Brian Ventura

Professor Nyland

CM 265

March 19, 2021

Op-Ed on if Student Athletes Should get Paid

I am going to write an op-ed on if student athletes should get paid or not. This op-ed

would argue that student athletes should in fact get paid. Student athletes sacrifice a lot of their

time while in season due to practice, games, team meetings, lifts, and film. Depending on what

division you play in, if you play D2 or D3 student athletes are spending about 20 hours a week

on their sport. If you play D1 student athletes are spending 40 hours a week on their sport. That

is a lot of time that can be used for school such as studying and doing homework. Some athletic

programs around the country do have what is called study hall, which is 2 hours dedicated to

doing homework. Even though that is a great idea, time spent in study hall in a week is nowhere

near the time spent in their sport in a week.

Obviously there are pros and cons in this situation or in any argumentative situations.

First I will be explaining the pros of why student athletes should be getting paid. An author by

the name Michael Sokolove broke down how much money the University of Louisville gives out

money to the coaches and how much the school makes off the athletic programs. They bring in

about $45 million a year, giving out about 13 scholarships which is worth $400,000 a year. The

rest is distributed to the coach who makes $8 million a year, and the assistant coach makes half a

million a year. People working in the athletic department are making six figures, and none of it

goes to the student athletes, which can arguably be considered as unpaid workforce according to

Sokolove.
 The ones who make the programs look so good on paper are the players. Student athletes

are the reason why schools such as Alabama football, Maryland soccer, and Duke basketball all

are well known for their great programs. The student athletes are the one’s bringing all the

attention and making people want to watch them either on live streams that are free, or paid

streaming. Which is why it makes sense that student athletes should be getting paid because they

are the main reason how the school earns money in their athletic programs.