Should student athletes be paid for their participation

There has been an on going debate on whether student athletes should be paid for their athletic services to their institutions. There are rules that the college student athletes should not be paid, except through help with their tuition and housing. Millions of dollars are produced every year from university and college sports from major games such as football and basket ball. These come especially from the sale of tickets to watch the games, food and drinks and other things. However, there have been many questions on how such money is spent.

Should it be given to the student athletes for bringing fame and money to their institutions, and for providing entertainment? I agree with the idea of paying the athletes because they too work hard to win the games, besides marketing the school and maintaining its integrity. By failing to pay the athletes, the colleges and the universities exploit them to a certain extent. Argument against paying the players Stephanie Sturgill says that the award of scholarships is more than enough compensation to the athletes. She also argues that paying the athletes will make them professionals, while they are supposed to remain amateur players.Stephanie also says that paying the students will lead them to behave in an unsports like manner, among the fellow players. The scholarships awarded, including fee tuition, housing, food and other graduate assistantships are also offered on top of the scholarships, which add up to approximately $200, 000 over a period of four years.

Other special treatments received by the students include excused absences during the games seasons, assisted tutoring in compensation for the time spent rehearsing for the games and priority scheduling. (Sturgill, 2008)Winn Jim also says that the college and the university athletes should not be paid. The NCCA says that paying these students will contribute to corrupting them. Winn suggests that it is unfair for the professional athletes to be paid millions of dollars, while the players in Colleges and universities are not paid. He says that it is for this reason that people say college players are exploited by their colleges in order to gain profits and to be recognized. According to him, these people fail to consider that such employees receive a valuable education without any payments.

He argues that this can not be exploitation because education is more important than education. Giving the student athletes more cash for their own use would not hurt them. However, it would definitely bring more problems, in that if colleges and universities were allowed to pay their layers, then the recruitment system would be corrupted because every person would want to be in the team. Furthermore, the students talented in a certain game would want to join the colleges that pay the most money or give the best offers. Winn gives the example of a student, Josh, about to join college, and is a top rated basket ball player.

He has been contacted by many universities, with some of them offering him more than half a million dollars. In this scenario, the NCAA has allowed the colleges and universities to pay their athletes. Josh, being the typical teenager who wants to have a luxury life in college, of course chooses the university with the highest offer. After joining the university, Josh plays well for the first few months and is given a car, but later on, he is injured and is unable to play for the next few seasons, so the university takes the car from him.This is a good example that things can get out of hand with the involvement of money in the college games.

Winn concludes that paying the employees is therefore a bad idea, resulting to unsportmanship among the players along with the sport programs in the U. S (Winn Jim) Although Winn has a point on the dangers of money in such a game, the university could use other forms of compensation that will be valuable to the students. Support for the payment Supporters for the idea of paying the athletes have very different reasons why this should be done.They say that since the athletes have contributed to the generation of huge revenues to their colleges or universities, then they deserve at least some appreciation from the university in form of payment. They also argue that if the students are paid, then the problems of illegal payments and point shaving will be eliminated. Furthermore, the payment would act as an incentive for the student athletes to remain in schools and complete their degree before joining their respective professional fields.

There are also claims that the athletes are being exploited by their colleges because they are able to make millions of dollars from them, while the students can not even afford to cater for some of their expenses such as educational expenses, dining and entertainment. (Sturgill S. , 2008) The belief that the award of scholarships should end all the financial trouble that the athletic students may have is inaccurate. In reality, the scholarships given to the students by their institutions are not enough for the support of the entire programs or the entire teams.

Stephanie says that after examining the scholarships offered to the athletic students at her institution, she found out that they are not “full rides. ” She says that the students were complaining that the scholarships failed to cover for most of the expanses the students had incurred throughout their years in college. They also complained that there was no guarantee that the scholarships would be renewed every year for the returning student athletes. (Sturgill S.

, 2008)The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCCA) approved that the student athletes be offered employment for job paying up to $2,000 during a school year in the year 2000. This income could address the expenses for the education. However, except during summer, the student athletes do not have an extra time to work, as the have to practice, train and at the same time attend classes.Martin says that, “Although the NCAA constitution states that the student athletes should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises, it seems colleges and universities are the entity that exploits their own student-athletes.

Martin, 2002) It is also unfair that the coaches of the college and the university teams are paid so well, yet the players are not. A few coaches from Ohio were asked of they would support the idea of the student athletes being paid. Each had different views concerning the issue. Jim Brien, a basket ball coach said that, “there is a big difference between paper money and real money, and what these kids get is only paper money. They need to have some real money to walk around with and to live on. The NCAA regulations state that the student-athletes should not be overworked.

This is hardly the case; the students always have to practice for long hours, especially during the game seasons. This is yet another reason why they deserve a fair compensation. (Justin Powell, 2001) Russ Hellickson, a wrestling coach said that they should not be paid, but that they should be able to gat the kind of scholarship that a presidential scholar gets. The presidential scholars enjoy a full in-state tuition, books allowances, housing allowances and above that, miscellaneous expenses.

All that money is approximated total to $12,483 annually for the in-state students, approximately $2,000 more compared to what the student athletes receive. The coach also said that most of the $2,000 is categorized as miscellaneous expanses, which the student-athletes do not receive. Extra cash to the presidential scholars is used for other expenses like bus passes, athletic tickets and any other living necessity. Russ’s suggestion should also be considered by the colleges and the administration’s authorities.It should be fair compensation for the students, if they want to change the current system in use. Boyce Watkins, a finance professor at the Syracuse University said that the athletes, especially those in the revenue drawing sports should be paid on the basis of the fair market value, and that even though this was bound to cause inequalities, it would be better than the scholarship system used today in most colleges and universities.

(Christman Corey, 2006) Brace Ron, a student-player says that he works hard, but does not get a nickel from either the NCAA or the University.He represents just a few of the students out there, who put a lot of effort not to be beaten by other colleges, but does not get any thing in return. This is very unfair. If the Universities decide to sponsor student-athletes, then they should do it fairly. Compensating the players from only one game and leaving put the rest should not be. (Matt Winkel John, 2008) A survey that was done on the university students on what they think about the payment of the college athletes showed that they were for the idea of paying the student-athletes.

From the survey, the students said that the money could be got from the university’s general funds, the athletic departments, increased tuitions or fro the shoe and the television contracts. From the research done, it was seen that the willingness of the students t increase their fee in order to pay the student-athletes was a clear demonstration that the students valued the athletic programs of the colleges and the universities. (Schneider, 2001)This has also been suggested by other authors, who suggest that funds for the payment could be gotten from other sources as the Student Athlete Opportunity Fund. White Kelly, 2004) It is true that the colleges and the universities have offered a lot to their student-athletes as a compensation for the benefits they have brought to their institutions, including the scholarships and the learning experiences. However, these few are not enough. But if the NCAA does not give paying the students as an option, then one is left to wonder how the walk-on athletes will be justified.

These are offered no scholarship, yet the amount of time and effort they put is the same as that of those offered scholarship.In order for the universities to be said not to be exploiting the student-athletes, they have to take some actions. They should be able to come up with more programs to cater for the scholarships of more students because they help in the generation of millions of dollars for the colleges and the universities. They should also guarantee the renewal of the scholarships for the returning student-athletics at the beginning of every year.

Living expenses of the students should be covered fully.The institutions should also allow professional sport leagues to work with the college and the university students. This would acct as an incentive for the students to first graduate before working as professional athletes. (Schneider, 2001) Conclusion The universities and the colleges should come up with a compensation plan that is fair to student-athlete. It would be unfair for the authorities to pay only the athletes of one game and leave out the other, an example being paying the basket ball and football players and leaving out the rest would be very unfair.