Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay

Athletes work hard around the clock to excel in their sport in the hopes of receiving a scholarship. However, many of these athletes pay the price with the extreme demands they place on themselves. College athletes are beginning to push to receive financial compensation from the NCAA because of their efforts. While the NCAA argues against it, student-athletes at the collegiate level should receive compensation because playing a D1 sport requires immense amounts of time, athletes are constantly taken advantage of by the NCAA, and scholarships alone are not sufficient to support the athletes. Playing a sport in college undoubtedly requires substantial time and effort that could have been better spent doing schoolwork. In Jeremy Eagle’s infographic,

In the satorical cartoon created by Rob Tornoe, an unpaid athlete is depicted as holding up the NCAA. While the athlete was the one who generated the profits that the NCAA is in possession of, they receive no compensation for the work they have done. The NCAA exploits athletes by forcing them to work harder and harder to keep up with demands. Instead of compensating the athletes for their increased efforts, the NCAA gets away with generating more profit. The NCAA gives the illusion that they are focused on supporting athletes, but in reality, they will not be stopped from taking advantage of poor college athletes. Gaines’ graph, “Revenue Generated by Division 1 Athletic Departments,” depicts the revenue that athletic departments receive from athletes. Athletes are responsible for generating enormous revenues for colleges, but they do not receive any reparations for this. Athletic departments have the ability to give financial compensation to athletes, but they selfishly choose not to for the benefit of

Student-athletes barely have enough time to do schoolwork, let alone get a job. In his article, “U.S. Supreme Court backs college athletes in NCAA compensation fight,” Reuters describes the Supreme Court ruling. The ruling gives NCAA the ability to decide “reasonable rules.” However, Athlete compensation "may encourage scholastic achievement and allow student-athletes a measure of compensation more consistent with the value they bring to their schools." While the NCAA is given the power to decide what rules they deem reasonable with respect to paying athletes, the Supreme Court acknowledges that athletes compensation would be beneficial. Paying athletes would lead to a better education for them because they would worry less about trying to survive without an actual job. It would also allow the athletes the ability to go on vacations if they received a monthly stipend. This is necessary for student-athletes because they have the constant stress of trying to become better than their opponents. Scholarships alone are not sufficient to support student-athletes, so they need to receive an actual pay to account for the time they