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John Cavness Professor Smith English 102 15 October 2013 No Need for Extra Compensation There are many collegiate athletes that feel like they should be paid more than what they are being provided with already. Many athletes are being paid without the NCAA knowing. According to Jonathon Chaits article, Fixing College Sports: Why Paying Student Athletes Wont Work, the debate for paying collegiate athletes has been going on for years. The NCAA organization, so far, has stood firm to their decision of not making a salary legal. The NCAA as well as Chait agree that paying student athletes would ruin the atmosphere of sports. In Sean Deveneys article, TO KNOW LIST 1: Reggie Bush Faces The Heat, a running back that played football for the University of Southern California, Reggie Bush, now a professional running back for the Detroit Lions, has a similar story of receiving improper benefits. Reggie Bush was the 2004 Heisman winner when he played football at Southern California. Later on, an investigation occurred when there was suspicion that he was receiving money to help his parents, over a few years, live rent free while he was in school. The amount that his parents received was found to be a little over 100,000 dollars up to the year 2004. Bush was stripped of his Heisman trophy and all of his collegiate records that he set at USC. The University of Southern Californias football program was also stripped of their 2004 Bowl Championship Series National Championship trophy along with a two year bowl game suspension. There has been many other college athletes that have been investigated receiving illegal benefits while playing their sport that they are known for such as Johnny Manziel, Terrelle Pryor, Cam Newton, and

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many more in different sports. Student athletes should not receive a paycheck due to the fact that they are already being provided with free training facilities, athletic or academic scholarships, and the ability to apply for funds that help pay for personal items and school supplies that may be needed. Student athletes should not be compensated extra due to the fact that they are provided with free facilities to train for the sport they came to college to play for. According to Frank Riely Jr., in his article College Athletes are paid in Benefits, athletes at the college level are, in fact, being paid. Some athletes are being paid with free tuition along with room and board while all athletes are being provided with free training facilities. Whether the school is a Division I institution or a Division II or III institution, all NCAA campuses are provided with some sort of training facility. The bigger the school is in the NCAA, the more high quality the machines and staff are. Another point that Riely Jr. points out is that college athletes are the only athletes that are being paid for what they are truly worth. What that means is that student athletes are given a full ride are most likely athletes that have worked hard in the past and have put up good statistics at another college or their high school and will probably play right away when they get to the school they are going to. Athletes that have some potential and will have to work with everything they got to make a spot on the team are probably athletes known a walk ons. Walk on athletes are student athletes who try out for the sport, if the coaches show a little interest in them, and will not receive any scholarship of any kind, at least for the first year. In the Christian Science Monitor, the author of the article Should College Athletes be paid, Allen Sack states that the payment system in the NCAA is relatively cheap. Athletes are, essentially, paid to play and deserve the same benefits as employees in the working world. Workers compensation is something that needs to be provided for a student athlete. (Sack) Workers

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Compensation, on the working side of things, is compensation to an employee when they cannot be at work due to a sickness or injury. For a student athlete when he or she is hurt, their scholarship is not taken away or lessened and they are provided with training facilities that are free on campus. With this being said, the student athlete still has the scholarship that they earned and free training facilities is a different form of workers compensation. Just because they are not given a paycheck when they are down and out does not mean that they are not being taken care of with some sort of treatment from a trainer. Another reason why student athletes should not be compensated extra is the fact that they are rewarded with a scholarship before they sign to play with a university, whether it is an academic scholarship or an athletic scholarship. Some athletes are able to get both forms of scholarships. In Raymond Schneiders article, College Athletes Perceptions on the Payment of Intercollegiate Student Athletes, the NCAA set a standard set of rules about the description of student athletes. The bylaw states that student athletes are to be amateurs in order to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics. An amateur is a person who is seeking success in something they do on an unpaid venture. The biggest reason why the organization set this law is to protect the student athlete from being subjugated by professional or commercial enterprises. (Schneider) Times have changed over the years since this law has been set and loop holes have been created for a student athlete to get on television in front of millions of viewers. The NCAA states, student-athletes are not employees and should not be treated as an employee by law or by the schools they attend. (Cooper) What the NCAA is trying to establish with student athletes and coaches that are recruiting them to play is that student athletes are already, in a different type of way, getting paid with a scholarship. This scholarship is used to pay for food in the cafeteria on campus, housing that they would live in if they decided to live on campus, and the biggest part of

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college, their tuition. With all of these areas slightly or all covered with the scholarship, the student athlete is capable of getting through college easier and without extra compensation. What makes it fair for student athletes going to the same classes as regular students who do not play sports and still get an extra bonus payment? Regular students would want the same treatment as a student athlete getting extra benefits when it comes to money. With that being said, the standards for a student athlete and a regular college student should not vary with an extra paycheck. Student athletes should not be given an extra paycheck for performance and achievement because they have the capability to apply for funds that will help pay for personal items and school supplies that would be needed to get through school. One of the biggest personal items that are purchased with the funds that are applied for is a plane ticket home and other travel expenses for student athletes that live far away from home. In the article, College Athletes want cut of Action written by Kelly Whiteside, he mentions that there is a fund for athletes at the college level called the Student Athlete Opportunity Fund. It does not matter the financial situation of the player to apply for the fund. The fund will cover clothing, travel expenses, and educational expenses according to Whiteside. This type of fund would give a student athlete a high level of reassurance when attending the school and getting a good education while playing the sport that they love. The families of the student athlete will also be relieved knowing that their son or daughter will have enough money to help them get through with whatever they need to get their way through a high level of schooling. The USA Today magazine had an article called, To the Coaches go the Spoils, that mentioned student athletes have an opportunity for a brighter future should they choose to take their education as seriously as they take playing the sport that they play. This is sending a message to all student athletes to not worry about

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whether or not they should get paid and use the funds that are there for a student athlete to apply for to help the athlete become a better student at the same time as being capable of affording things needed for school. With all of this information being said that collegiate level athletes should not be paid for their performance, there are other opinions that would like to see student athletes receive an extra paycheck. An article called, The Shame of College Sports (Cover Story), written by Taylor Branch mentions that college athletics have become a big business and millions of dollars come through from broadcasted games. Taylor says that student athletes are not slaves and the heartbreaking fact of college level athletics is not that student athletes are being paid, it is the fact that more of them are not. The one thing that is over looked is that if the NCAA is going to pay NCAA level athletes, they need to pay all of them and not just the really talented athletes. The ethical reasoning behind just paying a couple athletes on a team throughout the NCAA is not present. There is not any way for the NCAA that can afford to give a paycheck to each and every athlete playing the sport that they are there for. The payment system is simple; the college athletes receive a scholarship, whether it is athletic or academic, receiving free training facilities, and having the ability to apply for funds that will help out with things needed for them. An attorney, Ion Kong had another opinion on why student athletes should be compensated. Coaches and officials are working hard and are being paid well. The college athletes are putting in the hard work giving them the right to deserve something as well. (Ford) Coach es and officials have put in the time and experience to get them where they are at. They deserve to be paid well. Student athletes, on the other hand, are just beginning on working for something they really desire to have. Working hard on and off the playing surface is important for a student athlete to concentrate on. Once a student athlete makes it through three or four years of

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collegiate level schooling and is good enough to play the sport they played in college, then they would be ready for the professional level. The athlete will then be compensated in a paycheck for their performance. Whether collegiate level athletes should get paid extra is a topic that will be discussed for many years on down the road. Many lawyers defending or trying to promote the issue will be ongoing. I would have to say that sometime in the next decade or so, student athletes will receive a legal take-home pay. There are too many cases that are pushing the fact that student athletes need to be paid extra. It will depend on what the NCAA commissioners think what is best for the ethics and integrity of the organization.

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Work Cited Branch, Taylor. "The Shame Of College Sports. (Cover Story)." Atlantic Monthly (10727825) 308.3 (2011): 80-110. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. Chait, Jonathon. Fixing College Sports: Why Paying Student Athletes Wont Work. New York Sports. 29 November 2011. nymag.com. Web. 26 September 2013. Cooper, Kenneth J. "Should College Athletes Be Paid To Play?." Diverse: Issues In Higher Education 28.10 (2011): 12-13. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Sept. 2013. Deveney, Sean. "TO KNOW LIST 1: Reggie Bush Faces The Heat." Sporting News 230.39 (2006): 2.Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 Sept. 2013. Ford, William J. "Even Playing Field?." Diverse: Issues In Higher Education 28.6 (2011): 11-12. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. Kelly, Whiteside. "College athletes want cut of action." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. Riely Jr., Frank Z. "College athletes are 'paid' in benefits." Christian Science Monitor 17 Mar. 2008: 8. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. Sack, Allen. "Should college athletes be paid?." Christian Science Monitor 07 Mar. 2008: 9. Academic Search Complete. Web. 9 Sept. 2013. Schneider, Raymond G. "College Students' Perceptions on the Payment of Intercollegiate Student-Athletes."College Student Journal 35.2 (2001): 232. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Oct. 2013. To the coaches go the spoils." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Complete. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.