Research Draft
Let's Pay Our College Athletes
There are more than 460,000 student athletes that play sports in the NCAA. One of the biggest questions in college sports for the past decade has been should the athletes get paid. What I meaning by that is, should college athletes get paid not only to compete but also for their likeness? The debate has even led to the stoppage of popular sports games such as EA’s NCAA Football games, and the stoppage of EA’s NCAA Basketball. Not to mention some players even going overseas to play rather than going to college. It has even led to many court cases where athletes are fighting for their right to seek profit. I believe that yes, all college athletes should get paid for competing also for their likeness as well.
One of the biggest reason's college athletes should get paid to compete is the amount of risk the college athletes put on their body. A study from the article, At Your Own Risk: Information for Student Athletes, shows that, "Statistics reveal that 90 PERCENT of student athletes report some sort of sports-related injury.” This is devastating because most of those injuries are concussions. Sarah K Piebes in the journal article, Caring for Student-Athletes following a Concussion, defines an concussion as “a complex physiological process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic bio mechanical forces.”(271) Which can result in learning disabilities and severe memory impairments. This would mean that concusssions not only restrict players to be able to compete but also stops them from being able to even succeed in everyday activities. The risk athletes take can even sometimes lead to permanent damage to their body. Even when players put their bodies on the line each competition they sometimes end up losing their scholarships due to injuries. There are injury cases such as the Kyle Hardick case. Which is explained in, Bridging the NCAA's Accident Insurance Coverage Gaps? A Deep Dive into the Uncertainties of Injury Coverage in College Contact Sports, and the Impact that has on Athletes' Future Physical and Financial Comfort, by Nicole Kline, a student-athlete can be left with unmanageable medical bills and no ability to pay for the necessary surgery that the school declined to cover.(72) Which leaves the athlete and his family with no money or anyway to continue college, due to lack of pay for competing.
Another reason that further explains why college athletes should get paid for their likeness is, that they are putting in large amounts of time to just have someone else profit from it. There is a huge amount of profit made by big companies that are branding college players without them seeing any of the money from what they worked for. An example of that would be asking them to wear brand apparel during games without paying them to do so. With stuff like that going on it leaves the college athletes feeling used, and rightfully so. It's like working for a big named company, but not getting anything out of it. Which makes it seem like free labor to the players. The biggest perpetrator is NCAA video games where all the traits of the players are inserted into a video game and sold for money. This shows you that there is a large amount is made off just college football players who see none of that money in the slightest. Another example comes from the journal Bridging the NCAA's Accident Insurance Coverage Gaps? A Deep Dive into the Uncertainties of Injury Coverage in College Contact Sports, and the Impact that has on Athletes' Future Physical and Financial Comfort, states that, “In 2015 alone, the NCAA generated an estimated $921.4 million. The bulk of these revenues come from the Men’s Division I basketball tournament television and marketing rights, as well as championship ticket sales.”(Kline,63)1 Some of these players are putting in a least 40 to sixty hours a week to their respected sports, which is more than many full-time jobs and are still not getting profit from their work. They aren't even considered employees and lack basic economic rights due to the NCAA’s athletics rights. The NCAA even tags student athletes as amateurs. In the article, Unnecessary Roughness: Why the NCAA’s Heavy-Handed Amateurism Rules Violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, it explains in depth what the amateur rules mean for student athletes by stating, Pursuant to the NCAA manual, a college athlete may not receive any payment or other benefit from any party in return for his participation in athletics, save his scholarship. He may not utilize an agent to advise him or provide representation in the complex decisions affecting his athletic career. He may not license his name, image, or likeness; instead he must forfeit his right to publicity to the NCAA.”( Shaver, 348-349) These laws are what the NCAA uses to control the distribution of billions of dollars made yearly,”like in the year 2012 where NCAA posted revenues of nearly $872 million.” ( Shaver, 349). But where is all this money going to? That’s an easy question to answer it goes right back into the colleges pockets.
Sadly, there are some draw backs to paying college athletes. The main one is that no other students are getting paid for extracurriculars. Even though college athletes bring in millions of dollars for the universities, there are other students that bring in large amounts of money as well. One of those being when students do research on campus. This is where faculty members publish papers without putting the students name on it, receive awards, get national recognition, and get grants to continue research. Sometimes the research from the student is sold for profit without the student even receiving acknowledgement for their findings. Just like sports, the universities use the students work to make the university look more appealing to gain more profit. Some also suggest that if we’re ever to pay athletes we would have to pay other students who contribute to helping the college in the same sense.
If college athletes can not get paid for their likliness at least let them earn money outside of that. An example of this would be if a college football player wants to do a Nike commercial or an autograph session than they can. At least that’s what the Olympics do. How come a collge saxophone player, on music scholarship, gets paid to play in the band and then paid again at a night club gig later on that day, but if a student athelete takes money for playing anywhere for 5 minutes they sacrifice their eligibility? A good example of this would be a woman by the name of Jodie Foster. She enrolled at the University of Yale when she was just 17. Foster had already been nominated for an Oscar and had many other feats under her belt at the time. At Yale she studied drama and stared in a theatre production that semester, once summer arrived she went off to star in another movie. No one declared she would never act in another school production again. So why is college sports so much different? Why is it that if a basketball player lets a agent buy him lunch, he has violated rules and put his name in hot water? Why can’t a college quarterback make his own milk commercial? The answer lies in the NCAA and its antiquated yet profitable adherence to amateurism. But given the insanity over a recent FBI probe that suggests major NCAA violations by many well-known schools (and why the FBI is wasting taxpayer money on these mostly non-criminal activities is beyond me), perhaps we should rethink the idea of amateurism and college sports. The president of the NCAA makes 3 million dollars a year. The coach of some of the college teams make 9 million dollars a year. The TV broadcasting rights for college hoops has recently been extended to 1 billion dollars and the atheletes get nothing. That’s not amateurism, that’s a sham.
All in all, I firmly believe that college athletes should be paid for their likeness and to compete. Due to not only, putting their self in danger from potential injuries and long-term problems, but also putting in countless hours just to see big companies profit from their hard work. Honestly, we shouldn’t let this continue; stop the NCAA in their tracks and let's make a change. There are so many ahtletes that put their heart and soul into what they do. They love sports and the fact that they don’t come out of it with anything is a fraud. Some people have said that the NCAA is one of the best examples of creating cheap labor. Not only do they expect students to perform in the class room, but they also expect explery performance in their sports as well.
There are more than 460,000 student athletes that play sports in the NCAA. One of the biggest questions in college sports for the past decade has been should the athletes get paid. What I meaning by that is, should college athletes get paid not only to compete but also for their likeness? The debate has even led to the stoppage of popular sports games such as EA’s NCAA Football games, and the stoppage of EA’s NCAA Basketball. Not to mention some players even going overseas to play rather than going to college. It has even led to many court cases where athletes are fighting for their right to seek profit. I believe that yes, all college athletes should get paid for competing also for their likeness as well.
One of the biggest reason's college athletes should get paid to compete is the amount of risk the college athletes put on their body. A study from the article, At Your Own Risk: Information for Student Athletes, shows that, "Statistics reveal that 90 PERCENT of student athletes report some sort of sports-related injury.” This is devastating because most of those injuries are concussions. Sarah K Piebes in the journal article, Caring for Student-Athletes following a Concussion, defines an concussion as “a complex physiological process affecting the brain, induced by traumatic bio mechanical forces.”(271) Which can result in learning disabilities and severe memory impairments. This would mean that concusssions not only restrict players to be able to compete but also stops them from being able to even succeed in everyday activities. The risk athletes take can even sometimes lead to permanent damage to their body. Even when players put their bodies on the line each competition they sometimes end up losing their scholarships due to injuries. There are injury cases such as the Kyle Hardick case. Which is explained in, Bridging the NCAA's Accident Insurance Coverage Gaps? A Deep Dive into the Uncertainties of Injury Coverage in College Contact Sports, and the Impact that has on Athletes' Future Physical and Financial Comfort, by Nicole Kline, a student-athlete can be left with unmanageable medical bills and no ability to pay for the necessary surgery that the school declined to cover.(72) Which leaves the athlete and his family with no money or anyway to continue college, due to lack of pay for competing.
Another reason that further explains why college athletes should get paid for their likeness is, that they are putting in large amounts of time to just have someone else profit from it. There is a huge amount of profit made by big companies that are branding college players without them seeing any of the money from what they worked for. An example of that would be asking them to wear brand apparel during games without paying them to do so. With stuff like that going on it leaves the college athletes feeling used, and rightfully so. It's like working for a big named company, but not getting anything out of it. Which makes it seem like free labor to the players. The biggest perpetrator is NCAA video games where all the traits of the players are inserted into a video game and sold for money. This shows you that there is a large amount is made off just college football players who see none of that money in the slightest. Another example comes from the journal Bridging the NCAA's Accident Insurance Coverage Gaps? A Deep Dive into the Uncertainties of Injury Coverage in College Contact Sports, and the Impact that has on Athletes' Future Physical and Financial Comfort, states that, “In 2015 alone, the NCAA generated an estimated $921.4 million. The bulk of these revenues come from the Men’s Division I basketball tournament television and marketing rights, as well as championship ticket sales.”(Kline,63)1 Some of these players are putting in a least 40 to sixty hours a week to their respected sports, which is more than many full-time jobs and are still not getting profit from their work. They aren't even considered employees and lack basic economic rights due to the NCAA’s athletics rights. The NCAA even tags student athletes as amateurs. In the article, Unnecessary Roughness: Why the NCAA’s Heavy-Handed Amateurism Rules Violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, it explains in depth what the amateur rules mean for student athletes by stating, Pursuant to the NCAA manual, a college athlete may not receive any payment or other benefit from any party in return for his participation in athletics, save his scholarship. He may not utilize an agent to advise him or provide representation in the complex decisions affecting his athletic career. He may not license his name, image, or likeness; instead he must forfeit his right to publicity to the NCAA.”( Shaver, 348-349) These laws are what the NCAA uses to control the distribution of billions of dollars made yearly,”like in the year 2012 where NCAA posted revenues of nearly $872 million.” ( Shaver, 349). But where is all this money going to? That’s an easy question to answer it goes right back into the colleges pockets.
Sadly, there are some draw backs to paying college athletes. The main one is that no other students are getting paid for extracurriculars. Even though college athletes bring in millions of dollars for the universities, there are other students that bring in large amounts of money as well. One of those being when students do research on campus. This is where faculty members publish papers without putting the students name on it, receive awards, get national recognition, and get grants to continue research. Sometimes the research from the student is sold for profit without the student even receiving acknowledgement for their findings. Just like sports, the universities use the students work to make the university look more appealing to gain more profit. Some also suggest that if we’re ever to pay athletes we would have to pay other students who contribute to helping the college in the same sense.
If college athletes can not get paid for their likliness at least let them earn money outside of that. An example of this would be if a college football player wants to do a Nike commercial or an autograph session than they can. At least that’s what the Olympics do. How come a collge saxophone player, on music scholarship, gets paid to play in the band and then paid again at a night club gig later on that day, but if a student athelete takes money for playing anywhere for 5 minutes they sacrifice their eligibility? A good example of this would be a woman by the name of Jodie Foster. She enrolled at the University of Yale when she was just 17. Foster had already been nominated for an Oscar and had many other feats under her belt at the time. At Yale she studied drama and stared in a theatre production that semester, once summer arrived she went off to star in another movie. No one declared she would never act in another school production again. So why is college sports so much different? Why is it that if a basketball player lets a agent buy him lunch, he has violated rules and put his name in hot water? Why can’t a college quarterback make his own milk commercial? The answer lies in the NCAA and its antiquated yet profitable adherence to amateurism. But given the insanity over a recent FBI probe that suggests major NCAA violations by many well-known schools (and why the FBI is wasting taxpayer money on these mostly non-criminal activities is beyond me), perhaps we should rethink the idea of amateurism and college sports. The president of the NCAA makes 3 million dollars a year. The coach of some of the college teams make 9 million dollars a year. The TV broadcasting rights for college hoops has recently been extended to 1 billion dollars and the atheletes get nothing. That’s not amateurism, that’s a sham.
All in all, I firmly believe that college athletes should be paid for their likeness and to compete. Due to not only, putting their self in danger from potential injuries and long-term problems, but also putting in countless hours just to see big companies profit from their hard work. Honestly, we shouldn’t let this continue; stop the NCAA in their tracks and let's make a change. There are so many ahtletes that put their heart and soul into what they do. They love sports and the fact that they don’t come out of it with anything is a fraud. Some people have said that the NCAA is one of the best examples of creating cheap labor. Not only do they expect students to perform in the class room, but they also expect explery performance in their sports as well.
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