Brooks Rice

Professor Maple

ENG 101-29

3 October 2018

Rhetorical Analysis

For years there has been a debate on whether college athletes should get paid or not. This

is a growing topic throughout the country, with many people siding with the athletes. Currently,

the NCAA does not allow universities to pay its athletes. Although they are not budging with

their stance on the topic, the public is growing more sympathetic towards college athletes. Most

of the money that the NCAA earns is due to student athletes, yet they don’t pay them. This

Experts have said this could end up causing legal issues for them. Taking the work athletes do

and getting money for it as it could be seen as the athletes being useusing themd as indentured

servants. College athletes should be paid, not only because of the money they make for the

NCAA, but also for the money they make for their respected universities.

In Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s article “It’s time to pay the tab for America’s college

athletes”, he argues the side of college athletes getting paid. I think that he is trying to reach the

general public through his writing since they have the most power in creating change within the

NCAA. The article is written in 2018 2018 which makes so his argument is relevant in today’s

world. It is important for his audience to know that the article is up to date when they are

formulating an opinion. I think that he is trying to reach the general public with his message. The

more people he informs about the topic, the more likely they are to have an honest opinion about

it. In order to persuade the reader, he uses rhetoric within his writing.
 One example of of the rhetoric used is his use ofwithin his article is pathos, it is used to

help convey his side to the reader. One sentence in particular stand out to me. He says, “It was

frustrating to win championship after championship every year, hear thousands chant my name,

and then go to my bedroom to count my change so I could buy a burger”. Imagining one of the

best basketball players of all time struggling for food stunned me. This sentence is used to

evokes ann emotional response from the reader. when theySeeing see the behind the scenes

struggles of that some of what happens to the best college athletes face will have the reader

sympathize more. This is due to the fact that people praise these athletes for what they do on the

court or field. Nobody wants to see others struggling for food, especially not their favorite

players.

Another example of pathos is seen in the beginning of the article. He compares talks

about sending college athletes going out toand competing and compares it to compete with little

boys in Thailand who are thrown into boxing rings to fight. Athletes endure copious amounts of

pain to entertain others, in addition to, making money for people other than themselves. Similar

to the athletes, the Thai children are used to make money for those betting on them. This arouses

a sense of anger in the reader because no child should be forced to fight each other, especially at

the age of nine. Although this is an extreme comparison, there are still shocking similarities.

Athletes are not only bet on; their work is used by the NCAA to gain money.

In addition to pathos, He he uses logos throughout his writing by inserting numbers and

statistics. This helps the reader understand that his argument has logic to back it up. An example

of this is, “During the three weeks of March Madness basketball last year, the NCAA earned

$900 million while $9.2 billion was gambled on the outcome”. Although this is an insane amount

of money, they are only the numbers for March Madness. This does not bring in to account the
money that is earned from college football and other sports. Seeing numbers like this brings

helps the reader to realize ty and shows them just how much money the NCAA is earning.

Although this is an insane amount of money, they are only the numbers for March Madness. This

does not bring in to account the money that is earned from college football and other sports. In

2017, the NCAA made over one billion dollars in revenue which went un-taxed. They This is

due to the fact that didn’t have to pay federal taxes on any of this money since the government

sees them as a non-profit organization. All of this money is generated from the hard work college

athletes put in every day. This is a primary reason one of the main reasons why the public thinks

that the NCAA should pay its athletes.

Kareem also goes on to show how much money players make for their universities. He

does so in In the sentence, “The University of Texas football team made $92 million in profit in

2015, making it more profitable than most NFL teams. Yet, their players made nothing””, he

shows that amount of money. This is just one of many examples of the how college athletes

generate money for other people to profit from. Adding these numbers like these helps to provide

much needed logic and reasoningsome vital rationale to the argument. Without logos it in the

article, the reader might make the argument assumption that you just want them to feel bad for

college athletes and that’s why you want them to get paid. However, the use of it helps solidify

his argument so that it not only evokes emotion, but also has the statistics to back it up.

Kareem has won six NBA Finals and is considered to be one of the best basketball

players to ever play the gameof all time. He also won plenty of individual accolades to go along

with his championships. For example, he has two finals MVP’s, six league MVP’s, as well as

being inducted into the hall of fame. Outside of the NBA, hHe won three NCAA Championships

during with his time at UCLA. This, which in turn, in turn, gave him three years of experience
being a college athlete. This is crucial for the reader to know because he has been in the shoes of

college athletes and knows their struggles. He also won plenty of individual accolades to go

along with his championships. For example, he has two finals MVP’s, six league MVP’s, and he

is also inducted into the Hall of Fame. This is important for the reader to know because if anyone

was qualified to speak on this subject, it would be Kareem.

After looking examiningat all the rhetoric used in the article, I feel that Kareem relied on

ethos the least. I think this this isis because he is such a big name in across the basketball world

world that he doesn’t need any added credibility. With this that being said, I feel he relied on

pathos the most. Even though he uses many examples of logos as well, he relied more on pathos

to persuade the reader. People can be shocked by the facts and statistics, however, there is more

of an effect on the reader when they see examples of the strugglesstruggle’s athletes go through.

He used many examples of logos as well but I feel that the pathos had a greater impact on

persuading the reader.

There are always two sides to an argument, Craig Thompson and Tom Burnett write

about theirstheir side in the article “College athletes are students, not employees”. Their article

is up to date as it was written in 2017. Similar to Kareem, Similar to Kareem, I think that they

are trying to reach the general public with their article. It was written in 2017 which helps the

reader see that the facts written are relevant today. It comes to no surprise that both articles target

the public as they are the most influential group when it comes to changes made in the NCAA.

ContrastinglyContrary to to Kareem, Craig and Tom took a different approach to persuade the

reader as they only used two of the three rhetorical appeals. I feel that they did this is on purpose

to help persuade the reader.

 Ethos is present within the article due to Tthe occupations of the both authors provide

ethos to their writing. Craig is the commissioner for the Mountain West Conference while Tom

is the commissioner of the Southland Conference. Being the commissioners of their respected

conferences, they oversee what student athletes do on a daily basis. Having the reader see that

the authors have a relationship with student athletes helps the credibility. If they were not

credible, the reader might not believe the arguments they have put forward.

They decided made the decision not to use any examples of pathos within their writing. I

believe that they did this on purpose.. Since they are arguing the fact that college athletes should

not be paid, they didn’t want the reader to have any sort of emotions towards the athletes.

Emotional appeal was much more relevant in Kareem’s article since he was trying to show why

the athletes should be paid. By providing examples of the athletes struggles, Kareem created an

emotional attachment to the reader. Craig and Tom did not need an emotional response from the

reader to convey their side.

Although As a result of they don’tnot usinge pathos, logos is found many times within

the articlethey relied on logos to persuade their audience. For example, they make the argument

that college athletes are students and not employees. Technically This is a major point to project

to the reader, aathletesthletes are recruited to be students first and athletes second., although it

doesn’t always work out that way. ThisThis simply just reminds the reader that the athletes are in

fact students and that their main job is to get a degree.

They also make the argument that many athletes graduate without debt while the Formatted: Indent: First line: 0.5"

majority of students are having to pay back loans. The price of college is expensive, because of

this many student have to take out loans to help pay for it. Some athletes get full ride

scholarships to help them with the immense cost. Some people consider this to be the pay for
athletes since many aren’t thousands of dollars in debt when leaving their university. This leads

to a major advantage once they are graduated as they can begin to build their wealth instead of

pay back debts. Some consider this to be the pay for athletes since many aren’t thousands of

dollars in debt when leaving their university.

Within the article there is a paragraph that might undermine their argumentare also

statements that don’t support their argument. In the sentence “The truth is less than 2 percent of

students who play college football this fall will be drafted into the NFL.”, Craig and Tom use

logic in saying that few athletes make it professionally. However, this argument is irrelevant to

the topic of athletes being paid in collegeThis is a true statement, very few collegiate athletes

make it professionally. However, the statement doesn’t connect to the issue of paying athletes in

college. Their audience might read this sentence and discredit former arguments against paying

athletes. I feel that this sentence takes away from how strong their article was and believe it

could sway the reader the other side.If anything, I think it strengthens the argument for athletes

being paid. If few make it professionally then that is even more means to take care of athletes

while in college.

It is important to have a healthy mix of all three rhetorical appeals so that you have a

well-rounded argument when trying to convince a readerIn order to best persuade your reader, it

is important to have a healthy mix of all three rhetorical appeals. After dissecting both articles

and looking at the rhetoric the authors used, I think that Kareem’s article was more successful.

Both articles provided strong arguments to support their side, however, Kareem used more

rhetoric to support his view point. He used all parts of rhetorical appeals throughout his writing,

contrasting Craig and Tom’s article where logos is the main rhetoric used.