College sports bring in a lot of money every year at the main college level. These programs contribute $30 and sometimes $40 million dollars a year to universities and colleges and the players get nothing. These are the same players who are breaking their backs through college day in and day out and can’t get a piece of that money and to me, that doesn’t seem fair. I know what you may be thinking: that these student athletes are either receiving a free education or have earned a scholarship to play ball at that university. To me, that’s the least they could be doing.
When I watch college football on Saturdays and see stadiums packed with cheering fans paying big bucks for a ticket, I say, what business could a company run and not pay its workers? You would think he was talking about some Third World country! Pay players now please!
Think about this: Most college coaches earn six-figure salaries – college programs big and small. Some of these college coaches get shoe contracts, others get television and radio contracts and many other benefits along the way. Also, if they are good coaches and win games, they will be offered another coaching job elsewhere with more money and higher benefits. Student athletes get nothing and to me something needs to be done about it. Please pay players now!
They will keep telling you that athletes are getting free education, free books, free room and board, and the opportunity for a good college education that will last a lifetime. And that! Pay the players! I see all this about the university as slave labor! The coaches make a lot of money off of these players. You hear stories about college athletes taking money or getting paid under the table. You hear these stories of players getting cars and lots of cash, you hear stories of players getting all of this and more. You hear about player families getting cars and houses to attend that college program. This happens all the time in secret!
Why do players take this money and cars and houses for their families and much more? Well, one of the reasons is recruitment; some college programs feel that to get a top college recruit they have to offer these things. Some university programs (not all) have to give something to get these kids. Some of these players come from poor backgrounds, so for these kids getting some money is a big problem, especially if the players and their families don’t have any money anyway.
Being a college athlete is very difficult. In the first place, the number of hours that these players spend is a lot, every day of each week. They are in class all day, then there is practice after practice, they go to dinner if they can and then they go to study. Now this may all sound simple to you, but the amount of time these student-athletes are putting in is enormous. So the coaches want more. There could be a movie to study for and there could be times when the athletic trainer is watching them. As a student athlete, you have to focus on your studies and your sports performance or they will try to get rid of you.
College athletics is tough. Sometimes at the end of the day you are exhausted and don’t feel like studying or if they have some kind of study table for the players you might not be able to fully focus and often your attention is elsewhere. Just think of the millions of people who go to work every day. They work long hours and may have long commutes to and from home. I’m sure the last thing working people want to do is spend overtime doing more work. Most workers want to relax, maybe have a beer and watch some TV, and then call it a day. The big difference is that they are paid for service and time and college players are not.
Most college student athletes don’t get their college degrees and one of the reasons is the practices and games they play. There is so much pressure to do well that something falls off and that something is their education. College coaches have been known to look the other way when it comes to student athletes and their academics, as long as that player can help win games.
For most college athletes, when their eligibility is exhausted, college programs no longer need their services. Why would they? For 4 years, these university programs have put these young men and women to work every day. College programs have gotten everything they could get from these players and then some. At the college level or at any level, it’s just about winning games and making a lot of money.
Take a look at baseball; If a high school baseball player is really good, they may be offered a contract to sign with a major league baseball team. Sometimes the offer is for $200,000 and I’ve heard as much as $2 million. Now, if that high school baseball player takes that money, he will lose his eligibility for college. Some high school baseball players transfer the money to attend college where they can improve, hone their baseball skills, and get recruited again by a major league team. Many high school baseball players take the money and jump at the opportunity to try and make it in the major leagues. Many players never make it to the majors. Some playing in the minor leagues for years until they realize their dream of playing in the majors isn’t going to come true and they move on.
Once you take that money, you can’t go back and try to play college baseball. The same is true for all other sports. You’ll have high school basketball players trying to make it to the NBA; you have youngsters trying out for the NFL. Many of these athletes never gave education a chance and many of those who are in college never earned their degree.
College athletes struggle with their studies. Many don’t graduate and some just quit altogether. College track isn’t for everyone and many student athletes can’t make it, so pay the players! Pay them something for all their time and effort!
When these college programs play in bowl games and make millions off the players and the players still get nothing, that’s wrong. When it’s the time of “March Madness” for college basketball and millions are glued to the TV every day for hours and the players are giving their all, still getting nothing!
Why would it be a problem to pay players? Schools are making millions of dollars either way. This is not Mexico or China, where workers are paid $1.00 an hour to make billions for some corporation, you know, slave labor!
Why do you think players take money from many outside sources? Why are players suspended from the team for breaking team rules? Why are university programs on probation? Everything is for money. You have a lot of players who come from disadvantaged backgrounds where there is no money in their families. If these disadvantaged young student-athletes had to pay for college out of pocket, most would not be in any college.
Some student athletes come from backgrounds where the education system isn’t that great. Your school districts are underfunded and mismanaged. For many student-athletes, their exit is a full-scholarship athletic education. Playing a sport is your future. Many student athletes only focus on athletics thinking that one day they will be good enough to play in the pros. So when money hangs in front of the faces of some student athletes, the temptation has to be overwhelming!
For many years we have heard stories of players and coaches getting into trouble over money. We have heard of situations where the NCAA eliminated entire college programs because players were given money. Why do they do it? Why is money a problem? One of the reasons is that it’s easy to get certain types of players from certain types of backgrounds. Great college programs can only survive with great college players to get paid. We all know that paying college athletes is wrong (set by NCAA guidelines). But this rule has to change now.
If college athletes get scholarships then they can get paid. If the players get paid, then I think more college athletes would graduate from college because there would be a stronger incentive to work hard in the classroom. Larger universities pay college coaches more based on their performance and players should get paid too.
If the players are paid, this corruption would stop. No more players paying boosters, no more college players selling their shoes, no more college players taking jobs that pay big bucks just for working a few hours. It’s tough for a student athlete! Did you know that a non-student athlete can get a job to earn extra money and work around their schedules, but a student athlete can’t have a job until the end of the school year and there are restrictions on what kind of work they must do? realize? He can have.
In college sports, the rules aren’t fair to college athletes! The playing field is not equal. Pay the players!