The NCAA is one of the most powerful organizations in the
United States. Sports are one if the fastest growing industries and are
becoming more and more a form of mainstream entertainment. It seems every year
the college football national championship or the Final Four are setting
records for viewers. The NCAA makes billions of dollars each year most of which
comes from their television rights. All of this money comes from student
athletes. They compete and millions of people watch college athletes on one of
the highest levels and ultimately the NCAA is making money off the performance
of these athletes. Like the NBA makes money off its players, the NCAA makes
money off athletes, the difference is college athletes aren’t paid for their
efforts. They make all of this money for the NCAA and they never see any of it.
The NCAA is only becoming more popular and making more money.
In 2012, they made more than one billion dollars just from advertising during
the March Madness basketball tournament. This was significantly more revenue
than the Super Bowl made in the same year.
The
student athletes who play for the NCAA make huge sacrifices to do what they do.
Not only do they have to focus on school like all the rest of the college kids
do, they have to worry about their sport as well. Practices, games, and
training take up such a huge chunk of athlete’s time in college. It leaves
little time for school and even less time for other activities. In addition,
many athletes who come to a college on a scholarship don’t have much money in
the first place. They have to go out every night and perform and make money for
the NCAA and watch the NCAA sell them as a product while they don’t get any
money from that. Shabazz Napier played basketball for the University of Connecticut.
They won the National Championship in 2014. Yet after he won, in an interview
he talked about how there are nights where he and teammates go to bed
hungry. He talked about starving nights
because he didn’t have enough money for food and meal plans only allow so much
food for students. He made a very good point that student athletes shouldn’t be
getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars or millions of dollars, but there
should be some compensation. Student athletes who make millions for their
respective college shouldn’t come back to campus and not have enough money to
buy food.
The University of Texas is the biggest generator of revenue
from sports of any college in the country. In 2012 their sports programs
brought in a total of $163.3 million. Yet the college only gave out $9.4
million in scholarships. As the revenue continues to increase, the money used
for scholarships only slightly increases. This means the more money that all
the student athletes make for college, the less they are actually getting
because the portion of money given to scholarships is shrinking. And the
student athletes never see any of the rest of that money.
In conclusion, the NCAA is making more and more money off of
their student athletes each year. Student athletes provide colleges with so
much: revenue, status, influence students to apply and yet they struggle the
most. They struggle with the task of balancing school and a sport and many do
it with very little money to support them while they are in college. These kids
are being taken advantage of and something should change. College athletes
shouldn’t be making millions like professional athletes do, but since they make
millions for the NCAA and their colleges, they should get some compensation.
College athletes should be paid.
Works Cited:
Brooks, Brandy.
"Here's How Many Billions College Players Will Make During March Madness
This Year - Professor Brandy Brooks." Google Sites. N.p., 26
Mar. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.
Gaines, Cork.
"If You Don't Think College Athletes Should Be Paid, This Chart May Change
Your Mind." Business Insider. Business Insider, 09 May 2013.
Web. 18 Apr. 2017.
Mama, Raman.
"Viewpoint: College Athletes Should Be Paid." USA Today.
Gannett Satellite Information Network, 24 Dec. 2016. Web. 18 Apr. 2017.
Zucker, Joseph.
"Shabazz Napier Says He Goes to Bed Starving Because He Can't Afford
Food." Bleacher Report. Bleacher Report, 12 Apr. 2017. Web. 18
Apr. 2017.
I really liked this post. I understand how it feels to be a student-athlete. With this, how would the NCAA pay the players? Would it be with money, extra meals, or something else? Would this compensation only be offered to Division 1 athletes? These are some questions, that if the NCAA were going to do this, they might need to take into consideration. The reasons are because if they offered this from D1 to D3 and JunCo student-athletes the NCAA could be losing money with how many schools are in the U.S. and how many sports they offer. They might even limit the offer to certain sports. Maybe to the ones that bring in the most revenue. I would like to learn more about this and see what the NCAA's next step is towards this.
ReplyDeleteI thought that this post was very interesting. I am not a student athlete, but this post sparked me to have a conversation with my friend who plays softball for the University of Iowa. I think that the question of compensation for student athletes is important, especially given the amount of time that they spend working towards their sport. However, I am also wary of the way that student athletes (mainly at large state schools) are prioritized over other students, in some cases even resulting in student athletes avoiding prosecution for crimes. I think that if student athletes would have to be compensated, it would have to be in a way that makes it fair to both them and the rest of the student body. Because a main part of the argument presented in favor of compensation has to do with student athletes not having enough time to have a job, I think that their compensation should not exceed that of what they would expect to make by working a part time job.
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