Introduction
Students benefit from sports participation in a variety of ways, including improved attention, motivation, resilience, and the development of other skills that will aid them in their future jobs. For many years, colleges and universities have assumed that providing scholarships to student-athletes is an adequate reward.
Thus, the great majority of collegiate players never become professional athletes and are content to earn a full or partial scholarship to cover their tuition fee as their only recompense for participating in sports. Although many college sports like football, basketball, and baseball have grown into business industries, athletes can only anticipate scholarships. Consequently, this raises the question of whether college athletes should be compensated.
Main Body
The most common argument in support of allowing college athletes to be paid is that institutions benefit from the sports they participate in. For instance, Columbia Broadcasting System has agreed to a 14-year television deal for 10.8 billion dollars to broadcast the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball championship (Knoester & Ridpath, 2020). Moreover, officially, the player’s salary accounts for 70.4 percent of NBA and 48 percent of NFL expenses (Mills & Winfree, 2018). However, college athletes do not have access to billions of dollars in revenue, while the administration maintains the present system while disproportionately reaping the benefits. Moreover, in order to participate in intercollegiate athletics competitions, athletes may be directed to less demanding classes at the institution, being denied the education their peers obtain. As a result, college athletes put their health at significant risk, spend their time training, and probably get less quality education. This is all followed by not getting compensation and only relying on scholarships.
On the other hand, college athletes receive a certain amount of scholarship, which is considered fair and equitable for them to pay for their education and handle another possible financial burden. Furthermore, there is a piece of evidence that sports fans of collegiate athletes who are compensated are less supportive of them (Knoester & Ridpath, 2020). This can be supported by the fact that paid athletes may create a separate class in the institution, disrupting the sports culture and entertainment atmosphere among students. Furthermore, the students are offered an opportunity to earn a degree and receive valuable education that would increase their chances of getting a well-paid job. Considering that a significant group of athletes does not continue their careers in the sports field, the diploma would expand their earning power.
The commercially popular college sports are usually full of highly paid coaches, administrators, quality facilities, and significant perks for college athletes beyond academic scholarships. This is one of the primary reasons why no payment has been allowed for the athletes. According to Knoester and Ridpath (2020), intercollegiate athletics income has considerably risen in the last 20 years. Nonetheless, gains in income have not resulted in a significant rise in money paid to the athletes. At the same point, Mills and Winfree (2018) stated that because direct payments to athletes are limited, indirect payments are raised. For example, in 2015, the highest-paid nationwide football coach earned 2.22 percent of the state’s revenues. Meanwhile, in the same year, the highest-paid college football coach had 7.45 percent of the revenue generated by the university’s football team (Mills & Winfree, 2018). In other words, instead of directly compensating players, college teams attempt to recruit athletes by providing better facilities and hiring professional team coaches.
College players face significant physical risks while participating in intercollegiate sports. Therefore, it is not surprising that most college athletes seek a professional career after graduation as an output of their job in college in sport (Nokes et al., 2022). It is hard to compare college and professional sports as there is a large number of college teams. Due to high competition among college players, not everyone can start a sports career after graduation. This means a focus on professional athletic training education and postgraduates’ career goals must be renewed. Considering all the facts supporting whether college athletes should be paid, it can be stated that the financial support that college players receive is not enough to cover all the expenses. College athletes should be paid and have more opportunities to become professionals after graduation.
Conclusion
Many college athletes wish to continue their professional careers after graduation. Still, they face many troubles, such as high competition among the players, lack of professional experience, and lack of financial support from the university. Another significant point is that universities spend enormous and, most of the time, unjustified amounts of money on hiring professional coaches. Moreover, universities and colleges turned intercollegiate sports into an entertainment business, from which they continuously get billions of dollars. Therefore, college athletes should be financially compensated, as they are permanently kept under physical pressure and take significant risks. Instead, educational institutions deny paying college athletes, defending the fact that most of them already receive scholarships, which are considered enough to cover educational and personal expenses.
References
Knoester, C., & Ridpath, B., D. (2020). Should college athletes be allowed to be paid? A public opinion analysis. Sociology of Sport Journal, 38(4), 399-411. Web.
Mills, B., & Winfree, J. (2018). Athlete pay and competitive balance in college athletics. Review of Industrial Organization, 52, 211-229.
Nokes, R., D., Pitney, W., A., Nottingham, S., & Bowman, T., G. (2022). Professional Master’s Athletic Training Students’ Career Influences Part II: Short-Term and Long-Term Career Intentions. Athletic Training Education Journal, 17(1), 64-74.