Why College Players Should Be Paid

Why College Players Should Be Paid

            College players are always not recognized or offered any benefits which they deserve for the huge revenue amounts they bring to the various institutions they play for as well as the adjacent community (Berri). For a number of college players, issues such as tuition, recovery items, gear, along with other things required in performing are not often free. Several college players end up paying from their pockets so that they are able to perform at such a level they are needed to, but institutions end up getting so many financial benefits at their expense. Against this background, college players ought to be paid for the much work they do for the various institutions.

The NCAA accrued 1.1 billion U.S dollars in revenue from the sporting events that happened in colleges in 2017. None of this amount went to the college players who were the people toiling to generate this much. Nevertheless, according to the law, college players at Division 1 or even Division 2 schools are usually paid by being offered full tuition in the form of scholarship (Cole). It would be fair enough to assert that paid tuition would be the same as the player being paid. This, however, leaves the Division 3 college players out much as they put in the same amount of hard work as well as time in performing at these high levels to generate revenue for the institutions and the NCAA. The majority of college players are of the view that they should be paid in line with the money they receive from the scholarships offered them (Berri). They feel that they should make enough amounts that would enable them to cover their college tuition in case that the scholarship does not.

College players have the obligation of signing contracts mandated by the NCAA, which state that they will not be paid any amount from any source while they are taking part in playing for their institution (Cole). Much as playing for the institution is some kind of privilege; college players often have several experiences as well as memories which are incomparable in life. Nevertheless, many students are facing hard times, and they are known to have a little bit more expenses as far as their necessities are concerned. On top of the same, they are required to perform at their best levels. Still on the same, majority of students have the belief that they should be paid as institutions make so much from sports (Bush). Further, college players ought to be paid, more so, because college is one tough time when it comes to expenses. Therefore, paying college players will offer the athletes some additional relief and this will assist them with the things they need such as their necessities for performing well.

There exist some good compromise concerning the people who disagree with the notion that college players should be paid in place of some set salary befitting professionals. The least that college players may receive is in form of donations from firms and fans (Bush). College players are reminded to treat their commitments as some form of job and that they should be professional concerning each area of the game (Berri). Nevertheless, the same way that waiters get tipped for acting rightly on their job, there is no reason as to why college players should not be rewarded in the same manner.

Even if college players are not offered direct pay, the minimum that these players may get is some guarantee of their scholarship not being taken away in case they get hurt while playing. Suppose the notion that the player’s pay becomes their scholarship, then it ought to be retracted when they are not useful anymore to the institution (Cole). There is evidence of players who have lost their scholarship at their institutions after they tore their meniscus in their knee. This just signifies that universities will only care about their players as long as the players are useful. Consequently, there needs to be some guaranteed pay or tuition that permits the students to be done with their college even after they become injured to the extent that they cannot play.

The payment to students will likely provide income to college players who may not have enough time to engage in part-time jobs. In spite of the NCAA obligating that institutional teams reduce the extent of time that college players take part in various events to 20 hours for every week, college players report that they mostly spend more than the stipulated time (Bush). On a normal scale, college players end up spending 28 hours every week and majority of them report spending even more hours. Going by this rate, it means that these students end up working the same amount of time as people in part-time jobs. This is even closer to working in a full-time job position (Warren). Consequently, it ends up limiting their ability to earn through conventional means such as engaging in campus jobs. Furthermore, while college players get compensated through tuition waivers or being given stipends on some occasions, they are not given money that would enable them pay for known incidentals such as food, clothes and recreation.

Paying college players will be beneficial in limiting corruption or the violation of rules and more so the ones concerned with time commitments. Several violations are related to benefits that are impermissible and are being provided to college players. Institutions and the NCAA do not just spend huge amounts of time checking violations of rules, the fact that the rules are very strict ends up making students very vigilant so that they do not violate even the minor ones (Cole). Even some cases where these offenses are perceived as major (such as the selling of autographs) it likely appears unfair for players to be penalized whenever the supposed action is not harmful to anybody. Even more, departments concerned with athletics may likely be able to spend the time linked to rules based on compensation to some other activities which are beneficial to the well-being of college players (Berri). The NCAA may also spend the additional hours in dealing with violations that are more impactful.

The last one is that paying college players may likely increase their rate of graduation. When college players are payed it ends up limiting the extent to which they wish to join professional leagues so that they may begin earning for their survival (Bush). To this extent it would only be advisable to pay them as everyone wishes to have money for their survival.

Conclusion

College players ought to be paid when they engage in playing for their various institutions as well as for the NCAA. There are many benefits to paying them. To begin with, everyone would want to have money to facilitate their daily needs. To this extent, college players will use the money for their survival in buying clothes, for entertainment and even for paying university tuition. Further, NCAA and the various institutions get a lot of money from the effort of these athletes. It is only significant that they become compensated for their worthy effort in terms of money and not merely through scholarship that may be cancelled any moment.