Ackerman 1

Kevin Ackerman

Mrs. Cramer

Comp Pd. 8

4 February 2019

If They Want Paid, Be Good Enough to Go Pro

Why would college athletes work their tails off for a billion-dollar industry and receive

nothing but a goose egg in compensation?1 The National Collegiate Athletic Association,

NCAA, is a college sports organization that rules and regulates college athletics. Similar to other

organizations, they have a set of guidelines for universities to follow, pertaining to athletics. One

major regulation that universities must follow is the payment of college athletes, or lack thereof.

There has been an ongoing debate on whether the athletes should be paid or not. College athletes

should not be paid because issues would occur with the different methods of payment and the

athletes already receive a generous salary.

To begin, college athletes should not be paid because issues with payment will arise. A

number of questions may emerge pertaining to the different issues with paying the athletes, such

as, “How much should the athletes get paid and will payments be based on performance?”

(Johnson and Acquaviva). This is one example of why college athletes should not be paid. The

idea of a salary cap will surface to ensure that there is no disadvantage to smaller schools, such

as not having enough money or opportunities to offer athletes like the larger schools do. If

college athletes were to be paid, there is no definitive answer as to how every athlete enrolled in

1 Rhetorical Question – This is a statement formed as a question in reference to college athletes not being paid, but
is not supposed to be answered.
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athletics would be paid equally. If this is taken far enough, it could then possibly begin to violate

the guidelines of Title IX, which is defined as, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis

of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to

discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”

(National Collegiate Athletic Association). This would cause an extreme liability on the NCAA,

setting them up for legal issues. Furthermore, colleges have sports teams that do not generate as

much, if any, revenue as the major Division I sports, such as football and men’s basketball. Even

though some of these teams generate revenue, most teams throughout the nation do not. In 2016,

Business Insider reported on their website that Division I college football teams generated more

than twenty-nine million dollars, whereas the next highest revenue by sport was men’s basketball

at just under eight million dollars. Therefore, in order to pay all athletes fairly, some of the

revenue generated from football would have to be dispersed evenly throughout the different

athletic programs at the university, which will then cause the problem from the football team

claiming that their program needs the money. In other words, lower-level revenue sports will be

eliminated because there is not enough money to pay the athletes (Gaines) (Johnson and

Acquaviva). In the end, it becomes extremely difficult to pay all student-athletes at a university,

as the university will not have enough money to do so, or one sport will be favored over another,

making the pay unfair.

Conversely, it can be argued that creating a method of payment other than scholarships

would help solve problems rather than create them. Proponents of paying college athletes would

argue that paying the athletes would decrease the amount of secretive payment when recruiting

players, which has happened with the Southern Methodist University football team and the

University of Louisville basketball team. If the NCAA would consider this and put this into
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action, as stated previously, athletes would go to whoever offers the most money, which would

then take the excitement out of college athletics because it would be all about the money

(Meshefejian). Each sport would then have a restricted number of competitive teams. For

example, the National Football League, NFL, has also dealt with this issue. A professional

running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Le’Veon Bell, is holding out against playing in the

2018-2019 season because he is not receiving the amount of money he believes he deserves 2

(Patra). Also, paying college athletes will have the effect of creating “unbeatable” teams, or

super-teams, especially at the professional level, like the National Basketball League, NBA.

There are clear benefits of paying college athletes, one of which being the legal standpoint of

paying athletes rather than acting illegally in doing so. However, there are also numerous

downfalls to paying athletes. College athletics are built around student-athletes that play to win a

national championship and not worry about the money. By changing the compensation received,

it will change the environment of college athletics entirely.

Moreover, college athletes should not be paid because they are already receiving athletic

scholarships to play at the collegiate level. Universities give out thousands of dollars in

scholarships every year, and the reasoning behind this is to aid students in “paying for their

tuition, meal plan, and boarding, while the athlete is provided with the opportunity to earn a

degree” (Johnson and Acquaviva). This shows that not only are the schools giving the athletes

money to go to obtain a degree, but to play the sport they are passionate about for four more

years. This scholarship money is given to athletes for school, whereas, everybody else going to

the university must fill out applications for scholarship money to help pay for their degree.

2Analogy – Comparing two things to each other and comparing their similarity. In this text it was comparing what
will and has happened when college athletes get paid, to what professional athletes do because of money.
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Therefore, there is already enough money being put into the athletes, and they do not need to be

helped more than they already are financially. “A full scholarship over four years can range

between $30,000 and $200,000 depending if the institution is public or private” (Johnson and

Acquaviva). This means that there is a wide range of scholarship money and the student has the

opportunity to acquire a free education, whereas the rest of the student body must pay their way

through. To elaborate on the previous statement, those who support the liquidation of paying

college athletes often underestimate the importance of a college degree. The degree that is being

obtained gives an athlete something to fall back on if he/she does not make a professional sports

team and need to make money. The chances of college athletes making it to a professional level

are already slim. As stated by the NCAA on their website, “Fewer than two percent of all

student-athletes go on to be professional athletes” 3 (NCAA Recruiting). After all, obtaining a

degree is important so an athlete still has the opportunity to earn money after graduation if their

original plan does not work.

On the other hand, supporters of paying college athletes will make the following

arguments, “Athletic scholarships are not always full like they say. There is always a part of the

tuition that is not covered by the scholarship, leaving the student-athlete with loans of up to

$12,000” (Johnson and Acquaviva). They will also say that the athletes are more economically

disadvantaged since they are not receiving any sort of up front liquidation,4 even though they are

on a scholarship, which sometimes is paid in full by the university. Even when they are not paid

in full, there is no reason that the athlete cannot apply for different scholarships to help pay the

rest of their education, similar to what all other ordinary student does. For example, to show that

3Ethos – This is showing the audience one’s credibility by referring to the NCAA.
4Euphemism – A polite, indirect way to reword an expression, which is used here by saying “economically
disadvantaged” rather than using ‘poor’.
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most scholarships are often paid in full, “Ohio State is one of the biggest well known football

programs in the nation. Their average in-state tuition is just above ten thousand dollars a year,

yet the average athletic scholarship is $17,856” (Anderson). Overall, this statement proves the

argument of the supporters of paying college athletes invalid.

In conclusion, college athletes should not receive any more compensation than they

already receive from athletic scholarships, and the problem with payment will always come into

play. As explained previously, athletic scholarships cover all of the athletes’ tuition to receive an

education. There is no fair way in paying college athletes, thus leading to the creation of “super

teams.” Taking a deeper look into the issues pertaining to this topic is an eye opener for all. In

the end, keeping a goose egg in the compensation column of college athletics will solve more

problems than create.

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Works Cited

Anderson, Dave. "Top 10 Reasons College Athletes Should Not Be Paid." ListLand, 17 Mar.

2016, www.listland.com/top-10-reasons-college-athletes-not-be-paid/. Accessed 25 Nov.

2018.

Gaines, Cork. "The Average College Football Team Makes More Than The Next 25 College

Sports Combined." Business Insider, 20 Oct. 2016, www.businessinsider.com/college-

sports-revenue-2016-10. Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.

Johnson, Dennis A., and John Acquaviva. "Point/counterpoint: Paying College Athletes." The

Sport Journal, vol. 15, no. 1, 2012. Academic OneFile,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A322563607/AONE?u=pl1949&sid=AONE&xid=16f31f2f

. Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.

Meshefejian, Krikor. "Pay to Play: Should College Athletes Be Paid?" Should College Athletes

Be Paid?, edited by Geoff Griffin, Detroit, MI, Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context,

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010490203/OVIC?u=pl1949&sid=OVIC&xid=e1a171f

f. Accessed 29 Nov. 2018. Originally published in The Journal of the Business Law

Society, 23 Mar. 2005.

National Collegiate Athletic Association. "Title IX Frequently Asked Questions." NCAA.org,

www.ncaa.org/about/resources/inclusion/title-ix-frequently-asked-questions#title.

Accessed 29 Nov. 2018.

NCAA Recruiting Facts. Mar. 2018. NCAA,

www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files/Recruiting%20Fact%20Sheet%20WEB.pdf. Accessed

27 Nov. 2018.
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Patra, Kevin. "Steelers' Le'Veon Bell Wants More Than $17 Million Per Year." NFL Home

Page, NFL Enterprises, 18 Nov. 2018,

www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000988903/article/steelers-leveon-bell-wants-more-

than-17m-per-year. Accessed 24 Nov. 2018.