The college process for athletes is much more complex than for any other student trying to further their education. Being able to balance classes along with athletics seems to be one of the biggest issues with today’s college athletes. Many students involved with sports in college have also brought up the topic of not being able to find the time to work due to classes, practices and games. This could be easily resolved if colleges and universities started paying their athletes.
I believe that college sports should be considered a profession and athletes deserve to be paid for their work. College athletics are a critical part of America’s culture and economy. For some athletes, college is just a stepping stone to becoming a professional one day, so why not start paying them now. College is very expensive here in the United States and not all student’s families can afford it, even with the help of financial aid. It is quite the transition from high school or prep school to college and many think they could be ready for that but are not.
College athletes should get paid based on the university’s revenue via games, apparel sales, and excess spending money. I do believe that an education should come first when attending college. But, going to school for free compared to how much money athletes generate, is not even in the same category. For example, at division one colleges the schools make jerseys, hats, and apparel with these player’s names on it. This generates the school a lot of money selling these student athlete’s names.
College athletics is a billion-dollar industry and has been for a long time. Due to the increasing ratings of college athletics, this figure will continue to rise. It’s simple: bigger, faster, stronger athletes will generate more money. College Universities generate so much revenue during the year that it is only fair to the players that they get a cut, regardless of how much that may be.
According to Thomas E. Way II, a staff reporter from the Xavier Herald, “The University of Michigan grosses over $20 million from just football apparel alone”. This is just an example of what one major sport can produce for revenue at a college. Even if the payers were given a small fraction of what their jerseys and such sold for, it could help them pay for food, athletic needs/care, and even personal needs. As a college athlete you do not have a lot of free time because you are either in a classroom, doing homework or at practice/games. Few to none of the college athletes in school have time to go to work to pay for their living necessities.
An athlete trains for what seems like endless hours, it’s their job, and they receive no benefits for putting in the hard work if they don’t become a professional. In society, we are taught to reward each other for their hard work with good pay. College athletes train for 30-45 hours a week, attend classes and do school work for about 45 hours a week. That leaves them with little to no free time at all if you configure the time they need to get the proper amount of sleep or time to cook meals to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
A physical effect is that the athlete is very tired and will not feel like doing his or her schoolwork. If that athlete does not feel like doing his or her work, then most of the time they will not do it. This leads to more problems ultimately their grades will drop. When their grades drop low enough they will fail the class and if an athlete fails then they can lose their scholarship. If athletes were paid, then some of this mental stress would be relieved and they could focus more on school and the sport. The Mental health of these athletes is sometimes not looked at seriously when it is very serious. If one athlete is in the wrong state of mind, they might not perform to their best ability. With pay, these athletes would be much less stressed, better mental place and be able to expand their minds for more success in their athletic careers.
