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Jack Edmonson

Hailie Bryant

Rhetoric and Composition 1000

18 November 2020

Should College Athletes Receive Compensation?

In 1906 the National Collegiate Athletic Association was formed, better known as the

NCAA. It was formed to create competition and eligibility rules for football. Today, the NCAA

serves as the general legislative and administrative authority for men’s and women’s

intercollegiate athletics. It’s been over 100 years since the NCAA was formed and they bring in

over $1 billion in revenue every year. With nearly half a million student-athletes participating in

twenty-four sports, the NCAA makes a majority of its revenue from ticket sales and television

contracts. The National Collegiate Athletic Association should provide compensation to

student-athletes in exchange for the millions of dollars of revenue that is generated annually from

using their name and likeness.

Playing collegiate sports at any level takes a tremendous amount of hard work and

discipline. Just earning a spot on the roster of a college team in any sport is very difficult and

overlooked by many people from the outside. But once those athletes get to college, they are

faced with their most difficult task yet. The moment they step on campus, college athletes are

forced to balance schoolwork, games, team practices, and individual workouts. An article on

collegeathleteinsight.com says that most college athletes start their day around 6:15 a.m., then

they have strength and conditioning around 7 a.m., then a team meeting, classes from around 9

a.m. until 2 p.m., practice from around 3:30 p.m. until 6 p.m., and study hall from 7:30 p.m. until
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9 p.m. Their days start early and end late and they have little free time. In an article written by

Kenneth J. Cooper about paying college athletes, Michigan State Law Professor Robert

McCormick says, “There are more demands put on these young men than any employee of the

university.” This quote shows how college athletes have so many demands and obligations that

they don’t have much free time at all. When people think of college students they think about

partying and going to sporting events and kids having fun with their friends. For college athletes,

this is the opposite. Their days are full of workouts, classes, and homework. This quote is

coming from a college professor who can see how much these athletes have to do every day. If a

college professor is admitting to the student-athletes having more responsibilities than anyone

else on campus, and these universities are generating millions of dollars annually, then they

should receive some compensation.

One reason that many people don’t feel like student-athletes should be paid is that they

feel like receiving a full scholarship is the same as being compensated. People feel that because

athletes get their education paid for, they are receiving money. But in reality, student-athletes

and normal college students aren’t the same. Student-athletes have more responsibilities and

duties than the average student. There is a common misconception from the outside that

student-athletes and regular students live the same lives. However, that is not the case, and many

students understand that and are in favor of student-athletes getting paid. An article written by

cnbc.com surveyed over 2,000 college students on whether or not college athletes should be

paid, says, “thirty-eight percent of college students said they favor, and 15% said they strongly

favor, allowing universities to pay college athletes a salary”. This quote shows that college

students understand how important student-athletes are to universities and they also understand

how much money they generate. This also shows how regular college students would not be
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offended or feel out of place just because college athletes would be getting paid. Many people

feel that if college athletes were paid then it would cause normal college students to be angry and

feel unimportant. However, this survey proves that this wouldn’t happen.

Another reason why college athletes should receive compensation is that most of them

need some financial support. Many college athletes come from poor families that struggle to

make ends meet. If these athletes received compensation, they would be more comfortable and

not have as much to worry about financially. An article written by Dalton Thacker for the Seattle

Journal for Social Justice says, “86 percent of college athletes live below the poverty line. Many

young athletes aspire to one day escape their dangerous or poor neighborhoods”. This quote

shows that most college athletes do not come from a wealthy background and they still need

some financial support. This shows that just because an athlete receives a full scholarship does

not mean that his family is no longer struggling financially.

Most of the time when you see that a college athlete has violated NCAA rules and

accepted money or improper benefits, it isn’t solely to benefit the player, it’s to help the player’s

family make ends meet. An example of this happened in 2011 when Baylor basketball player

Perry Jones was suspended after accepting financial help from one of his former coaches.

According to the Seattle Journal for Social Justice, “The bank had foreclosed on the Jones’

family home. The bank was struggling to make ends meet while paying off Jones’ mother’s

medical bills”. This is a very common situation that many athletes are faced with while playing a

college sport. Many athletes get suspended because they have no other choice but to take money

from an outside source in order to support their families. However, if these athletes received

compensation, they would not be forced to break NCAA rules, therefore they would maintain
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their eligibility, help their universities generate more revenue, and also be able to help their

families.

Playing a college sport requires a tremendous time commitment. To excel at any sport, it

takes hours of practice and dedication. And although these athletes love the sport that they play,

a majority of student-athletes are forced to put in more time practicing than most university

employees are forced to work per week. The NCAA has a strict rule that student-athletes are not

allowed to spend more than 20 hours in athletic-related activities during the season. However,

this rule does give an accurate reflection of how much time these athletes are involved in

activities that relate to their sport. The 20-hour rule that is imposed by the NCAA does not

include travel time, volunteer activities, fundraising activities, or events in which players

represent their team without a coach present. An article written by the International Social

Science Review says, “In a 2011 survey conducted by the NCAA, baseball players reported

spending an average of 42.1 hours per week involved in athletic-related events while in season.”

Working 40 hours a week is considered a full-time job in almost every field of employment. This

shows that many college athletes are forced to spend more time in athletic-related events than

most people do working at their job every week. Not to mention that they also have to study, do

homework, and travel to games.

Another important factor to consider is that most college athletes are not on a full

scholarship. According to an article on ncaasports.org, “Most student-athletes do not receive a

full-ride scholarship-in fact, only 1 percent do.” If the time an athlete spends in athletic activities

is equivalent or greater than that of a full-time job, and there is a 99% chance that that athlete

does not have a full scholarship, some form of compensation should be provided in exchange for

the revenue that this athlete is helping to generate. Not only is this athlete committing all of his
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time to sports and studying, but they are also not being provided with any other incentives, which

seems unfair.

College athletes are among the busiest students you can find. From sunup to sundown,

they are always required to be in class, practicing, in study hall, or in meetings. These athletes

help generate millions of dollars of revenue for the NCAA every year, while only 1% of them are

having their entire education paid for in full. These athletes deserve to be compensated for their

contributions to these universities. They are sacrificing almost all of their time to compete in

college athletics and the NCAA needs to reward them for their efforts in some way. Without

receiving some form of compensation, these athletes are simply being taken advantage of.
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Works Cited

Bertolas, Randy, et al. “Policy Point--Counterpoint: Are Colleges and Universities Obligated to

Provide Student-Athletes with Additional Compensation beyond Tuition, Room, and

Board?” ​International Social Science Review,​ vol. 94, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 1–8.

Cooper, K. J. (2011, Jun 23). Should college athletes be paid to play?​ Diverse Issues in Higher

Education, 28,​ 12-13.

Hess, Abigail. “Majority of College Students Say Student-Athletes Should Be Paid, Survey

Finds,” September 11, 2019.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/11/student-athletes-should-get-paid-college-students-say.

html.

Honcho, The Head. ​What Is the Average Day of a College Athlete?​ 8 July 2020,

collegeathleteinsight.com/average-day-of-college-athlete/.

Thacker, Dalton. “Amateurism vs. Capitalism: A Practical Approach to Paying College

Athletes.” ​Seattle Journal for Social Justice​, vol. 16, no. 1, 2017, pp. 183–216.

EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edshol&AN=edshol.hein.journals.sjsj1

6.10&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Athletic Scholarships: Everything You Need to Know. (n.d.). Retrieved November 06, 2020,

from ​https://www.ncsasports.org/recruiting/how-to-get-recruited/scholarship-facts