Introduction
In the American academic culture, sports form an important part of the school curriculum and students, in large numbers, actively participate in athletics. Most of these students put their heart and minds into their games and work quite hard to make their teams win. Some of these players play highly professionally and often end up pursuing sports as their career in the future. Thus suggestions are being put forward in many schools and colleges that the players of these sports, football, in particular, should start getting paid. The topic has been debated among several schools and their faculties as well as in the academia by scholars but a certain result has not achieved yet. It is essential and fair that NCAA should pay the college athletes for their contributions towards the sports in order to compensate their efforts and difficulties of managing their time and energies among academics and games.
NCAA and Payments to College Athletes
The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) is a board that oversees the workings of different sports clubs and athletic activities across a wide variety of schools and colleges in the United States. It not only supervises the sports activities in educational institutions but also arranges sports competitions at a national level among and between these institutions in all around America. This institution is highly beneficial as it provides an opportunity for those who are passionate about sports to pursue it as their career. It provides them with a platform where they get to test their abilities and work on improving their skills. Since these competitions promote healthy competitions, students receive remarkable training under it and being a part of these competitions have proven to be extremely beneficial for them.
The NCAA has been doing great work for college students who are active in athletics, particularly basketball and soccer (Green, 1992). The NCAA not only arranges these competitions but also supervises the functioning of sports programs and events in the indiv
idual schools. It makes sure that every school has professional coaches who can train the students, have appropriate and well-maintained spaces where sports activities can take place and have new and up to date sports gear for every game. Though the NCAA has worked a lot for the student athletes, there remains one overlooked area that it has not paid much attention to.
It must be highlighted that college work can be very stressful at times especially if one is pursuing degrees in engineering or accounting. Most of the time, students are so burdened with academic workload and stress that they are barely able to spare time for other activities. In a recent research that was conducted, it was found out that most of the students who are inactive in extracurricular activities always seem to be occupied with their academic commitments (Sanderson et al, 2015). When asked in interviews, most of the students said that since they are always so overwhelmed with academic stress, they do not find the time, and accumulate energy levels and capacity to be able to manage extracurricular activities alongside. This shows that those students who somehow manage to participate and engage in these kinds of activities are greatly hard working. This goes especially for sports because athletics are more physically challenging and exhausting as compared to other activities such as dramatics, debating, art, and related fields. (Purdy et al, 1982).
The students who are a part of sports teams have very hectic schedules and are forced to go through extremely intense training sessions that exhaust them physically. These sessions sometimes last for hours with no days off. Sometimes training has to be done during stressful time periods such as a few days before or even during the exams. These training cannot be missed out because if one fails to attend them, he/she suffers in acquiring necessary skills needed in the particular sport. It cannot be doubted that excessive and intense training polishes one in the sports and without its proper attainment, athlete can lack in major professional expertise of the game. (Sanderson et al, 2015). Thus, all the team members have to make sure that they attend as many training sessions as they possibly can. Sometimes they are required to train and practice on their own apart from the formal sessions that are conducted by their coaches. This also improves and enhances their performance.
It is important to be mindful of the fact over here is that training and preparing for sports is not only time-consuming but is also extremely challenging both in terms of physically and mentally. Constantly practicing for hours on end throughout the week can be very stressful for the body as well as for the mind. Most of the time, students suffer from extremely painful cramps and injuries, which can sometimes be very dangerous and impede them from carrying on their everyday activities. This heavily impacts their academic performance which is something that most professors do not take into account (Purdy et al, 1982). Neither does the NCAA do anything about it nor does it take any action to compensate such students for their academic losses.
It has been proposed that to compensate for these losses and to provide these students with a reward for working so hard to represent their colleges in sports competitions, the NCAA should start paying them. In fact, it is being argued that not paying these students is unfair. This argument is very rational, to say the least, and makes a lot of sense given the fact that these students are giving up on a lot of important things just so they can contribute towards the athletic disciplines of their schools. These students, like all other students, have a lot of academic work and pressure which becomes hard for them to manage along. They are not even provided with advantages or flexibilities with respect to adhering to class timings and schedules, for example. They are subject to the same strict rules that the other students are following. Adhering to these rules and regulations for the other students is easier because they do not have commitments that they have to abide by, apart from their academics. But following these rules is harder for the athletic students because they are overburdened with workload and stress which can hamper their performance both academically and in sports.
Another significant argument to make is that usually in colleges, marking and grading is done on a relative basis. This means that the grades of one student depend on how well the other students in the class are doing. To roughly summarize, under this system of grading if a student receives more marks as compared to others, he/she is given a higher grade. Similarly, if he/she does worse in comparison with other students, he/she is given a bad grade. This makes things even more difficult for the athletic students because the other students, in most cases, seem to be doing better than them. It means that their academic grades suffer simply because they have more to focus in their plates as compared to the other students (Philips et al, 1971). It is another unfair element attached to them so that is why they should start being paid by the NCAA or the institution where they are studying.
Paying these students would also result in a drastic improvement in their performance since they would then be given an incentive to work hard for. If the students know that they will be paid, they will automatically prioritize sports more than they already do. Moreover, an increased number of students participating in sports activities would be observed in colleges at all levels since more students would be motivated to be active in sports. This would not only be beneficial for the students but also for the colleges themselves because an improvement in the students’ performance means more wins for the college. Better sports teams mean increased victories which lead to an increase in the pride and prestige for the colleges. Thus, paying the students who participate in sports activities is beneficial for the colleges and extremely important for the students if not necessary (Philips et al, 1971) because this would result in much more motivated and skilled players; something which would improve the status of the colleges.
Conclusion
So to sum up, the students have to put in extraordinary struggle and hard work to keep a balance between the sports and academics and hence their efforts should be regarded by their colleges and also the NCAA. It has been argued that managing sports alongside with other college commitments, particularly academics, is not easy. Therefore, the students who are a part of the sports clubs or teams in colleges must be provided with some form of incentives to reward them for their determination and commitment. One way of doing that is to start paying them and therefore it is suggested that officials should look into this matter. Even though the institution is already doing a lot for these students, it is overlooking a significant concern that college athletes are faced with. This problem must be paid the attention that it deserves and students must start getting paid so that they can demonstrate more zeal and zest in their sport performances.
Works cited
Green, Robin J. “Does the NCAA Play Fair? A Due Process Analysis of NCAA Enforcement Regulations.” Duke Law Journal, 1 Oct. 1992, www.jstor.org/stable/1372755.
Sanderson, Allen R., and John J. Siegfried. “The Case for Paying College Athletes.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2015, www.jstor.org/stable/43194698.
Purdy, Dean A., et al. “Are Athletes Also Students? The Educational Attainment of College Athletes.” Social Problems, vol. 29, no. 4, 1982, www.jstor.org/stable/800032.
Phillips, John C., and Walter E. Schafer. “Consequences of Participation in Interscholastic Sports: A Review and Prospectus.” The Pacific Sociological Review, 1971, www.jstor.org/stable/1388646.
