SHOULD STUDENT ATHLETES BE PAID?

Should NCAA pay student-athletes?

1. Introduction

With the awareness of health and fitness arising amount students, the number of college

athletes participating in different sports is increasing with each passing day. As of 2011, 75% of

the American families have at least one child participating in college-level sports (Harmon, Asif,

Klossner, & Drezner, 2011). At college and university level, NCAA organizes and manages

sports-related activities and events in America. Although the student-athletes are known to bring

millions of dollars in form of revenue to NCAA and academic institutions, no payment is made

to those athletes based on their participation in sports. By looking at the aforementioned facts, it

would not be wrong to say that the need for paying student athletes is justified. This writing will

focus the link which exists between NCAA and student-athletes based on the formulation of

proper payment plans. It will highlight the main justified reasons based on which student athletes

must be paid. It will also shed light on various hurdles which lie in way of paying student

athletes. Counter-arguments will also be discussed before concluding the proposal.

2. NCAA & Student Athletes

Being a Non-profit organization for regulation of college athletes of North American

colleges, NCAA organizes athletic programs of various colleges and universities in the United

States. As of now, it has more than 480,000 registered students’ athletes which take part in

various sports-related activities (Zuckerman et al., 2015). Financial reports of 2017 show that

NCAA generated revenue of $1.06 billion in the fiscal year 2016-17. Every year, student-athletes

contribute a total of $30 million to their parent institutions.

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When it comes to the payment of student-athletes, NCAA pays little or no stipends to the

enrolled student-athletes. The debate on the payment of student-athletes have been going on for

years but until now, NCAA has not declared its clear verdict on proper payments to student-

athletes. Without veteran student-athletes, sports events organized at student level will become

dried up. The lack of competition in sports is already being faced by student-athletes playing

under the umbrella of NCAA. The need for NCAA to pay the student-athletes has become more

important based on the fact the awareness of college or university level sports, among students,

is rising with the passage of time.

3. Why do Student-Athletes need to get paid?

Different researchers have come across various basis which forms a firm ground of why

student-athletes must be paid. Below are the most commonly used justifications for payment of

student-athletes which have been frequently proposed.

Restriction on Work: Restriction on other employment or job opportunities on student

athletes, deprives them of any opportunity to get financial assistance from other means. Students

enrolled in NCAA are required to spend a significant time of their academic career in sports.

While performing their sports-related activities, students are not allowed to work. Although

student-athletes are allowed to work in summer, a no objection certificate is required from school

is to be presented to NCAA before student-athletes can work (Maloney, 2016). This decreases

the amount of the necessary financial assistance student athletes usually get from non-academic

related activities. Since restriction of employment opportunities cannot be lifted by NCAA,

hence student athletes must be paid in order to compensate financial loss from missed job

opportunities.
SHOULD STUDENT ATHLETES BE PAID? 3

Revenue for Institutions: Payments to student athletes is justified based on the fact that they

are responsible for significant amount of generated revenue in sports season. Every year, sports

event organized by NCAA attract millions of viewers and fans from all over the globe. In turn, a

significant amount of revenue is generated. Out of this revenue, NCAA pays its registered

student athletes with minute quantities of stipends and only on special events. Whereas the rest is

spent on different organizational activities. In some cases, parent institutions of student-athletes

also receive a handsome amount of funding (Zirin, 2015). Since student-athletes are responsible

for that sort of funding and revenue so paying these athletes with proper contractual based

payments will increase the overall morale of players in sports and college level and it will also

motivate other students to take part in it. In short, student athletes must be paid as a return for

revenue which they generate while participating in sports events organized by NCAA.

Financial Needs of Students: Arising financial needs, increasing educational institution fees

and related expenditures are, without any doubt, self-explanatory factors of argument why

student athletes should be paid. Recent studies on statistics of financial aid show that from the

year 2014 to 2015, more than two-thirds of the students enrolled at the college level were in need

of financial aid (Sanderson & Siegfried, 2015). This shows that more than 75% of the students

were in need of financial aid at that time and this percentage is expected to rise with time. When

student-athletes contribute to sports then they spend a noticeable time of their academic career in

sports hence the possibility of the downfall of academic performance becomes evident. In such

cases, it becomes necessary to pay the college students since financial aid is issued on strict

highly satisfactory academic performance criteria and organizations offering financial aids are

known to withdraw the aid in case of academic performance downfall. So, student athletes

should be paid so that their educational and financial expenditures can be compensated easily.
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Competition in College Sports: For competition to exist in sports at student level, it is very

important to pay student athletes. Discipline, time management, work ethics, and positive

attitude are some of the prime values which are contributed by sports towards student-athletes.

The lack of proper payment plans to NCAA student-athletes have rendered college sports

uncompetitive. 67% of the college students from various states of America were of the opinion

that the main reason behind the lack of competition in college sports is the absence of proper

payment plans (Parent, 2003). Sports form a major portion of the academic career of a student

and also, every year, student-athletes bring a significant amount of funding and revenue to their

parent organizations from sports event organized by NCAA. Based on the aforementioned facts,

the need for payments to student-athletes by NCAA is evident so that the lack of competition in

sports at educational institution level, can be increased.

4. After Effects of Paying Student-Athletes

If NCAA pays college athletes, then the results would affect a number of academic and non-

academic parameters of students’ lives. A consistent source of income will act as a consolidated

financial support for students. It will save students from financial struggles which almost every 1

out of 5 students have to go through at college and university level (Wilbon, 2011). A fixed

amount of payments by NCAA will motivate the already playing as well as other students to

participate in sports. This will enhance the existing level of competition found in sports events

currently organized by NCAA. Colleges and universities can expect large sums of donations and

funding since higher pays in sports career will attract more students towards participating in

sports, which will ultimately add to the overall revenue generated by institutions.

5. Hurdles in Paying Student-Athletes

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In an effort to develop a regulated system for payment of students, NCAA’s proposal has

been rejected several times by courts based on legal issues. But as Lazaroff (2007) said, there are

other ways of payment adopted by many other sports organization bodies, by which student

athletes can be paid (Lazaroff, 2007). The breach of “Sherman’s ACT” has been one of the main

reasons behind the rejection of such proposals based on interstate commerce activities carried out

by NCAA i.e. buying of tickets, recruitment of players nationwide etc (Goldman, 1989). And if

NCAA gets successful in developing a proper system for payment of student-athletes, there are

other hurdles awaiting on the way to completion such as the “Workers’ Compensation Law”. A

close look at the finances of NCAA shows that by changing the policy and legal framework of

organization, the violations of aforementioned acts can be changed although it will require some

time and resources (Edleman, 2013).

6. Conclusions

NCAA has been organizing and heading sports events and activities for students at college

and university level for years. Sports events organized by NCAA generated millions of dollars in

revenue. But, since the start of student athletics, there has not been any regulated payment plan

developed for student athletics. These students are paid very little or nothing at all from NCAA.

Payments to participating students on fixed terms are justified in numerous ways. When students

participate in sports, the generated revenue and their special financial needs are the main reasons

student-athletes must be paid. Also, in order to induce a sense of competition in student sports

and in order to motivate students towards participation in sports, it is even more important to

develop a proper strategy to pay student-athletes. Doing so will not only assist the students

financially and ease their academic lives but it will also contribute towards a large amount of

revenue generation for parent colleges and universities. However, the obvious legal and
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regulatory framework-based limitations and restrictions need first to be addressed before any

step can be taken to develop a working solution for payment of student-athletes.

References

Edleman, M. (2013). A short treatise on amateurism and antitrust law: Why the NCAA's no-pay

rules violate section 1 of the Sherman Act. Case W. Res. L. Rev., 64, 61.

Goldman, L. (1989). Sports and antitrust: Should college students be paid to play. Notre Dame

L. Rev., 65, 206.

Harmon, K. G., Asif, I. M., Klossner, D., & Drezner, J. A. (2011). Incidence of sudden cardiac

death in National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes. Circulation,

CIRCULATIONAHA. 110.004622.

Lazaroff, D. E. (2007). The NCAA in its second century: defender of amateurism or antitrust

recidivist. Or. L. Rev., 86, 329.

Maloney, K. E. (2016). The Relationship Between Goal Orientation and Compliance with a

Rehabilitation Program Among NCAA Division I Football Players.

Parent, C. M. (2003). Forward Progress-An Analysis of Whether Student-Athletes Should Be

Paid. Va. Sports & Ent. LJ, 3, 226.

Sanderson, A. R., & Siegfried, J. J. (2015). The case for paying college athletes. Journal of

Economic Perspectives, 29(1), 115-138.

Wilbon, M. (2011). College athletes deserve to be paid. ESPN. com.

Zirin, D. (2015). An economist explains why college athletes should be paid. The Nation.

Retrieved from http://www. thenation. com/article/economist-explains-why-college-

athletes-should-be-paid.
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Zuckerman, S. L., Kerr, Z. Y., Yengo-Kahn, A., Wasserman, E., Covassin, T., & Solomon, G. S.

(2015). Epidemiology of sports-related concussion in NCAA athletes from 2009-2010 to

2013-2014: incidence, recurrence, and mechanisms. The American journal of sports

medicine, 43(11), 2654-2662.