College football is one of the world’s biggest business generating mass amount of revenue every year. The NCAA topped a record of $1.06 billion in the 2016-2017 season from ticket & merchandise sales, marketing & licensing deals, and broadcasting rights. Since 2006 the financial picture has been looking great for athletic directors and coaches. Nick Saban, head coach for Alabama, was making $5.5 million a year, 69 other coaches were making more than $1 million annually, coaching salaries as a whole had increased by 90% since 2006, and athletic directors were earning average salaries roughly of $515,000. Rewarding all but the back bone to the business, the guys that show up on Saturdays and make them all that money. Therefore, stands the argument that college players should be compensated for their substantial role in the college football business.
Risk is a common phrase in a College Football player’s agenda. Injuries are a common occurrence in football. “There are over 3.8 million sports related injuries that occur each year” (McDevitt). Some of these injuries are concussions. Concussions are caused by a blow to the head and affect the brain in various ways including: balance problems, depression, and many others such as brain damage. Concussions are the most serious injury an athlete can sustain while playing a sport. Derek Sheely, a college football player for Frostburg State University, sustained a bad concussion during preseason. He began to recover then was put back on the field where he was pushed very hard; he hit his head again and ended up dying (Fenno). This is just one incident where a college athlete died due to a concussion. Brain surgeon Jane McDevitt states, “That concussions in athletes accounts for 16.5 billion dollars or 44% of all hospitalization.” This is saying how almost half of all the hospitalization in sports are caused by concussions. How is it fair that a player can sustain an expensive injury while putting their health at risk and make nothing? Some concussions are more serious than others. If a college athlete withstands a concussion he may have to stop playing football and lose the scholarship. If a student loses his scholarship they can no longer afford the college they were attending. Athletes are also vulnerable to injuries that can affect them lifelong. There are many other types of injuries besides concussions that athletes may sustain. Other common types of injuries athletes sustain are broken or dislocated bones. Depending on the degree of the break the athlete may not be able to play a sport anymore and not to mention lose their scholarship. Knee injuries are another common type of injuries, which are often career ending, include ACL and MCL. These are knee injuries can be divesting to an athlete because of how important knees are to a player. Athletes must then go through a difficult rehab process to help their knee heal. Even when the knee has healed, it will never be the same, which means the athlete is more likely to injure it again, not just by playing sports, but maybe at a work party in their career or at any point in their future life. Along with losing their scholarships, injuries like these make mobility an issue; therefore they also make working an issue. Athletes play each game like it’s their last and for some it really is their last.
Most athletes are only attending the school they are at because they received a scholarship, if they lose the scholarship they may drop out of that school due to money. People can say that athletes are not employees, but they put in the work, time, and effort that any normal working person puts into his or her job. An athlete trains for 45 hours a week, that’s more than a full-time job. A full-time job is 40 hours. In the world today, citizens are taught to reward others for their hard work. Training for 45 hours a week is hard work and then trying to manage schoolwork on top of that is even more challenging. They already seem to be training endless hours, it’s their job, and they receive no benefits for putting in the work. College athletes train for 30-45 hours a week; they attend classes and do school work for about 45 hours a week, both are more than a full-time job. An athlete has 168 hours a week and 85 are already taken, that is not including sleeping or time for homework. Between training each week and games, they run out of energy. With that being said, running out of energy as a young adult can lead to many problems both physically and mentally. A physical effect is that the athlete is very tired and will not feel like doing his schoolwork. If that athlete does not feel like doing his work, then most of the time they will not do it. This leads to more problems such as their grades will drop, and when their grades drop low enough they will fail the class. If an athlete fails, then they can lose their scholarship. If athletes were paid then some of this mental stress would be relieved and they could focus more on school and the sport. Not only do injuries affect an athlete, but also trying to focus on school and maintain a high grade point average is a very tough thing to do. Trying to focus on the sport while having to make sure your grades are good so the athlete does not lose the scholarship is very nerve-wracking. Sometimes we all need a little break from a long day but it’s hard when that athlete has no money. “College students have a reputation of being broke,” said a professor from Monmouth University. Athletes have no time to obtain even a part time job because they are also training or doing schoolwork. This leads to other problems because if an athlete cannot work then he will have no spare money, and if the player has no spare money they are not able to get away from their stressful lives and see a movie or go to a bar. Everyone needs time to unwind after long stressful days and a way to keep their mind off of things. If athletes were paid, they would have some spare money and could use it to go out and have fun or relax.
Along with focusing on school, many times college athletes do not have the time to join other clubs or activities that the school offers. If a Division I athlete wants to join another club, orchestra, or another sport they will not be able to. If an athlete played a division one sport while being in a club they would have to miss a lot of the clubs meetings. To me this is unfair taking away from their college experience. Having a college experience is crucial to a student, these students are not able to have it because they are too busy with the one sport. If student athletes were paid to play the sports they would not feel as left out about not being able to participate in other activities, sports, clubs, or some free time to just relax and reflect on life. If an athlete is going to a game they may be in the bus for hours. Athletes end up having to study and do their school work on the bus. They also have to miss many classes because they are always traveling. “Athletes don’t have free choice of what major they take if the class conflicts with the practice schedule, they cannot take it or just miss a majority of the classes,” said Amy McCormick (Cooper). Athletes are sometimes put in classes that are not even used toward their major. They are put into those classes because those classes are the only ones that fit into the training and game schedule. This is bad because when the athlete completes his four-year scholarship he cannot graduate with a degree. If an athlete misses class then he or she begins to fall behind. When that athlete falls too behind they will fail out of the class. If athletes were paid they would not have to worry about losing scholarships. They could focus more on the sport and their grades rather than just trying to slide by to keep the scholarship.
The final reason why college athletes should be paid is because the NCAA generates a profit of over millions of dollars off athletes in different ways. Why should the NCAA get paid for someone else’s hard work. The NCAA makes an annual profit of $750 million each year just from television contracts (Vecsey). They also make money off of an athlete by selling their jersey. This is absolutely unfair that an athlete’s jersey is sold but they make no money off of it. Recently an athlete tried to sell his own shoes and got in trouble for it, that is very unfair. Athletes should be able make compensation off their own attire, but the rule book says athletes cannot make money off their own gear. Athletes cannot sell their own shoes or his own jersey; this is one way the NCAA makes money. Another way they make money is when a college makes it to the championship, the NCAA makes a mass amount of revenue off the tickets that are sold for the games. An additional way they make money is off of video games or at least they used to until 2014 when they stopped making college football video games. They used the athletes face in the game, but the athlete still wouldn’t see any money. Not only is it unfair that the student athletes do not get paid, but the NCAA makes a profit, and the coaches are paid for their position. In 1993 a coach tried to sue the NCAA because he was not being paid enough and his athletes were mad their jerseys were being sold and they were not making any money (Vecsey). A coach gets paid every time they sign a new athlete to their team. Coaches also get paid to train their athletes; this may be why coaches push their athletes so hard. They do it because they make money off how well their team plays. All in all, athlete not others should be rewarded for their hard work.
In conclusion, the NCAA needs to pay their student athletes. Instead of the people who are in charge of the organization making all the money, they should have some of their salaries cut in order to give the student athletes a specific amount of money for each semester they participate in a sport. College athletes should be paid because they work so hard but sustain severe injuries instead of money. Concussions may not only be career ending, but life threatening. Knee injuries prohibit athletes from being the same kind of athlete pre-injury. Student athletes train so hard each day so they can play each game at his or her very best, while trying to attend class and get all of their work done for each class. Student athletes have no time to be apart of any other school activities because of this. The NCAA makes so much money off of each student athlete while the athlete receives no compensation for their hard work.
Work Cited
- McDevitt, Jane K., et al. “Neuronal Structural Protein Polymorphism and Concussion In College Athletes.” Brain Injury 25.11 (2011): 1108-1113. Academic Search Complete. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
- Fenno, Nathan. “Suit Filed Against NCAA, Coach in Frostburg Player’s Death”. The Washington times (Washington, D.C. : 1982) (0732-8494), p. C.2
- Cooper, Kenneth J. “Should College Athletes be Paid to Play?” Diverse Issues in Higher Education28.10 (2011): 12-3. ProQuest. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
- Vecsey, George. “College Athletes Move Concussions Into the Courtroom.” New York Times 30 Nov. 2011, sec. B: 14. LexisNexis. Web. 05 Nov. 2013
- “Should College Athletes be paid?” Sentinel: 2. Mar 2006. ProQuest. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
