Should college athletes be getting paid for their performance and participation in college sports? Or is it enough with whatever scholarship money they are receiving. This argument has probably been one of the toughest to tackle, because there is too much disagreeing with whether they should get paid or not. It is important for athletes to get pay while playing in a college sport, because there are more expenses that a college athlete has that the scholarship does not cover for; which are personal expenses of course. With these expenses been cover for the student athlete the athlete would have an easier academic life style. Better grades would prompt from this new benefit, it would also compensate in case of any injury that would stop them from playing the sport and pursuing their dreams. Finally, the amount of money the NCAA receives as a whole annually is incredible, more than enough to be able to pay their athletes. When referring to college athletes getting paid is constantly argued that grades would drop if this ever happens. Is not like that, grades would actually boost because athletes won’t have to worry about anything. I understand that scholarships are a big amount of money that the college athlete is obtaining but, this doesn’t mean that the scholarships would pay for their personal expenses.
Esteban Ochoa, a college athlete at the University of Beary is on a full ride scholarship. “by the rule of the NCAA we are only supposed to practice 20 hours a week and this is only with the ball, if our coaches decide to do anything besides that the time spend would not count towards the 20 hours” said Ochoa. Take in consideration that they have to work hard for their school to get them money and the college athletes are not getting any money at all. He is constantly worried about not having enough money to pay for his personal expenses and to help his parents out. His grades have to always on top before anything or else he would not be permitted to play until his grades reach the required grade point average. Ochoa is on a day to day battle to chase after his dream but it would be impossible without the opportunity of him not getting pay and there are many more athletes just like him in need of getting paid for playing in a college sport. In college sports, there is no way to avoid getting injure while playing the game. Many professional athletes had gotten injure while enjoying their sport, for some it has been career ending injuries and for other is just future injury problem. Luis Zuluaga, a division two athlete in Lander University of South Carolina, suffered of a broken ankle and was out for a year and half.
The colleges which he assisted at the time pay for his medical bill, the injury caused him to stay home not been able to study all his scholarships were taken away and was left with nothing. Who had to pay for all the bill and personal expenses during his time of injury? Not the college of course. Maybe if the college he attended had paid him for the service was giving them, then he probably wouldn’t have struggled with the debt he is in right now. An article In the US news Opinion stated that the NCAA makes 6 billion dollars as a whole annually and none of these college athletes receive any kind of money from this income. Six billion dollars is enough to pay for top players and low ranked ones. Is enough money for athletes to get pay because college teams have sponsors , big time sponsors like Nike, Adidas, Oakley, Puma and other brands. They pay for team’s uniforms and the utilities necessary for a college team to function. Without taking in consideration the money of all the other sponsors that a team has. College sports presidents are just taking the lovely game as a business in order for them to get richer and powerful. The money is there but the right people to make the decision that college athletes should be getting pay have not arrived.
College athletes should definitely be getting pay for their performance. This would easy off of all the stress that comes when having no money and they would take in consideration that their sport is a job. To maintain this job all you have to do is maintain perfect grades which would be easy since they won’t have to worry about anything besides school. If for any reason an athlete gets injure this money that they are earning would help the get by until they can get back in shape or just to fix their life style at least. The NCAA has the power to generate enough money to pay their athletes and to get some profits out of them as well. There is no need to hold back on the money giving a small percentage of the money earn would probably help you gain a greater profit.