Paying Athletes
In today’s time things are changing rapidly. Constantly, new ideas and situations are presenting themselves to the world we are living in and it is up to us as a society to change and adopt to these new times. In today’s world, we as athletes are being tested every day to make sure we are producing positive results for not only our coaches but also for our teachers and tutors. Every day we are put into positions where we have to give our best, no matter the circumstances or the pressure. Yes, there are so many good things that come out of these opportunities but while we are participating in these activities growing our network, we aren’t getting the chance to make money and make it possible to bring these networking ideas to life.
When looking at these situations of paying student athletes I like first break it down from a day-by-day standpoint. On most days we have to get up around 6 and then don’t get doe with everything till eight o’clock at night. As an adult, your average work hours are 9am-5pm. Looking at it from this standpoint it already makes sense for us to get compensated for the day-by-day activities that take place in our daily lives. A lot of people believe that the scholarships are ways of providing for these student athletes. In some ways this makes sense for helping the cause of not being in dept when you get out of college, but you didn’t make any money that would help you jump start your new life.
Another reason I feel like Student-Athletes should get paid is because of how much money our names, images and likeness bring university, team stores and even broadcasting networks where the games are being played. Here at UNC, we have actually got to participate in classes through our football program that helps us brand our name for our after-college goals and career paths. A thought that always crosses my mind is what if we could get a jump start on that and start using our name from a more finical standpoint. IN my mind there should be no reason your certain university can sell your jersey or a t-shirt with you name on it and you do not see any of the profit. For a University standpoint the production of your teams really helps boost how much people will come and attend your university. People go into student stores, team stores and any other apparel stores to get some new fresh gear just because of the game they watched last week that they enjoyed. The athletes that participate in these games seen not one penny of these profits which isn’t fair. Also, you have the broadcasting networks. The only way people can tune into a live feed of these games without being there in person is through these networks. The more people that watch these networks the more money these networks get paid. The bigger the game the more people will watch, creating a huge profit for these companies and nothing for the athletes and coaches participating in the games.
Along with these examples I think that there should be some pay for the college athlete with regards the whole recruiting process. When kids are getting recruited now a days, they are always wanting to go to which ever school is production at the highest level and also whichever college has the best players. Most of these ideas fall back on the players. So, depending on how good you team may or may not be could regulate which recruits you get and which ones you don’t. If you land a big recruit, it only helps the team and the program for the future years. In closing, I think there should be some kind of reasonable compensation by the administrators due to the fact the former players are helping make the program better.
I think that one of the best articles that I was able to read was called “College Athletes Should Get Paid” by Justin Reyes. In this article there were some great insight and ideas that I had never thought of before. He starts off by saying “Imagine working for countless hours, six days a week, then putting on multiple performances just so someone else can get paid billions.” I have really never heard anything so true. I agree with the fact that giving someone a scholarship is a way of compensating that, but you also have to remember not everyone gets their school paid for. ON every D1 and D2 school in the nation there are kids walking on, having to pay their way, working just as hard, doing everything else the scholarship guys are doing and don’t get anything but spot on the roster. This is also a bigger concern for the individuals who are playing D3 sports. A D3 college isn’t even allowed to give athletic scholarships it can only be a small academic scholarship. Whether or not you think that giving someone a scholarship is the appropriate reward or not, the article states “According to USA Today, the NCAA had a revenue of $1.1 Billion from 2017 NCAA college sporting events. How much of this money went to the college athletes who are the ones physically and mentally performing generating this money? Zero.” This is really a mind blower for me. It really makes you wonder where the money goes. Lastly, this article closes with a very good point from the finical side of things. It explains how not everyone is as fortunate at some may think. Some kids are dealing with bills and other necessities that there family back home need and can’t afford to send their kid to live out his dreams at a D3 college because of the expensive that can’t be covered. Also, some of these kids at these university are thousands of miles away from possible a struggling family and the extra money could help solve some of these issues. There are so many different scenarios and stories out there, but all these things can be fixed with just compensating the athletes that are working day in and out for these universities.
Another article that I thought was very insightful when looking at if athletes should be paid or not was the article by Jim Treleaven “Should College Athletes be paid?” In this article I really feel like Jim does a great job of breaking down the logistics and stats of the payment for athletes. According to the study done in the article the most common argument is that universities make millions of dollars in revenue off of the hard work of unpaid and overworked athletes. In the article it mentions that coaches are often the highest paid employees at the university within the big-time sports programs. An analysis was calculated by a business insider of the value of each player by allocating 47% of annual football revenue over the 85 athletic scholarships in the football program. The University of Texas had the highest value $671,000, at OSU that value was $462,000 and the NCAA Division I-A (FBS) average was $164,000. Unlike the other articles that I was able to read this article and put things int the bigger picture perspective. It talks about not only trying to use our athletic platform as a money generator but also to branch out and use it as a social platform. In the article it states ““That’s why the United Nations has declared April 6 the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace. Athletics can provide entertainment and exercise, yes, but also so much more. It can be used as a tool for tackling social issues — fighting obesity, empowering women, integrating refugees or promoting peace. Sports are more than mere games. They’re essential to the healthy transformation of society.” Lastly, the article talks about not losing focus on all the opportunities that are at your fingertips an an athlete. When you look back on your career as a athlete no matter what division, school, or state the memories will always be way mor important in the long run than how much money you make. My parents always say it’s more about the relationships then anything else. It’s the connections you make with your classmates, friends and teachers that get you far in life.
In closing, we as athletes are demanded excellence every day no matter the circumstances or the day. We are having to represent our University, community, program and families at the highest level every day. In most cases it is a full-time job, and we aren’t getting all the compensation that should be given. I am very thankful for the scholarship I was able to receive before attending this university, but I also feel like I should have some cash in my pocket to allow me to jump start life due to not have a paying job in college. If this rule doesn’t get changed in the next few years, I will at least get to rely on the relationships I made to help me become successful in the work place when finding a job.
