Should College Athletes Be Paid
“The evidence supporting sports participation for a young person is overwhelming...It has the power to combat everything from racism to low self-image, to the high-school drop-out rate" (Castle). The percentage of young students being high school athletes are consistently increasing the percentage of college athletes, however, is steadily decreasing. College athletes have been put on a pedestal and held to higher standards ever since sports in college existed. Although when the debate arose on whether college athletes should be paid or not, several different spectators, coaches, teachers, and most importantly athletes have voiced their different opinions. Even though college athletes are technically students and not professional athletes, they should still be paid because of the time they dedicate to the sport, the time they spend away from classes because of their sport, and the money they make for the schools and organizations. Bill Self, the Kansas basketball coach, said this when asked about his opinion on the recent debate,
"I used to be totally against it," Self said. "I used to be totally against doing anything other than room, board, books, tuition and fees. But I've changed. And the landscape has changed also. It was always big business; now it's huge business. And when you're sending players from the West Coast to East Coast to play sports, to miss more classes, and the schools benefit from that financially, why shouldn't the people that are responsible for the business, and that would be the student athletes." ("Truth & Rumors > NCAA")
Self, however, is not alone on his opinion college athletes dedicate a large portion of their time to their sport, so much time that some spend more than eight hours a day on their sport between workouts, lessons, practices, and games. Eight hours a day is equivalent to that of a regular work day at an everyday job. As you can imagine, most college athletes dedicate most of the time in their day to their sport and not their school because of the demands made by their coaches. With the amount of time athletes spend practicing or away at game, it is nearly impossible to attain a part-time job. Tyson Harnett made this valid point in an article he wrote online:
For a little extra money to see a movie or go out to dinner once a week, my freshman roommate worked a job at the university, earning about $7/hour. He would work his butt off all day, with two or sometimes three basketball training sessions, plus classes and homework, and go to that job for a few hours late at night. He would come back exhausted, but he needed whatever money they would pay him. However, once the season started up, he couldn't work that job anymore. We were on the road all the time, even gone for two straight weeks at one point. The teachers let us do our work from the road, but the job wasn't going to pay you just because you were playing basketball on a road trip. The team gave us meal money (about $7 per meal) so we could get chips and condiments with our sandwiches, but anything else was considered an NCAA violation. (Hartnett)
Being a college athlete will always be a stressful responsibility, but with the amount of time athletes dedicate to their sport, they should at least be paid enough to support themselves, as a part-time job would. Playing a college sport has all the attributes of a part-time job except the income. Most critics of the idea, suggests that the athletes knew what they were getting themselves into when they signed up to be a college athlete. However, most college athletes play sports to be able to afford college. Josh Cooper mentioned the negative side to paying college athletes,
“No one gets paid to get that A+ or to get that pat on the back for doing well on a test or on an activity at school. In college, you are supposed to learn how to grow up and how to manage your life. You are also supposed to get a job in order to support yourself and