More than 100 Division I coaches earn over $1 million per year. According to data released by the NCAA, 90% of Division I athletes enrolled in 2013 earned a degree within six years. The first reason is college athletes put their bodies on the line and risk injury to entertain people. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) generates eleven billion dollars annually, some of which could, and should go to college athletes. Former ESPN, and current FOX Sports, personality Colin Cowherd made news in 2014 when he voiced a popular argument against paying college athletes: financial irresponsibility. Should all athletes be paid? OBannon and 19 others sued the NCAA, claiming the organization violated United States antitrust laws by not allowing athletes to get a share of the revenues generated from the use of their images in broadcasts and video games. That means athletes who are exceptionally skilled at not-so-popular sports, such as swimming and softball, would not be given a chance to complete their studies through sponsorship and scholarship programs by the NCAA. The University of North Carolina became the first school to organize group licensing deals for student athletes in July 2021. WebJim Putman & Aubrey Badlam ENGL101- Prof. Yu College Athletes Should Be Paid To Play One of the biggest debates in sports is whether college athletes also referred to, as student-athletes should be paid to play their sport. He is the owner of Salarship, a job search engine where less-skilled candidates can find accessible employment opportunities. WebPaying the athletes in the team will make them put their focus on why should college athletes be paid essay and athletic with no worries about money. Unfair compensation between players How will players be compensated? [24], B. David Ridpath, EdD, Associate Professor of Sports Administration at Ohio University, noted, The only amateur quality about college athletics is that colleges refuse to pay their players. Ridpath explained, The United States is the only country in the world that has a significant portion of elite athletic development and commercialized sport embedded within its education systems. 2023 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved. [23]. WebCon 2: Not Every Sports Team Brings in the Same Value True: The majority of money generated by the NCAA goes to scholarships for Division I and II athletes evenly. In June, the governing boards for all three NCAA divisions approved what they termed "a uniform interim policy" that suspends previous rules regarding endorsements for all incoming and current student-athletes in all sports. CollegeVine can help! The math behind the argument against Williamsons returning is simple. A February 2020 USA Today article found that the average total pay for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) college football head coaches in 2020-21 was $2.7 million. If college athletes were to get paid, then large, well-funded schools such as those of the Power Five would be best positioned to acquire top talent and gain a competitive advantage. Race isnt the only issue, but statistically it plays a huge part in the reason why many people oppose the fact that college athletes should be getting paid. It's not about finding the right answer because there is no right answer. This scenario offers too many thorny questions and too few sufficient answers. Introduction Paying college athletes will likely not totally eliminate corruption from college sports, but putting athletes in a less-precarious financial position would be a good step toward avoiding external influence, especially when you consider some of the players involved in the University of Toledo point-shaving scandal were paid as little as $500. Takeaway: Paying student-athletes could potentially give them an incentive to stay in their institution, as schools will probably lock them into a contract. Huma cited the example of a top football player who found himself with a more serious injury a few years ago; that player elected to end his college career prematurely, to limit the risk to his professional payday. Consider the pro position of the National College Players Association that paying college athletes is a civil rights issue. 7, 2018, Steve Berkowitz, NCAA President Mark Emmert Credited with $2.7 Million in Total Pay for 2018 Calendar Year, usatoday.com, June 2, 2020, USA Today, NCAA Salaries, usatoday.com, Nov. 17, 2020, Ian McMahan, Athletes Are Paying the Physical Price of Playing College Sports, si.com, Oct. 31, 2017, Azmatullah Hussaini and Jules Lipoff, Op-Ed: COVID-19 Is Making the NCAAs Exploitation of Student-Athletes Even More Obvious, latimes.com, June 23, 2020, Meghan Walsh, 'I Trusted 'Em': When NCAA Schools Abandon Their Injured Athletes, theatlantic.com, May 1, 2013, Jon Solomon, The History Behind the Debate over Paying NCAA Athletes, aspeninstitute.org, Apr. The NCAA was scheduled to vote on new NIL rules in Jan. 2021, but it then postponed the vote, citing external factors.Days before the scheduled vote Makan Delrahim, JD, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice under the Trump administration, questioned the proposed rules compliance with antitrust laws. [34], The NCAA noted, [p]rofessional opportunities are extremely limited and the likelihood of a high school or even college athlete becoming a professional athlete is very low. Universities best positioned to pay athletes top dollar would win bidding wars and recruiting battles against institutions with limited budgets. [29] [30], Further, most college programs do not generate the income needed to run their athletic programs, much less pay athletes. [47], By Jan. 2022, without a clear NIL structure from the NCAA, some schools were questioning how to navigate deals for players or whole teams without violating NCAA policy. On the sidelines, Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh (salary: $8 million) and his counterpart, Ryan Day (salary: $5.7 million), finalize their game plans. The NBA requires players to be at least 19 and a year out of high school, while the NFL requires players to be three years out of high school. All told, only about 1% of student-athletes receive a full scholarship. As it stands, NCAA athletes are allowed to receive scholarships that cover their college tuition and Respondents were split 50/50 in a June 1, 2021 New York Times survey about whether the NCAA strictly limiting paid compensation is constitutional. [27], About 25% of Division I athletes reported food poverty in the past year and almost 14% reported being homeless in the past year. Funding the student-athletes would be a massive shift in budget distribution. [13] [14] [41], Gabe Feldman, JD, Professor of Sports Law, Director of the Sports Law Program and Associate Provost for NCAA compliance at Tulane University, noted that the last time the NCAA was at the Supreme Court was in 1984 (NCAA vs. the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma). Compensating athletes for their contribution would only be fair. They give out 13 scholarships. It would eliminate the line between amateur and professional sports. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public. Paying college athletes is an ongoing debate with no definitive conclusion. Its regulations state, "You are not eligible for participation in a sport if you have ever taken pay, or the promise of pay, for competing in that sport [or] used your athletics skill for pay in any form in that sport. 4. WebCollege athletes are allowed to compete in the Olympic Games and be financially compensated, such as Joseph Schooling, a University of Texas swimmer, who earned a $740,000 bonus for winning Singapores first gold medal ever at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Meanwhile, 18 states have NIL laws in place. Its hard to ignore the racist undertones when the financial benefit to these institutions is based on the unpaid work of young Black men. [22], The NCAA requires players to have health insurance but does not pay for that insurance and can refuse to pay medical expenses for sports injuries, some of which can have life-long consequences for the players bodies and career opportunities. If a majority of these college athletes, who are bringing in staggering amounts of money to these schools were white, would this even be a conversation? College students should participate in sports for the love of the game, not for financial gain, following the long-forgotten credo held dear by Olympic athletes. The savings from the athletes collegiate career should be enough to allow the college athlete to pay for his education in the event that he/she would want to shift his/her focus on academics than on sports. A handful of big The opportunity cost of not working is considerable. TheNCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association)is a nonprofit organization formed in 1906 that regulates college athletics, including game rules, athlete eligibility, and college tournaments. Mark J. Drozdowski, Ed.D., is a senior writer with BestColleges. [11], Additionally, the US Supreme Court agreed to hear a case (National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Shawne Alston, et al.) As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. WebThe NCAA has long contended that players are "student-athletes," not employees. Limits corruption from external influences Compensating athletes in college will limit the corruption involving agents, boosters and others. The big question is:what are the arguments for and against paid college athletes? You are also agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. A New York Times study found a 0.20-point difference in average GPA between recruited male athletes and non-athletes. College Athletes Getting Paid? To access extended pro and con arguments, sources, discussion questions, and ways to take action on the issue of paying college athletes, go to ProCon.org. Since the ruling, college athletes have been cashing in on NIL deals, with a few resulting in seven-figure incomes. As always, there are two sides to any argument. Salarship.com is the sole proprietorship of, student-athletes should be playing sports with education as its primary driver, 201,546 College Student Jobs Are Available on Salarship. A federal judge in Northern California, Claudia Wilken, will soon decide if student-athletes should instead be paid more like professionals. They are, get over it!. A decision is expected in June 2021. Will the All-American point guard get the same amount as the captain of the swim team? Calculate your chances at your dream schools and learn what areas you need to improve right now it only takes 3 minutes and it's 100% free. Everyone around them makes money, but the students responsible for generating revenue receive nothing. A 2017 study found that 91% of former college football players who had died had CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to dementia. We Group licensing deals in theory can allow lesser-known players to reap the benefits of appearing alongside a well-known player. For example, will the star quarterback receive the same amount as the backup catcher on the softball team? Just 1.6% of college football players will take an NFL field. In 41 states, the highest-paid public employee is a football or basketball coach. A handful of big sports programs would pay top dollar for a select few athletes, while almost every other college would get caught up in a bidding war it couldnt afford. 19, 2021, Adam Liptak and Alicia Parlapiano, "What the Public Thinks about Major Supreme Court Cases This Term," nytimes.com, June 1, 2021, Business of College Sports, "Tracker: Name, Image and Likeness Legislation by State," businessofcollegesports.com, June 10, 2021, Adam Liptak, "Supreme Court Backs Payments to Student-Athletes," nytimes.com, July 21, 2021, Alan Blinder, "College Players May Make Money Off Their Fame, Powerful N.C.A.A. A seriously injured athlete could lose their scholarship (which is guaranteed only for one year at a time), jeopardize their opportunity to play professionally and potentially earn millions, or even face lifelong disability if the damage is permanent. 1. It also raised an important question: Should Williamson ever suit up for another college game? In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law allowing college athletes in the state to sign endorsement deals with brands. Here Are Some Pros And Cons. The top 25 football coaches take home an average of $5.2 million, while the top 25 basketball coaches bring in $3.2 million. Part of HuffPost News. As mentioned before, college athletes can put in upward of 40 hours a week practicing, training, and competingbeing a student-athlete is a challenge when youre devoting full-time hours to athletics. In 2019, the NCAA reported $18.9 billion in total athletics revenue. Students, read the entire article, then tell us: Do you think college athletes should be paid? Schools would also have to cut unprofitable sports including gymnastics, swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball, and wrestling. It will be traded for lackadaisical plays and half-ass efforts that we sometime see from pros. https://www.britannica.com/story/pro-and-con-paying-college-athletes, according to the Business of College Sports. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Its just not less-popular sports that paying athletes could threatenwomens programs could also find themselves in the crosshairs of budget-conscious administrators. Exactly who gets paid and how much? From a students point of view, paying college athletes will alter their college experience. This money is used to finance a variety of paid positions that support athletics at colleges and universities, including administrators, directors, coaches, and staff, along with other employment less directly tied to sports, such as those in marketing and media. Whats the Difference Between Great Britain and the United Kingdom? What determines how much each player should earn? On a crisp Saturday afternoon in Ann Arbor, the University of Michigan is set to battle its archrival, The Ohio State University, for gridiron supremacy in the Big Ten Conference and perhaps a shot at the national championship. People see fit that students get paid for their performance as they are the fundamental piece that drives external revenue to universities. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/learning/should-college-athletes-be-paid.html. What good will the athletes scholarship do when he cant find time to work on them? Get your troublesome papers finished by our competent writers now! If you were Williamson, would you continue playing for Duke this season and risk injury? And spare me the theyre being extorted thing. A former columnist for The Chronicle Reece Johnson is the managing editor for news, issues, and trends. In the first minute of top-ranked Dukes game against its archrival, eighth-ranked North Carolina, Williamson, a 6-fotot-7, 285-pound forward whose game is a blend of quickness and power, pivoted with the ball near the free-throw line. This would also help keep top talents playing for college teams, improve the level of competition, and potentially lead to even higher revenue. If the bill passes, the law will go into effect on January 1, 2023.