All Work, No Pay

The coming of the month of March means one thing for collegiate athletic fans: March Madness. For weeks, people all over the country created their brackets and cheered on their teams for as long as they could survive. This big event culminates in one final championship game which happened to be played earlier this week, as the University of North Carolina Tar Heels took down the Gonzaga University Bulldogs to claim the title. Student athletes headed to the locker room after the game with the net, the trophy, and intense pride. This situation is not all that different from a professional sports championship other than the fact that the student athletes will not be returning back to school with any sort of money bonus.

Revenue of Sports vs Players’ Salaries
Photo Credit: Should Student-Athletes Be Paid?

Student athletes, particularly those who are part of the football and basketball teams generate an extremely large amount of revenue for the school that they represent, so why do they not get part of it for themselves? The thought process behind this is that collegiate athletes have agreed to play for the school, while attending classes, and the revenue that they generate through their actions help to run other parts of the school which they are attending and the other factors involved with their sports (paying their coaching staff, maintaining facilities, etc). For a large portion of student athletes, they are attending their respective universities for little to no cost, and in order to keep allowing this, they have to continue generating revenue, as the money has to come from somewhere to allow for scholarships.

Proponents of paychecks for student athletes may say that they are the ones who are physically performing so they should be the ones to reap the benefits. Although this sounds justified, playing a college sport is a voluntary action. If you are concerned about playing sports for no money, you should really sit down and think about whether this is what you want to do or not.

One reason many people prefer watching college athletics to professional is that there is more passion in collegiate athletes than professional athletes. In the eyes of the viewers, the pros are simply “over-payed, underworked crybabies” and by paying students in college, this would just perpetuate this state that many people do not like to see. There is something special about watching college football over the National Football League. Students know that every game could either make or break their potential career as a professional athlete, so they must always perform the best they can at all times. And, you can truly see this with many collegiate athletes-they have passion that is unlike anything else. If students were paid, they might not even want to continue on to the professional leagues as they may be satisfied with what they have already done. Athletes may lose that special spark that they have during their college years of playing their sport.

Cartoon showing the heavy load student athletes take on
Photo Credit: Paying College Athletes

Looking at the numbers may lead people to think that student athletes should be paid. The NCAA set regulations that should limit training to 20 hours per week, but if you look at in-season hours worked, Division I football players recorded practicing 43 hours a week on average in a 2011 survey. That means these athletes are working a full time job and some in addition to their courses and school work. Although a large amount of student athletes are on scholarships and may even get a stipend, they certainly are not being equally compensated financially for their work.

Also, being an athlete in college means two things: you are playing a sport while pursuing a degree. For many, the goal would be to end up as a professional sports player, but a lot of athletes do not reach this goal. Statistics from the NCAA show that of 73,660 football players, 1.5% of them will end up in the NFL. Yet, many more than this small percentage will go to the draft before finishing school in hopes of getting an offer. By allowing college athletes to be paid, students will have more incentive to stay in school and get a degree, and then they can go on to do what they choose. Having a large percentage of college athletes earning their degrees is a very admirable thing, and the NCAA should strive to make sure this happens.

As all controversies surrounding education, this is a difficult situation to decide what is right to do. Allowing student athletes to receive monetary compensation could incentive finishing degrees and staying in school for all four years, but it could take away the extreme passion that students have for their sports. Keeping things how they are allows students to still get compensation through free or inexpensive education, but it may not be the right amount for the amount of work athletes put in to their sport. Student athletics is a wonderful piece of American culture, and the true essence of the sport should not be overshadowed by the desire to be paid.

3 thoughts on “All Work, No Pay

  1. I could never even imagine being a student athlete, especially at a Division 1 school like Penn State. They work out for hours each day, on top of attending classes and doing homework, as you mentioned. However, I think that they receive the proper amount of compensation for their hard work. Most are on scholarships, obtaining their 4-year degree for little to no money, and most of them do get a stipend for food and housing as well to ensure their living desires are satisfied. I agree with you that if they start getting paid, they might lose their passion for the game.

  2. This is an interesting topic to discuss as March Madness has just come to an end. Since I was young, my family supported college sports teams (like PSU) and took place in March Madness brackets. My father always credited college athletes for their passion towards the sport and their schools and not being involved “just for the money”. However, I never realized that the money the team earns goes towards paying the coaches and providing scholarships. To me, college sports are on a whole other level of intensity and I could’t fathom having those types of responsibilities and making the time commitment manageable.

  3. I think this is a very interesting topic to analyze about the American education system. I have never really thought about student athletes getting paid but it seems like a valid aspect to consider. I feel as though the reduced tuition costs that student athletes get is, in a way, their way of getting paid. They are getting paid so much money towards their tuition, and through that I believe that it should be the athletes’ incentive to do well in school. I agree with you on the point that if the student athletes got paid, they would lose their motivation to play the sport out of their love and interest to play it, and would ultimately continue playing it because of the money.

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