Why College Athletes Should Be Paid

Xavier Markowitz

707

College athletes work very hard and create entertainment and money for lots of people but they don’t get a cent for it. The debate over whether college athletes should get paid or not has gone on for some time but there is still no solution to the problem. Some people say that they should be paid a small salary, but other people say that they already are paid through the benefits the schools give them. Since they have no other source of income, college athletes should get a stipend, so they have enough money to live.

One of the main reasons college athletes should be paid is that they don’t have any way to make money. In the article “BCS Player Round Table: Should athletes be paid?” Notre Dame linebacker Ishaq Williams says that, “You can struggle because you don’t have time to work, to have a job.” Because the practice and games take up so much of their time, the players can’t work a job. In his article, “Why College Athletes Should be Paid,” Tyson Hartnett, an entrepreneur, writer, and former professional basketball player says that “Contrary to what all the opponents believe, being an athlete is a full-time job. On a typical day, a player will wake up before classes, get a lift or conditioning session in, go to class until 3 or 4 p.m., go to practice, go to mandatory study hall, and then finish homework or study for a test.” As you can see, the athletes have no time to have a job.

The NCAA, schools, and coaches are making millions, while the athletes don’t get a cent. Jonathan Mahler is a sports writer for the Bloomberg View. In his article, “College Athletes Should be Paid This Much,” he says that “The new College Football Playoff will be better in every way...There will be more games which means more revenue for the schools and the NCAA .The playoff series will generate on the order of 480 million a year, compared to the meager 170 million for the BCS. Everybody wins! Or, almost everybody. The athletes who are going to make college football more popular and more lucrative than it has ever been won’t earn a penny.” Mahler is saying that even though there is a new and improved system and the athletes are going to play more games than before, they are still not going to get any money for what they do.  The athletes are getting nothing from the occupation that takes up so much of their time.

Now, because they don’t have any way of making money, they take matters into their own hands. A lot of athletes have tried selling their used jerseys or autographs to fans. Chris Beck, who was a former collegiate athlete, wrote an article about college players called “College Athletes Should Get Paid: Here’s Why”. He writes about a lot of players in who tried to make money off memorabilia. One of these is A.J. Green who tried to sell one of his used game jerseys. He was suspended for four games. I think Chris Beck included this in his article because it shows that instead of helping them, the NCAA has punished the athletes for trying to put a little money in their pocket.

People arguing against college athletes being paid say that the players get endorsement for being on the team. Jeffrey Dorfman of Forbes magazine says that “they are essentially paid already because they receive free tuition, room, meal plans, some money for books...academic counseling, tutoring, life skill training, and even even nutritional advice.” Tyson Hartnett says “A $25,000 scholarship may seem like a lot of money, but it really only covers the basics. It covers thousands of dollars in mysterious, unknown university fees,... housing, a meal-plan and multiple hundred-dollar textbooks.” As you can see, most of the scholarship goes back to the school through fees they have to pay. Even though the players get pretty amazing things like academic counseling and life skill training, they are struggling to make ends meet.

The athletes should be given a stipend to compensate for what they give to the team. Tyson Hartnett agrees with me when he says that each should be paid 2,000 over the course of the semester. If the NCAA and the schools can make millions off of these kids then why can’t they? With not enough money for basic necessities, the athletes sometimes try to make some money for themselves with autographs and memorabilia. Then they get punished for just trying to get a couple bucks for laundry money. It is unfair to these kids to make them live in just over the poverty line while others make millions. College athletes should be paid so this doesn’t happen.

We just finished reading Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. It is about a middle schooler named Steven Alper. Everything is normal in Steven's life, he has a little annoying brother, named Jeffery,who adores him. Like any other teenager, Steven is always focused around himself. If Jeffery tries to get some of that attention, Steven is furious. But when, *plot twist* Jeffery gets cancer, Steven has to start paying a little more attention to the little brother he had hated just a month earlier.
Steven changes drastically throughout the course of the book. He goes from self-centered moron, to a kind and openhearted young man.

When Jeffery gets made fun at school for being bald, he gets really upset. Normally Steven would be really sarcastic and say something like " Get over it,". Instead, he shaves his entire head to make Jeffery feel better. Another time Steven changes is when he is doing his big end of the year concert. Halfway through, Jeffery gets really sick and has to go to the hospital. Steven leaves his concert to accompany Jeffery to the hospital. These two examples show that Steven gave up things that were important to him in order to help Jeffery.

I think this book is trying to teach multiple lessons. Steven learns these lessons when Jeffery gets sick. I think two of these lessons are maturity and selflessness. Most teenagers are not very mature, but with only a little bit of it, conflicts can be solved easily. Selflessness is helpful in life because selflessness and kindness are linked together. You can easily make friendships if you are selfless and kind.

I am reading House of Hades by Rick Riordan. This series is about Greek and Roman myths that come to life in the modern world. At the beginning of the series the seven protagonists are given a quest. They must overcome the challenges of Greek and Roman enemies that stand in their way. Throughout all the books I saw one major theme that the author tried to say. The theme is that teamwork makes reaching goals easier.

One way the author shows the theme, is that he incorporated it into the prophecy that the protagonists have to follow. One line of it is foes bear arms at the Doors of Death. What this line means is that enemies must work together to close the Doors of Death. Another example of teamwork is when the godess Hecate and Hazel, one of main characters, have to battle a giant. They have to work together and use magic to defeat him.

Many people overlook the power of teamwork. Most teenagers do exactly that. We are inclined to try to solve problems on our own. Sometimes if a problem is too big we get frustrated. With someone helping, a little of the pressure can be taken off of our shoulders. Hazel was very stessed about the fight with the giant throughout the book. She became more confident when she learned someone was helping her.