An Argument in Favor of Paying Football Players at The University of Alabama

Should football players at the University of Alabama be paid to play? According to the NCAA or national collegiate athletic association the answer to that question is no. Over the last decade this has been a hot topic in sports and many controversies have arisen from the argument. Many people believe that this is an unfair due to the amount of work that goes in to playing college football. From practice of the field to studying the next opponent in a film session these athletes put in many hours of work and bring major revenue to the school they play for. There are many college football fans that believe not paying the athletes is unfair due to the amount of effort and time that is involved into playing college football at a high level.

There are many arguments as to why division one football players deserve to be paid. But one thing that both sides can agree on is that the players need to be treated fair whether you think fair is paying them or not. According to Tony Tsoukalas of the Crimson White News paper “The University of Alabama raked in a profit of 40,766,391 during the 2010 season”(Tsoukalas). With such big profits it is hard to believe the most important part of the team, which are the players, do not see a dime. It seems reasonable that people would be in favor of paying athletes with revenues like this. At many big schools like Alabama football is the main sport, Tony goes on to say “The football program at the university reported a $40,766,391 profit in 2010 while all other UA sports combined lost $7,875,289”(Tsoukalas). This statistic shows how important football players are to a major university such as Alabama. Another reason people believe these athletes should be paid is the simple fact that playing football takes a lot of time and effort. At any other job if someone put in as much work as a crimson tide player they would without a doubt be paid. The players look at football as just that a job they are on a tight schedule and must work hard at everything they do. Many of the players on the university of Alabama football team come form poverty and football is on of the only options to make a substantial amount of money and an education. According to Wayne Flynt “In the 2000 U.S. Census, for instance, Alabama was the seventh poorest state, with 16 percent of its residents living in poverty, as compared with a U.S. average of 12 percent. The state also contained eight of the nation's 100 poorest counties.”(Flynt). Although scholarships are given to many athletes this does not cover many expenses that come with going to college. By paying athletes it would lesson the burden on there families to support them financially in college. Such as groceries, gas for their cars, and other common household items.

It’s not hard to figure out why someone would be in favor of paying the football players at the University of Alabama. Their blood sweat and sometimes tears go into winning games for the program and that winning tradition translates to money. According to Tommy Deas of timesports.com “University of Alabama’s head football coach will accrue compensation of $6,087,349 for 2010, making him not only the highest-paid coach in college football but one of the highest-paid coaches in the entire sport”(Deas). While the coach of the crimson tide is making a record breaking salary the players are struggling to live comfortably. The facts are that the players do just as much if not more work then the head coach in a football season. So why is it fair that the coach of the team makes millions and the players make nothing? Many who are in favor of paying athletes ask the same question. Arguments for paying football players at the university of Alabama are very strong and make a lot of sense it is hard for some people to see why this would be a bad idea.

Both sides of this argument have strong reasoning behind them and this is a reason why it is still being argued. Although the argument for paying athletes presents many good points there are underlying issues that are not addressed by proponents of paying Alabama football players. One point not addressed is how much will the players get paid this issue has not been solved yet. How much is the time put in by the players worth and is everyone time equal is another question you must ask. For example one of the front-runners in the Heisman Trophy race, which is, an award given to the best college football player in the nation is Trent Richardson. Trent is the starting running back for the tide and maybe the best running back in the nation. Would it be fair to pay him more then a third sting lineman? I think not. This is because every player on the team is required to practice the same amount of time. But in the same situation it would also be unfair to pay him the same amount considering he is a star and bring more revenue to the university then a lot of players on the team. So if it is unfair to pay the athletes the same amount and also unfair to pay them different amounts paying them at all does not make sense. I do understand and feel for the underprivileged families that have to support the financial need of these players in college. With that said I believe that there need to be a compromise between paying the athletes and not paying the athletes.

The argument of players making money for the university and the university then having a debt to the players is a good one but it does have flaws. At many schools in the nation none of the athletic teams including the football team make money throughout the season. The is due to the high cost of running the team from uniforms to travel to paying the coaching staff sports do not come cheep in college. Also much of the revenue is not made with the players but with the television contracts that make sure only certain channels cover certain teams. For example the University of Alabama has a contract with CBS along with all southeastern conference team. This means that no other channel can air any SEC games and believe me this contract is very lucrative for all the universities involved.

Every university across the country makes and spends different amounts of money. Some schools have a lot of money and other schools do not this is also a problem when paying college athletes. If a school like Boise Sates to compete with a school like Alabama money wise is just not fair. It is obvious that a school like Alabama would be able to pay recruits more money then Boise state could. This leads to a disadvantage for school that don’t have big money to recruit why would a player go to one school if another is going to be able to pay him ten times more money? They wouldn’t. This could lead to a lack of compotation in college football where school like Alabama and USC would dominate every year simply because of the money they could pay their athletes. This would not be good for the sport because every team is suppose to be on a level playing field when it comes to recruiting.

I think that the arguments made by people supporting the pay of Alabama football players are strong and valid. But I think there are many things that just do not work when it come to paying college athletes specifically University of Alabama football players. So how can this argument be settled? The answer is a compromise. There has to be a middle ground between both sides that people can agree on. The best way to make everyone happy would to give players a weekly allowance on their Act Cards so that they can my niceties on campus. This would lessen the burden on the families of these players and makes their lives more comfortable. This way players would get the same amount of money on their Act Card on a weekly basis. This gets rid of the how much to pay individual players problem by using the Act Card system it would ensure that players would not be able to spend this money on things that are not needed in ever day life. Some of these frivolous thing would be cars, jewelry, unneeded clothing, and alcohol the Act Card does not allow you to purchase these things. In my opinion paying the Alabama football players is out of the question due to all of the factors that go into it. People say that it is not fair not to pay these players after all their hard work but by paying them a lot of other things become unfair. I think if anything is to happen dealing with paying the football players it needs to be done this way. Both side of this argument would benefit from this solution because the players are getting money but at the same time this money will not effect the game in the slightest. This idea will also help these young men learn to budget their money in the long run through the allowance system, this will be a great help when they sign million dollar contracts with the NFL.