybody else so that you can ensure that one day you will be paid. To touch on the other statement made, these athletes are participating in an extracurricular activity, and they have agreed to give their time to a particular sport in order to receive free education. I understand that the NCAA is a multi-billion dollar industry but it didn’t just happen overnight, the previous generation of athletes paved the way and it has had a snowball effect. If we were to pay these incoming and current college athletes then it would only be fair to reimburse those who helped make the NCAA a multi-billion dollar industry.

In conclusion, the debate on whether or not college athletes should be paid is still a very heated argument today. It would seem that more people are against it than for it at this point, due to the fact that it would be a very messy situation to try and figure out how it would work. Deciding who would be paid the most and where the money would come from seem like they are what are inevitability going to hold this discussion up. Even though many are strongly against paying student-athletes it is looking like there will come a day when these individuals are being paid for their contribution they provide to their school.

Work Cited

Acquaviva, John. “Point/Counterpoint: Paying College Athletes.” The Sports Journal. 15 2012. Web. 27 March. 2013.

Daugherty, Paul. “College athletes already have advantages and shouldn’t be paid.” Sports Illustrated. Time Inc. 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 27 March. 2013n

Egan, Matt. "Why College Student-Athletes Should Not Be Paid." Middletown Patch. Patch, 2 Apr. 2011. Web. 28 Mar. 2013.

Ferlise, Patrick. “College Football: 5 Reasons Why Student-Athletes Should Not Be Paid.” BleacherReport.com. 7 Dec. 2010. 27 March. 2013.

Goldman, Lee. "Sports and antitrust: should college students be paid to play?" Notre Dame Law Review Mar. 1990: 206-261. General OneFile. Web. 27 Mar. 2013.

Harris, Flint. "Football Players Receive $17,000 Annually in Cash, All within NCAA Rules « HolyTurf." HolyTurf. Holy Turf, 22 May 2011. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.

"RecruitingNation: NCAA Athletes Payment Debate." YouTube. YouTube, 25 Oct. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.