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Payton Sancrant

Professor Pedrotti

English 1201

4 August 2019

College Athletes Should be Compensated

I have always been involved in athletics since the moment that I learned how to run I was

out on a field. I played various sports all throughout elementary school and then freshman year I

started a new and unique sport, rowing. I rowed competitively 6 days a week having two-hour

practices every weekday and races on the weekends. For me throughout high school, rowing was

essentially my full-time job. It had to be in order for me to remain competitive, make the top

varsity boat line ups and continue to strive for eligibility for college scholarships and make top

boats. With this being said all sports are very time consuming and often the athletes do far more

than they receive credit for or even praise for. College athletes especially are worked like a full-

time job. In today’s world with as much money as the college athletic departments makes,

college athletes should be compensated for their time.

Most people know sports are very time consuming your life basically revolves around

them. Athletes have to attend practices and games. Athletes are also expected to have good

grades making them eligible to play especially when playing for a high school or college.

Ultimately, their life is put on hold to play a sport. This is not at all a bad thing especially if you

love the sport you are playing however, it does deserve compensation especially at the collegiate

level.
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The NCAA is ultimately taking money that belongs to the college athletes for their good

work, time and effort. This should not be allowed but this is overlooked and talked down by so

many people that the NCAA and college programs can get away with no paying their athletes or

“employees”. This is becoming a bigger and bigger problem now that athletics are becoming

more popular and watched.

Being an athlete in college or even high school comes with a very heavy workload.

Athletes have to practice almost every day of the week as many as two or even three times a day.

Along with a crazy and insane practice schedule, athletes also have to make time for their

everyday life and the tasks they need to get done, this includes classwork, homework and

personal wellbeing. Being an athlete at the collegiate level is much more time consuming than

many people realize or give credit for. It is as time consuming and has as heavy as a workload as

a full-time job and should be a paid as a full-time job.

Every single time any athlete steps foot onto the field they risk their life and a sports

career ending injury. Many athletes have heard the news that they are no longer able to

participate in a sport they love as a professional due to an injury sustained while playing in

college. Many players elect to end their college careers early in order to avoid injury, so they are

able to play professionally. “To continue to risk his future in an unjust system that does not allow

him to be compensated just doesn’t make sense” (Engle). For what purpose would college

athletes want to risk getting hurt and receive no compensation.

A perfect example of this is Nick Bosa a defensive player for The Ohio State University.

Nick Bosa was expected to be the top rookie recruit for the 2019 NFL Draft. Bosa then sustained

a major injury to his core which he needed surgery on. He then had to make the difficult decision

of whether or not to continue playing with the Buckeyes or to sit on the sideline giving himself
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plenty of recovery before the NFL Draft. Bosa choose to give himself plenty of recovery so that

he could be a top NFL prospect. This happens more often than people may hear but it is a

common reason why people leave college where they are not receiving compensation with

eligible years left.

Another example, Zion Williamson, a Duke basketball player had a serious injury

minutes into a game against their rival North Carolina that put him out for a while. This left

many people questioning if Williamson should play another game for Duke where he is making

nothing other than scholarships or go pro and make money. If Williamson would have sustained

a career ending injury even, then he would likely not have received compensation for his injury

and would then be out on his professional dreams. Again, this is just one example, but this

happens all the time and ends careers of many promising athletes whom deserved compensation,

along with a chance to play professionally

Above, is an in-season Division 1 football schedule (Mantik).

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Most college athletes have more demands and more pressure put on them than most

employees face in their lifetime. They are required to go to school full time, maintain good

grades and attendance. This is all while competing on a competitive college team with a very

intense and rigorous practice schedule. Anything they plan to do for themselves has to be

planned around this crazy schedule and that can be difficult. If one just googles a college

athletes’ practice schedule, they will be appalled what these athletes go through and still perform

at the highest level all while maintain a good academic standing. With all of this being said

athletes are basically employees and should have the same benefits as them including getting

paid for their “job”.

Two lawmakers from Michigan State University, Robert and Amy McCormick argue that

athletes on athletic scholarships at Division 1 schools should be paid and considered employees.

Arguing that most of these young athletes are doing more and having more demands put on them

than most paid employees at the said university (Cooper). Athletes also have to choose a major

were the classes required do not interfere with their rigorous practice schedule, games or even

team meetings. They are required to maintain good grades, attend classes and attend practice in

order to be eligible to participate in games. This is truly a full-time job and these athletes should

be treated as “employees” under federal labor laws and receive pay and benefits.

Most college athletic programs especially those schools with big and known football or

men’s basketball teams make a lot of money. These schools produce enough money to pay their

athletes at least minimum wage if not more for their time. According to Edelman, “The college

sports industry represents a more than eleven billion-dollar US enterprise”. With that amount of

income, they can surely pay their players instead of scholarship. According to Edelman,” Most

colleges with big-time sports programs focus their efforts on generating revenues in two sports:
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football and men’s basketball. In these sports, the star athletes devote upwards of forty hours per

week to team travel, play, and practice” (Edelman). With this being said college athletics

departments make enough money to pay their athletes especially those at big known schools.

How much the best coaches in college football make versus how much the players
make (Nocera).

Most college athletes that excel in their sports don’t necessarily want a college degree.

They use college as a time to excel in their sport and prepare for the draft. Most of the time the

only reason they are there is to prepare to play professional. Most college athletes that are good

enough to be drafted do not even finish their major they are drafted or drop out to plays their

sport before they earn their major. There are many examples of this but a few are: quarterback

Dwayne Haskins from The Ohio State University left with two eligible years to play and was
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drafted to the Washington Redskins, Running back Saquon Barkley from Penn State University

left with years of eligibility and was drafted to the New York Giants, and lastly running back

Ezekiel Elliott from The Ohio State University was drafted to the Dallas Cowboys.

This is a cartoon indicating that athletes do way more that they are given credit or
that people notice (Lenhart).

Athletes also do not receive pay when it is due. There have been multiple cases where an

athlete has done an extraordinary move and it has been replayed over and over again and made

revenue. However, when this happens the athlete gets no more than a good job, they don’t

receive any of the revenue made even though they deserve it. This happens in college football

and college basketball all the time. If one was to look up any university with an athletic
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department, they would find a case where one of their athletes did something amazing and

deserved compensation but instead the university’s athletic department just kept it.

Multiple cases of where athletes deserve to be paid and received no compensation were

brought up including the Ohio State debacle. Ohio State’s Braxton Miller was very known after

his spin move in their game facing Virginia Tech (Groves). The move was played over and over

again on ESPN and many other sports outlets. The amount of revenue and fame this created for

the Ohio State football department was through the roof. This is a specific case in which an

athlete should have been compensated.

Lawmakers and a presidential candidate argue that college athletes should be paid.

Andrew Yang, a presidential candidate calls the NCAA a “debacle of an organization” and

argues that it is time to pay the athletes. Also arguing that the people generating the money

should be receiving it (Maese). This was a major topic in presidential debates because

presidential candidates were trying to win candidates over by talking sports. However, you know

that this is a major issue when the president brings it up to try to get votes. Many people feel

very strongly about whether or not college athletes deserve compensation.

There are many factors that contribute to why athletes should be compensated. Walker

talks about how most athletes don’t come from the most financially stable families and use

athletics to help with gaining scholarships. He argues that they should receive pay to try and

assist with their financial problems back home and help them to turn their life around in a good

sense. To most college athletes, playing sports is there job that is what they see themselves doing

in the long run. Many also see it as a way to contribute to their family.

Unfortunately, most really good college athletes don’t come from the best financially

stable families. They are so great at athletics due to the fact that this is how they deal with their
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problems and what they do for fun. With this being said they go to college with no money

hoping for a scholarship that’s ends up leading up to a spot on a professional team. This could be

alleviated if colleges payed their athletes. More people would get the opportunity to go to college

for the education along with doing what they love playing athletics.

Two children from the United States share their opinion on if college athletes should be

paid. One says that they should be payed because it is not fair that the NCAA makes all the

money for their talent. The other argues that its strictly an extracurricular that they chose to

participate in. “It’s unfair that the NCAA and some big colleges make millions of dollars because

of talented athletes, but those athletes don’t get any of that money” (Weiss). The kids from the

scholastic article also argue most college athletes work forty plus hours a week which is more

than the average working American (Weiss).

This is such a big controversial issue that even kids are learning to have an opinion on the

matter. The subject is being taught or talked about in school. Most school age kids argue the side

that athletes should be paid more than just scholarships in college. This should be a real eye

opener because most kids don’t even realize how grueling playing a sport at the college level is.

The fact that they don’t even know what the real world is like and still have valid arguments for

why college athletes should get paid should be a major eye opener. Sometimes we take school

aged kid’s opinions too lightly when they really might have a very valid point because of the

way their minds work. School aged kids and children’s opinions are just as valid as any other

opinions they can sometimes have good unbiased logic behind their choices.

This is a very controversial topic and both sides can be seen and argued very clearly. It

can be argued that college athletes should not receive compensation because they chose to do
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this, and it should be treated as an extracurricular activity. This side can be seen very clearly

because they did choose the college path, if they wanted to just go professional right out of high

school they could have. Some people even argue that the way the athletes get treated does not

deserve pay. College athletes especially at big universities are spoiled, they live in huge nice

rooms, get tons of perks, along with tons of apparel and recognition. They get all of this doing

what they love. This can be a controversial topic but as an athlete in both high school and college

I can see both sides very clearly and agree with aspects of both.

Many people argue the fact that paying athletes at the college level would take away from

scholarship money. However, this is most likely true. With paying the athletes the money would

go to their salary and benefits and not to pay for school. They would be expected to pay for

school out of the income they are making. Other people may argue that some athletes sit the

bench and never play a game in their college career. Unfortunately, they don’t deserve pay or as

much pay as the athletes whom are super stars. However, this is not fair because they all go

through the same training and have the same rigorous schedule. This is a disadvantage of paying

college athletes. This is also one of the many reasons why paying college athletes is not as easy

as it sounds.

Many people are hesitant to pay college athletes due to the amount of scholarship they

receive being significantly decreased. Paying the athletes will most definitely decrease the

amount of scholarships they receive from the University causing them to have to pay for school.

The NCAA covers a lot of taxes and liabilities and if they chose to pay the players those prices

would skyrocket so scholarships could be taken away if not minimized (Edelman). This could be

a deal breaker for some athletes who don’t have the money to pay for school and look for it in
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scholarships. But realistically they could receive that amount of money in pay and be able to pay

for their school.

Paying college athletes could be another cost-effective way to save scholarships for

students that may not have an athletic background. It could also save the school money because

they money wouldn’t be coming as much from the school as it would the NCAA. With this being

said that money saved from athletics could be used to further research on campus or do other

important things for campus. Paying colleges athletes wouldn’t just be beneficial for the

athlete/athletic department it would also be helpful for the university.

In today’s world with as much money as the college athletic departments makes, college

athletes should be compensated for their time. Colleges make way too much money to not

reward their hard-working athletes with a little compensation. The NCAA is very greedy and

often does not realize that they are taking the money their “employees” or athletes deserve.

College athletes also deserve to receive pay and benefits considering the crazy number of hours

they are expected to practice and all the other time commitments that they take on. Next time you

watch college athletics look at how good they are and think about how the NCAA and the

university athletic departments are cheating them out of the pay and benefits they deserve.
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Works Cited

Cooper, Kenneth J. “Should College Athletes Be Paid to Play?” Diverse Issues in Higher

Education, no. 10, 2011, p. 12. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.267608796&site=

eds-live.

Edelman, Marc. “From Student-Athletes to Employee-Athletes: Why a ‘Pay for Play’ Model of

College Sports Would Not Necessarily Make Educational Scholarships Taxable.” Boston

College Law Review, vol. 58, no. 4, Aug. 2017, pp. 1137–1168. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=i3h&AN=125491508&site=eds-live.

Engle, Jeremy. “Should College Athletes Be Paid?” The New York Times, 26 Feb. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/learning/should-college-athletes-be-paid.html.

Groves, Roger M. “A Solution for the Pay for Play Dilemma of College Athletes: A Novel

Compensation Structure Tethered to Amateurism and Education.” Texas Review of

Entertainment & Sports Law, vol. 17, no. 2, Spring 2016, pp. 101–143. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=s3h&AN=118306657&site=eds-live.

Lenhart, Chelsea. “Opinion: Paying College Athletes Isn't as Easy as Writing a Check.” Policy,

24 Feb. 2016, policy-perspectives.org/2016/02/24/opinion-paying-college-athletes-isnt-

as-easy-as-writing-a-check/.

Maese, Rick. “Should College Athletes Be Paid? Some Lawmakers, and a Presidential

Candidate, Say Yes.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 May 2019,

www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2019/05/22/should-college-athletes-be-paid-some-

lawmakers-presidential-candidate-say-yes/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.b7482ad50497.
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Mantick, Kelly. “A Day in the Life of a Division I Football Player.” NCSA Athletic Recruiting

Blog, 16 Nov. 2017, www.ncsasports.org/blog/2017/10/03/day-life-division-football-

player/.

Nocera, Joe. “Let's Start Paying College Athletes.” The New York Times, The New York Times,

30 Dec. 2011, www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/lets-start-paying-college-

athletes.html.

Walker, Corey. “Why Collegiate Athletes Should Be Paid.” Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3

Oct. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/1535900-why-collegiate-athletes-should-be-paid.

Weiss, Maddie, and Nathan Noble. “Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Scholastic News/Weekly

Reader Edition 5/6, no. 18, 2018, p. 7. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsggo&AN=edsgcl.533408705&site=

eds-live.