Goodwin1

Colin Goodwin
Professor Deadrick
ENGL 102
7 December 2015

As college sports in the United States have become more popular and received
more media coverage, more money has been generated by college sports. This raises the
question, should student athletes be paid for their play? Over the past couple of decades
college sports coverage has increased by a large amount. Even smaller colleges have
games on ESPN and other networks for football. Athletes and their families care about
this topic a great deal, and even some sports fans in general care about it a lot too. I am a
big proponent because the NCAA is an organization proven to have corruption scandals
and does not give solid elaborated answers on why the athletes should not be finically
compensated. The NCAA March Madness tournament makes an absurd amount of
money, and every game of the tournament is televised. I personally believe they should
be paid considering the amount of money the NCAA, and the schools themselves make
from the sport.
A perfect example of the NCAA having the funds to pay is the NCAA March
Madness basketball tournament. The tournament generates millions of dollars from ticket
sales and epically TV rights. The NCAA and the schools in the tournament make money
from the tournament, and the players see none of it. The players in the tournament also
have to miss school to compete in the tournament. They receive no compensation for
missing school either. The NCAA scholarships seem like a great deal, but student athletes

Goodwin2
have little time for schoolwork as the put so much time into their sport they are unable to
get the most out of the academic opportunity. This is not the players faults as they just
simply have to put so much time in because that is what college athletics demands. The
schools believe that giving the athletes a top education should be enough but a lot of the
student athletes do not get to use this opportunity because of the time dedicated to their
sport (Benedykciuk, 2015).
The TV rights the schools give to broadcast games is worth millions of dollars
and Notre Dame football has a deal with NBC that broadcasts everyone of their games on
NBC. The big games gets millions of viewers and money comes with that. The players
for big schools are like celebrities because they are on the TV often, yet they make no
money. This creates the issue of the use of their likeness. The college sports games have
been discontinued because of lawsuits by a handful of players. The games did not use the
names of the players but used players who looked exactly like them and with the same
number. The players saw no money from these games and a lot did not even know they
were in the games. This is not the only thing that is an issue over likeness. Players have
jersey sales with their number and/or name sold, and they see no money from this.
Student athletes are not allowed to sign or sell items of theirs if they win a championship
they can not sell the ring.
College students usually do not have a lot of money, and being so well know, and
making no money can be frustrating for the athletes and may lead them to do things to get
money. In one case in 1979, a few Boston College basketball players were approached by
the mafia and offered money to fix games. The players accepted the offer, and during
games they would try and keep the spread for betting by missing shots or committing

Goodwin3
fouls. This is a dangerous outcome of being well known, young and having little money.
College students are young and people in a position of power believe they can manipulate
these young athletes for their own gain. Young athletes usually get agents to help them,
and sometimes the agents will end up taking millions from their clients when these
athletes go pro and get big money. Even some of the best athletes of all time were
affected by this. Hockey great, Bobby Orr, lost millions from his agent in the 1970s. Orr
also recommended him to other top athletes, and his agent stole millions from them too.
If an established top athlete can be tricked, how are college age athletes with less
experience supposed to protect themselves from this? Although most athletes in college
probably do not have an agent, a lot of athletes who are college age come out early to go
pro and make money. This can make them vulnerable to manipulation or illegal activates.
Another way college athletes are being robbed of what is theirs is by the use of
their likeness in video games and in merchandise. Former UCLA basketball player, Ed
OBannon, won a lawsuit over the use of his likeness against the NCAA, Electronic Arts,
and the Collegiate Licensing Company for 40 million dollars (Fox, 2015). OBannon has
become a leader for the college athletes to be compensated movement. OBannon has
said, If a company or someone was to use your likeness then you should be compensated
for it, at the very least asked if your likeness can be used(Fox, 2015). These athletes
were never asked if they could be put in the game, these games make millions and the
college athletes saw none of the profits. During the lawsuit, the games continued to be
made and EA sports used similar images to the actual athlete. EA had players with the
same number as the actual college athlete and also used players that looked a lot like the
actual player. This seems like cheating to me and another way of getting around paying

Goodwin4
these athletes. NCAA College football and NCAA College basketball video games have
since been discontinued due to the court ruling.
Another issue is athletes who get injured. The school does not pay them
compensation, and if they cannot go pro because of the injury their career is ruined, and
they lose potential income. Some players who suffer an injury lose their scholarship.
Their only choice is to focus on school, but they cannot afford it once they lose their
scholarship. There are plenty of stories but one I will use is of former South Carolina
player, Stanley Doughty, who suffered injuries that he did not know were serve in
college. He suffered multiple spin injuries in college, because of this he was not allowed
to play in the NFL. For Doughty, to make things worse is he decided to forgo the rest of
his college playing career to go to the NFL. Doughty grew up poor and had no way of
making money, he was not compensated so at age 23 he had no job and no way of
making money. Doughty said, "I was young. I thought they knew what was good for me.
I just listened to 'em. I trusted 'em"(Walsh, 2013). This shows a lot of issues with the
current system. It shows ignorance from the medical staff, which these athletes trusted
and it also shows how the scholarship failed this student. He made the decision to forgo
the rest of his college career but he did not know he was severely injured because the
medical staff did not tell him or know. He has no way of going back to college because he
was already extremely poor and the scholarship is the only reason why he was able to go
to college. The scholarship opportunity is great but he never was able to finish his credits
and get a college degree. Now he is stuck because the NCAA and the school, showed
little care for the student.

Goodwin5
It is also important that the NCAA generates almost as much money generated as
the NBA. The money the schools pay the coaches is more than a lot of professional
coaches make. The top paid coaches in college football are Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh
who make over 7,000,000 (NCAA Coaches Salaries, USA Today 2014). When looking
at the highest paid person per state, most states highest paid profession is a basketball or
football coach (Fischer-Baum, 2013). This shows how much college coaches make and
the students who play the game, get nothing. If the schools can afford to pay an
astronomical amount to the college coaches, they can easily afford to pay the college
athletes.
The NCAA gave answers about the payment of their student athletes, one
question was, can the NCAA afford to pay them? The NCAA responded with no. The
author of the article asked five different economist and they all said that was not true, the
NCAA could easily afford it, they are a billion dollar industry. The economists looked at
the amount the schools pay the coaches as well and said there is no reason why they
could not pay their players, they just dont want to (Strachan, 2015). One economist
explained why college athletes should be paid. He begins by saying that college athletes
should be paid but as of right now the NCAA is trying to avoid paying them because of
the costs. He goes onto explain how paying the athletes should be done, and he believes
each athletic conference should have its own guidelines of player payment. He says the
payments will vary. Schools in Massachusetts, Maine and Minnesota will pay their
hockey players more than anywhere else because of the level of interest in those areas.
An issue that some might question is payment of women athletes. Some think issues in
paying the student athletes means the women athletes would be paid the same as the men

Goodwin6
due to the title IX program that gives women equality in athletics. The economist said
nothing was mentioned in title IX about payment; therefore the women athletes should be
paid, but they do not need to be paid the amount Alabama football players would get.
Schools like University of Connecticut for womens basketball would pay their female
athletes the most. This is important because it offers solutions to the player payment and
also addresses the legal side (Zirin, 2015).
On the other side of the argument, some believe that college athletes should not be
paid for various reasons. The most popular idea is that these are not professional athletes
and paying them would make them essentially professionals. Some people believe there
is too much disparity in college sports. The colleges are a business, and they are trying to
get the best out of their investment, and paying college athletes money would make the
investors less money. Also, the athletes know the rules when they sign on; they
understand they are not going to be paid (Jackson, 2015). Also some think that college
athletics is just a way of getting a better education and not for furthering the career of
students as athletes. Some believe paying college athletes will just make the rich richer
(Merkle, 2015). Schools in football like Alabama, Norte Dame and Ohio State will be
able to essentially buy the best players. These schools have the most money from football
and would have the funding for football to buy the best players. It would parallel soccer
in Europe, where the top or richest clubs are able to buy the best players. This system in
this is unfair because top clubs who have big funding sponsors have a lot of money for
spending. This can be compared to boosters who pump money into the school that can be
used for the payment of players. Booster give money to the school to use for athletic
programs.

Goodwin7
Even President Barack Obama has an opinion on the topic. He was interviewed
and he expressed that college athletes should be taken better care of. For example, the
scholarships should not be taken away no matter what. But he does not believe direct
financial compensation is the solution because it will just be a bidding war
(McGuire,2015). I am strongly in favor of not taking away the scholarships no matter
what happens on the field. Taking away the scholarships shows the schools reluctance to
provide for the students when they no longer can help the school make money. This
should be the least the school can do for their student athletes. The schools must protect
them and they do not do much to protect their student athletes. My response to the belief
that an athletes status changing to professional if he/she gets paid is that when something
is so popular and makes so much money, people involved should get proper payment for
their contribution. The status does not change to professional if they are paid in my
opinion, if you look at a fellowship, the school pays students for doing certain jobs
around campus. This is essentially the same thing. Should the students who file
paperwork or help tutor be considered professional secretaries or professional tutors? I
would not consider them professionals, but I would consider them students just doing a
job in college to make money.
As for the issue of making the rich richer, set a cap. It helps smaller professional
teams sign bigger name players, so it should work for college sports as well. In hockey,
the Canadian junior leagues such as the CHL, OHL and QMJL pay their players on a
month basis for cost of living but that is it. There are current lawsuits over the amount
paid but paying the players helps keep them afloat until they can either go pro in the
NHL, AHL (minor league), KHL (Russia) or the German Hockey Bundesliga. The

Goodwin8
players in these leagues usually go pro in some way but for college football the amount
that go pro is less because there are only a handful of leagues that they can go to. I would
say that the payment should just be enough for the players to live once they are out of
college and a little spending money. The payment is not to make these players
millionaires in college to spend on Ferraris and big houses, they are to help make sure the
players are not being taken advantage of and that the players are taken care of when they
get out of college. The amount of money the players make for their school, they should
also have scholarships to help the players post athletic career.
College athletes should be paid because the schools make so much money from
the efforts of the players. The players not to be paid and have so much attention on them
and make so much money for the school, this means these student athletes are not being
taken care of. The players also can loose their scholarships if they are injured, it is like
the schools are saying they have no use for them, this athlete can no longer make us
money, so they get nothing now. To put this onto kids essentially is terrible, these student
athletes are not looked after by the school that when they sign on says they will be. This
kind of treatment shows that its all about money for not only the NCAA but the schools
as well. When a player is injured and has no benefits it leaves them in a though spot, they
have to deal with the injury without a scholarship and they have to find a career without
any extra finical support from the school or NCAA after the injury that they got from a
result of playing a sport for their school. This is not acceptable and I think if people knew
more about the realities of not paying these athletes they would change their minds.

Goodwin9

Works Cited
Benedykciuk, Mike. "The Blue Line: College Athletes Should Be Paid - The Daily Free
Press." The Daily Free Press. N.p., 08 Apr. 2015. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.
Zirin, Dave. "An Economist Explains Why College Athletes Should Be Paid."
The Nation. N.p., 27 Mar. 2015. Web. 22 Oct. 2015.
Fox, Michelle. "College Athletes Should Be Paid: Former UCLA Star." CNBC.
N.p., 24 Mar. 2015. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
Jackson, Scoop. "The Myth of Parity." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, n.d. Web.
18 Nov. 2015.
"Should NCAA Athletes Be Paid?" US News. U.S.News & World Report, n.d.
Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
Strachan, Maxwell. "NCAA Schools Can Absolutely Afford To Pay College
Athletes, Economists Say." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 18
Nov. 2015.

Merkle, Andrew. "NCAA Would Be Making Mistake by Paying Athletes." The

State News. N.p., 18 Mar. 2015. Web. 18 Nov. 2015.
Walsh, Meghan. "'I Trusted 'Em': When NCAA Schools Abandon Their Injured
Athletes." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 01 May 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.

Goodwin
10
McGuire, Kevin. "Obama Says NCAA Enforcement "unfair," Not on Board for
Paying Student-athletes." CollegeFootballTalk. NBC Sports, 22 Mar. 2015. Web. 18 Nov.
2015.
Berkowitz, Steve, Jodi Upton, Christopher Schnaars, Sean Dougherty, and Alec J.
Neuharth-Keusch. "USA TODAY Sports." USA TODAY Sports. USA Today, n.d. Web. 22
Nov. 2015.
Fischer-Baum, Reuben. "Infographic: Is Your State's Highest-Paid Employee A
Coach? (Probably)." Deadspin.com. N.p., 9 May 2013. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.