The Injustice of the NCAA
The NCAA is making an extremely large profit on the amateur athletic performance of student athletes, without them seeing a penny. The NCAA earns around 1.5-2.0 billion dollars on average every year (compared to the NFL at 1.0-2.0 billion dollars as well). They are additionally qualifying themselves as a non-profit organization, therefore not having to pay taxes on any of the money they receive. College athletes should be able to receive an allowance, besides the scholarships they receive, because many students struggle to get through the week, paying for food, clothing, and other essential items. Student athletes, as stated in bylaw 15.01.2 of the NCAA handbook, are not allowed to take any handout or financial help
…show more content…
During his postgame interview he made many comments that included him going to be some night “starving” because he can’t afford to pay for his own food. After this comment was made many other college athletes came out of the woodwork including star quarterback Robert “Bo” Wallace and former players such as Allen Iverson and Shawn Kemp to add support to Shabazz’s claim.
A majority of student athletes come from a poor or middle class family that cannot support or provide the necessary funds for the athlete’s food or other important needs. Getting a job is also rarely a viable option. Athletes cannot focus on a job when they must continue to develop athletically and keep their GPA at a level to which they can compete, making it hard for the NCAA to say that there is no need for a so a called
…show more content…
Why should they get money for doing something for free? Often times these athletes aren’t doing this for free. They often are giving up something that they love for something that they need. Some athletes wake hungry. Some athletes wake up depressed. Some athletes wake tired. What can they do to battle against the hunger, the depression, and the fatigue. The students must put a smile on and go through the motions every single day at school. Then they go to their practices and participate until it is time to go
Click here to unlock this and over one million essays
Show MoreCollege athletes are responsible for their education. School should be the priority first and not the sport. According to Nocera, “Paying students to play would turn them into employees, shifting their focus away from academics” (9). The college athletes work more than 60 hours a week just on practicing. This makes them exceed way above an average employee.
are the only people getting paid while the football, basketball, soccer, tennis players do all the hard work making the NCAA billions of dollars every year studies that were conducted found this to be very disturbing, considering the fact that college football games bring in 10.8 billion dollars a year, college basketball brings in 27 billion dollars a year, and not one football or basketball player sees any money made from the games they slaved over. The reason the people in charge of the NCAA will get away with what they’ve done to players for years on end is because the coaches and other staff are getting paid to shut their mouths and not speak out against the NCAA, because they need a job, these young men and women work so hard throughout their sport seasons with practices, training, conditioning, and games these students athletes need some type of pay and most of all educational help on and off the field to help them do good in school and focus on their passion. Now back to the first point made about the NCAA believing that if they partnered with universities around the world to grant every young man and woman a full scholarship to play sports for their brand and that school then they receive free benefits like a room and board, books
"There are hungry nights that I go to bed starving." says Shabazz Napier, a champion basketball player for the University of Connecticut. "There 's hungry nights and I 'm not able to eat and I still got to play up to my capabilities" ("Fox Sports"). Many student athletes share Napier 's struggle. Chris Conley, a football player for the University of Georgia, attests that if he needs clothes or shoes, he has to sacrifice his food money and face going hungry (Aued). One would think that given these unacceptable yet commonplace problems, the universities simply couldn 't afford to help their players obtain basic needs, right?
Why College Athletes Shouldn’t Get Paid? Free education! Free lunch! Free books.
The lack of compensation for college athletes calls attention to the colleges and universities that do not have to pay the athletes. Although there are rules in place for college athletes to be paid for their name and likeness by outside companies, the schools themselves are not required to compensate the athletes for their time and hard work. Due to the significant financial benefits that universities receive due to their athletic programs, college athletes should be paid for their demanding training and commitment that brings millions of dollars to the school. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has rules in place that govern the compensation of college athletics.
This would be not fair to hard-working students who cannot afford college and rely on scholarships and aid. Unfortunately, athletes focus more on performance than on academics, and scholarship money may go to
One of the biggest issues with NCAA sports is should college athletes be able to unionize and play. According to their website, The NCAA is an organization that represents over 1,100 colleges and universities from the Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3 Level (ncaa.org). In addition, The NCAA doled out more than $2.7 billion in athletic scholarships along with other resources, student-athletes can utilize (ncaa.org). Although the NCAA generates mass revenue, only the top programs are usually profitable while most schools operate at the institution cost (Mitchell & Edelman, 2013). I believe college athletes should not be unionized or paid to play college sports.
College is a place for students to obtain a college degree and help them to get ahead on their “real world” careers. Athletic departments in college have become huge money incomes in the past ten years; college football and basketball are even shown on the television. This has resulted in many believing these athletes deserve to be paid for their contribution to the schools athletic income. However athletes in college are given the opportunity to play the sport that they love as well as receive a top education. For some players a $20,000+ per year tuition is not enough, they want to be paid with more than just a scholarship.
The website “Study: "The Price of Poverty in Big Time College Sport" by NCPA say’s “College athletes are required to make up the difference between NCAA scholarships and the actual cost of living. Tuition shortfalls amount to thousands of dollars per year and leave about 85% of players to live below the poverty line.” This quote shows how scholarships don’t pay for everything and the athletes are left to figure out the rest on their own. This means that the athletes have to make the rest up but they aren’t able to because the college didn’t pay them and they didn’t have time to keep a job because of their demanding schedules. In addition, Mary Kate McCoy from “Survey: Nearly a Quarter of Division I Athletes Face Food Insecurity,” wrote “About 25% of Division I athletes reported food poverty in the past year and almost 14% reported being homeless in the past year.
College athletes put in a lot of time, effort, and work into the sport they’ve played since they were young, but they aren’t getting paid for it. These student athletes deserve to be paid because they put in countless hours of hard work and balance sports with school work. The first reason athletes in college do deserve to be compensated is because they don 't have time to fit in work with a school and athletic schedule. College athletes don’t have time to get a real job. Student athletes have a very busy schedule, they don’t have time to fit in a job.
Mike says”Students all over the world work hard at the sport that true love and don’t get a lot in return for it”. While college athletes may not exactly be employees, they are more than just students. Consider the life of a student-athlete, though. The average Division I football player dedicates over 43hours per week to his sport, meaning that he spends more than a typical American work-week training and playing football, in addition to his class work. Their work, which generates exorbitant amounts of money year in and year out, deserves Compensation.
It includes only those funds that end up in the NCAA 's bank account.” The FCAA being the organization that would collect and distribute the capital. This research paper described why college athletes should be paid. They make personal sacrifices, and take risks in order to produce revenue for their schools.
They have to put in work on and off the field of court. Three, the coaches and everybody else but the players are paid. These kids take time from their school work and personal things to get things done for their sports team and don’t get anything in return. “Nick Saban will make $11 million in the year of 2018 coaching the football team of Alabama University.” (www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/6778847/college-athletes-deserve-paid.)
Advocates for the NCAA claim that student athletes should not get paid because academics come first and sports are extra-curricular activities. However, the statistics do not back up the NCAA’s core values. For example, the NCAA Basketball Tournament requires up to 6 missed classes, many nationally televised games are played on weeknights, and this year the Florida State football team missed the first day of spring classes due to the national championship. Obviously, the NCAA is very concerned with the education of student athletes but it also seems as if the NCAA puts increasing revenue and publicity ahead of the importance of
Another valid argument for why they deserve to be paid is because a scholarship for the athletes doesn 't normally cover all of the tuitions. So the players are forced to pay the rest of the tuition to go there and play. Not everybody can afford to pay for college that is why they work their butt off for a scholarship. A case happened at duke university where a player got a scholarship and still had to pay 1,995 dollars for his scholarship. The study shows that the players were living just 732 dollars above the poverty line.