College Athletes Should Be Compensated for Their Hard Work
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College Athletes Should be Compensated for their Hard Work
Did you know that between 2010 and 2024 10.8 billion dollars will be made off the college sports industry?(Revenue) March Madness by itself brought in 797.9 million dollars over the course of about four weeks, in 2015-2016, and the college athletes that played in those games didn’t get a single penny(Cronin). Which is not fair because one, many student athletes help bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars to their school. Second, playing a sport is the like having a full time job. Third of all, coaches administrators, and companies make millions of dollars off the athlete’s hard work and talent. So with all that being said, I believe that college athletes should be paid.
To begin with, many student athletes help bring in hundreds of dollars to their school. Many students that make it to the top 10 schools would not be there if they weren’t playing their sport, according to Nocera, and Williams, “ The college sports establishment likes to call the athletes who play varsity sports at universities “student athletes.” A far more accurate term would be “athlete students.” Putting the word “athlete” first would at least let everybody know what the priorities are” (Nocera, Williams). Their priority is to be there for their school and win games. The college sports industry is a multibillion-dollar businesses. It is pointed out by, that “some schools have billion-dollar TV deals and team sponsors. The coaches for these teams make millions. Schools have money for fancey training facilities, charter jets to away games, and state-of-the-art arenas.” Nocera and Williams also make the comment that “TV networks pay the NCAA hundreds of millions of dollars per year for the right to air the games, and advertisers can pay up to $1.5 million dollars for a 30-second TV ad that runs during the tournament”(Nocera). Some may argue that colleges get their money from other sources. Most colleges do have other sources of funding, but college sports still bring in the most money.
Leading me to my next topic, playing a sport is like having a full time job. Most athletes spend more than 40 hours a week on their sport. David Johnson, points out that “On average, college athletes spend more than 30 hours a week on their sport. The U.S National Collegiate Athletic Association has a rule limiting college athletes to 20 hours per week, but it is rife with loopholes and target of lawsuits” (Johnson). Johnson also emphasizes, just how exhausted the players are after their practices. This makes their class work and jobs harder to do. In addition to this, college athletes also meet the main three work labor laws which are, the right to control others, whether a person is compensated, and if that person depends on that income. It has been proven that college athletes meet all of these laws. Robert McCormick points out that they meet all of these laws because, “A coach has much control over what they do, an athletic scholarship amounts to compensation and players depend on those funds for food and shelter as well as amounts of schooling”(Cooper). So, they are meeting all of the requirements of an employee but not getting their share out of it. Some may argue that their pay is getting their tuition paid for which most do, but these scholarships can vary and not cover all of their fees.
My final reason is that coaches, administrators, and companies make millions of the athletes hard work and talent. Today posters, video games, player cards, and hundreds of other things are made and sold off these players. One of these players decided to speak up. O’Bannon made the decision to take the NCAA to court after he had been put in a video games, and received nothing back from it. He explained his back life, and that while in college he had received a full ride scholarship to UCLA. He was later married and even with his scholarship they struggled to make ends meet. In the court ruling he said, “It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t right. If somebody took your face and made you the star of a video game, you’d expect to get compensated , right? In no other walk of life can your identity be stolen like that”(Cooper). Coaches also get a cut of the money. On average coaches make between 1 million to the highest paid coach, Nick Saban, who made $7,087,481 last season with Alabama Crimson Tide (Wire). Also, the reality is without sports thousands of businesses would not be functioning. I mean just when you walk into a mall think about just how many sports stores there is inside of them. Or how many people you see walking down the street wearing their colleges sports gear. Millions of dollars is made off the ticket sales, advertising, and promoting the games. Others might argue