NCAA Should Pay College Athletes

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 hearts 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 academia by scholars, but a certain result has not been achieved yet. It is essential and fair that the NCAA should pay college athletes for their contributions to sports in order to compensate for their efforts and difficulties in managing their time and energy in 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 all around America. NCAA came into being as a group, having supervisory authorities, in 1910. The body conducted the national championship event in 1921 for the first time and gradually grew its authority over intercollegiate competitions and sports associations. Currently, several students are offered scholarships; however, they are not paid beyond the scholarship’s amount. Though the NCAA has worked a lot for student-athletes, there remains one overlooked area that it has not paid much attention to.

The policy of the NCAA regarding college athletes’ pay did not allow schools to pay athletes according to their abilities and skills. Paying for college athletics is a case on which different analysts write much data. ESPN analysts said about this topic or case that it is a misuse of college athletics when colleges restrict them to play only for college and also colleges do not pay profit to them. He also said that if colleges do not want to pay profit to athletics, then athletics must have permission to earn profit from any other source related to their skills. Along with the cash pay, college athletics teams also receive several compensations regarding different areas like education. Colleges and universities allow cost free education of three to four years. But mostly colleges don’t really pay full compensation to athletics regarding studies.

College or university athletic programs, games, or matches help universities and colleges to generate millions of dollars. Promoters start asking about the student’s player part from those dollars to school, college or university executives. Here some opptend said that it is not necessarily to pay profit to athlete’s team or student because students get some other facilities regarding athletics. However, some analyst said that paying college athletics teams is important to develop or polish their skills and to encourage them to play well in the next event.

There are many advantages to paying for college athletics.

When college pays students or players, they never go out to earn money. For if college pays them even 1000 dollars, they never prefer to go out for even 2000 dollars. They prefer to play or study at their own college.

Paying college athletes not only engages them in college but also polishes their skills and encourages them to play harder for college.

Paying college athletes encourages students to grow their professional attitude.

Paying helps those families or students who can’t regularly in studies for part-time jobs or may not wait for more years to start jobs.

By paying for college athletics actually, college and universities allow their students to join any fitness club to keep fit their body or workings.

By paying college athletes colleges can fall with deep and long relation with their students.

Paying college athletes gives a chance to take risks to students without fear of injuries, etc.

Disadvantages

• Everything in this world or each matter has both positive and negative sides. Some here if there a some positive points of paying for college athletics, then there are also some disadvantages of this practice, like
• Analysts said that paying college athletes could detract games from cleanings or fairness, and it may affect the ethics of the industry or game.
• Each college or university already pays enough charges against students’ careless actions during games.
• The most serious problem is that it may cause the distraction of studies in students. Students can learn from playing how and why they pay full attention to their studies to get or complete degrees.
• All players and athletics offices of schools, colleges and universities already enjoy other facilities like free of cost education, fabulous accommodations etc.
• In this practice, schools, colleges, or universities may have to pay more than students do.

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 that most of the students who are inactive in extracurricular activities always seem to be occupied with their academic commitments (Chait, Jonathan). 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. This shows that those students who somehow manage to participate and engage in these kinds of activities are greatly hard-working (Sanderson and Siegfried 115-138). 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. 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. This training cannot be missed because if one fails to attend them, he/she suffers in acquiring the 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, the athlete can lack major professional expertise in the game (Neuhauser, Alan 11). 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 that training and preparing for sports is not only time-consuming but also extremely challenging, both in terms of physical and mental. 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 (Lupica, Mike). 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 makes it hard for them to manage. 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. However, following these rules is harder for 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 are 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 on their plates as compared to the other students (LastWeekTonight). 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. 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 student’s performance means more wins for the college. Better sports teams mean increased victories, which lead to an increase in the pride and prestige of 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 (Daniel, A) 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 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 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 incentive 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 sports performances.

Works Cited

Bush, Joel. “Student or Professional Athlete – Tax Implications in the United States If College Athletes Were to Be Classified as Paid Employees.” Labor Law Journal, vol. 68, no. 1, Spring2017, pp. 58-63

Chait, Jonathan. “How to Pay College Athletes Without Ruining NCAA Sports” The Daily Intelligencer, (March 31, 2018). Web http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/03/how-to-pay-college-athletes-without-ruining-NCAA-sports.html

Daniel, A. “College Athletes Should Be Paid,” Letter to the President. 2018. https://letters2president.org/letters/22172

LastWeekTonight. “The NCAA: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)” (March 15, 2015). YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX8BXH3SJn0

Lupica, Mike. “There has to be a way for NCAA to pay student-athletes who make their schools millions of dollars” New York Daily News, (February 25, 2018). Web http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/college/ncaa-pay-student-athletes-article-1.3840545

Neuhauser, Alan. “Whether to Pay College Athletes.” U.S. News Digital Weekly, vol. 6, no. 16, 18 Apr. 2014, p. 11.

Sanderson, Allen R., and John J. Siegfried. “The Case for Paying College Athletes.” Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 29, no. 1, Winter2015, pp. 115-138.