Should College Athlete be paid?

Many people believe that athletes are already being paid. First, scholarships are worth as much as $30,000 per year. Christiansen points out, in the Big Ten conference scholarships come to $42 million a year (2000). That free education is entirely fair, considering that most athletes will not have a lucrative professional contract waiting for them after they leave college. Secondly, who is supposed to pay the athletes? Many point out that the NCAA schools are not raking in profits from sports programs. Unless the school is one of the powerhouses, there is not much money coming into the program. A third of all Division 1 schools lose money on their football and basketball programs, and the average profit from an entire schools athletic program is about $600,000 (Christensen, 45). Next, there are grants available to students who do not have money. Hundreds of millions of dollars are available through grants. Also, many believe that paying athletes will not keep talented players from going pro. Athletes can earn millions of dollars in the pros and they would not be satisfied with a small payment (Keith, 1996, p.C2). Finally, the NCAA is worried that colleges will start bidding for outstanding athletes if they can be paid. The NCAA is afraid that the offers made by universities to lure in athletes will get out of hand and lead to possible corruption. Whichever school wants to spend the most money on athletes could end up winning the national championship every year. Melissa Fisher, a University of Wisconsin graduate student in sociology, pointed out, "If you're going to pay athletes, you should pay normal students, too. Yes, they have special athletic ability, but others have intellectual ability. By paying athletes you're making a value judgment that athletic contributions are more important to the university than intellectual contributions. It's college, not a career" (cited in Stewart, 21).

One reason to pay collegiate athletes is for they do not decide to leave college early for the professionals. First, it is evident many athletes do not buy into the student athlete system, as more and more 19 and 20 year old kids are leaving college early and turn pro. Most players leave college because of financial need, but if the NCAA would allow athletes to be paid, they would stay in school for the full four years (Keith, 1996, p. C4). This would lead to more athletes graduating, and everyone is talking about how poor the graduation percentage of athletes is. Athletes want to be the next Kevin Garrnet. They do not want to worry about school; they want to make the big bucks right out of high school. Some athletes would love to skip out of the school part of college and right into the pros, but other athletes would like to get an education and play sports. For those people who could turn pro but want an education, it is not fair that they are required to do more work than professional athletes and ...