Why College Athletes Should not Be Paid

In the past five to ten years, there has been a controversial question going around: should students who play a sport get paid as a reward of being a College Athlete? The answer is no. Student athletes should not get paid because they are already receiving money in scholarships, they’re at school to earn a degree not to play sports, and it would totally defeat the purpose of going to school. College athletes should not be paid because it will ruin the amateurism of college sports, and it will make young athletes spoiled with money.

For the people who are for college students getting paid, I understand your reasons behind that. Everyone wants to get paid, but that’s just not how the world works. Over the past decade, college sports have turned into a multibillion dollar business, and a lot of people think that everybody in the industry is getting paid except the college athletes who produce the product on the field. However that’s not true at all, most college athletes are receiving full ride scholarships to the college their attending which means they are basically going to school for free. Also, college athletes are still students, and they should be treated the same as every other student. If they receive compensation for the sport their playing that will make them more important than the other students on campus, which is never the goal. Paying college students would unbalance everything and would end up hurting universities all over the country.

On the other hand, one reason why college athletes should not get paid is because it would eliminate the line between amateur and professional sports. According to the NCAA, college athletes are not currently getting paid because it is still an amateur sport and if amateurs receive compensation, then it would eliminate the separation between the two leagues. It could also cause the athletes who don’t enter the professional league to struggle because they would have fewer opportunities available to them. To add to the issue, paying college athletes would affect the audience and the crowds the sport draws. So many people enjoy college sports because the athletes are playing for the love of the game, not the money. And, what some people don’t understand is that college athletes are already getting paid in the form of either their academic or sport related scholarship. In the words of the NCAA, “it is important to clarify that while many rules promote amateurism, rules specifically relating to scholarships are fundamentally still an economic relationship of providing labor in exchange for compensation. It is therefore legally accurate to view the student-athlete’s receipt of a scholarship as compensation”. If you’re a college athlete and you have been granted a scholarship, the college you are attending is already rewarding you for your talents. There is no reason why you should be receiving pay for a sport if you are there to better your education and get a degree.

If college athletes were to get paid, it would ruin the culture of college sports. College students love school sports because the athletes are still students. They’re seen in classes and on campus and still live normal lives. Introducing money into the athlete’s world would make them seem more important than everyone else at the school and that’s not the case. College athletes dedicate more time and have a larger workload than some students, but they are being rewarded be receiving a scholarship and most likely going to school for free. Sports in college are supposed to be fun and about the game, not about the money. If an athlete is getting paid, they will never understand the true meaning of working for something, and they won’t understand the purpose of college sports. If college athletes were paid, the teams would become unfair because “you’re going to see bigger schools use (paying athletes) as a recruiting advantage” and therefore ruin the culture of college sports. It is very difficult to earn a position on a college team much less receive a full ride scholarship. Only about 7% of high school athletes move onto college level sports, and only 2% of those athletes reach the division one level. This helps show how special it is to be apart of college athletics and how rare it is to not have to pay for college. Paying college athletes would throw a wrench into things and would negatively affect many universities.

To strengthen my argument, college students should not get paid because they are receiving a free education at a high quality university, where in other cases some students might not be able to afford. And to put icing on the cake, they will graduate with a degree. In other words, these players are already getting paid through the scholarship they are receiving which is awarded according to a player’s talent and determined by the training coach. When interviewing a news reporter, they said, “They are students receiving access to a college education through their participation in sports, for which they earn scholarships to pay tuition, fees, room and board, and other allowable expenses. Collegiate sports is not a career or profession. It is the students’ vehicle to a higher education degree” (Mitchell). On average, most universities charge anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 per year, with scholarships that is all covered and there is less stress put on the families and students.

A student athlete’s first priority is their education, and second the sport; unlike professionals where they only focus on the sport they play. With students having more on their plate, it makes them more passionate about the sport, because they are playing for the love of the sport and not the money. If the student athlete were to receive compensation, the innocence would be taken away and they wouldn’t be playing for the same reasons anymore. Just like everything in the business world, the money must come from somewhere. So, if the athletes were paid, the funds put aside for academics would reduce and the universities would lose money. In the end, the school’s athletic departments would become more of a business rather than a department designed to help the athletes improve their skills both on the field and in the classroom. Scholarships are meant to be a way to provide education for students who cannot afford to the attend universities. If student athletes were allowed to be compensated, that is what a scholarship would turn into. Simone Jacobs was a rower at Stanford university, and when interviewed he said “I am being paid in that I am on scholarship. I’m getting paid in that I don’t have to pay as much for my college education.” If student athletes were paid on top of their scholarships, universities across the country would no longer have their many priority on the quality of education offered, they would be focusing more on the business side of things. In the end, paying student athletes will have negative effects on both the universities and the students.  

Works Cited

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