The Debate Over Paying College Athletes

The discussion whether the college athletes should be paid has been re-hashed several times. There are those who advocates in favor and many against the idea of paying athlete who plays sports for their colleges. Many reasons exist why people have a belief that college athletes should be given. For instance, college athlete spends their time to practice.There are numerous reasons why the athletic students should not be paid. The discussion brings out the views why the payment should not be done.

• College athletic programs cannot afford to pay athletes; colleges do not have enough money to pay to all the athletes.
• If college pays the athletes, they would not be allowed just to pay particular students and leave others or pay some sports and do way with others. It would not be fair.
• Every athlete will claim for payment, making it difficult to allocate money to college athletes.
• They can also pay the athletes and the athletic season has negative revenue. If colleges end up paying their players, it will result in demanding more that the college can offer.
• There is no fair way to pay college athletes.

Some believe that the payment has to be based on the open market system. When this happen, then demand and supply will come into place, and the college would be able to pay the player based on revenue that is generated due to their talents. The payment will end up varying depending on the deal that each player has with school and the local market. If the school pay the high student rate, it can be hurt, and in case there is no such pay in future disagreement between players and management may arise. Determining the value of the player raises the question because hiring can be done at a lower rate and vastly improves over the season. The fact also remains that every college may not be in a position to hire the player they want since they cannot afford.

Students are not professionals; students are not supposed to be forced into the role of practitioners. College is a place to learn, and whether the student wants to be a professional athlete or a doctor, they are not professionals while still in school. Students are not to get salaries like professionals since they are not. The fact is that athlete student has to look at their college sports just as a vehicle that leads them to higher education. The bottom line remains: a student-athlete is a just amateur like a student in nursing who makes a choice to take part in the educational experience. Since this is the case, it does not matter how many touchdowns the student score as they are not professionals and should not earn professional money.

College students are financially irresponsible to be paid. Adding money to the life of these students is going to accelerate more problems. A college student does not understand the proper management of cash since most cannot keep a budget. Some also engage in luxury activities that end up draining all of the money. The access to a lot of money makes these players go crazy making purses without proper consideration. Payment of the college athletes will ruin the sports in college. Once they are paid the games industry in universities will be affected. If they begin getting payment, athlete tic department at the college level will turn into enterprises, and this would bring tarnishing of the robust college system. Paying of athletes at the college level could detract their passion making them less motivated to put in more effort to the next level.

Conclusion

The debate over whether there should be paid to college athletes or not, it is proper to pay college athlete. Though there are numerous and compelling reasons why this should not take place. Paying would cause other programs to diminish and bring imbalance in the college sports system as some colleges would have more revenue to spread than others. Paying the players would result in loss of revenues.

Works Cited

1. Frank, R. H., & Cook, P. J. (2010). The winner-take-all society: Why the few at the top get so much more than the rest of us. Random House.
2. Rein, I. J. (2015). The sports strategist: Developing leaders for a high-performance industry. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
3. Tsitsos, W., & Nixon, H. L. (2012). The Star Wars Arms Race in College Athletics Coaches’ Pay and Athletic Program Status. Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 36(1), 68-88.