User:Cjhardison

Should College Football Players Get Paid? It’s a typical October Saturday morning, I wake up and the first things I think about are breakfast and college football. There are millions of others that do the same thing every single Saturday morning of the college football season. Most fans cannot wait to see their favorite team in action but some fans, like me, just enjoy the game no matter what team is on the television screen. I cannot wait to see the explosive plays performed by many athletes across the country. I’ll pay my hard earned money to see a good college football game any Saturday. Even though these athletes work hard all week preparing for the next game to put on the performance for the fans they do not receive any form of pay. The coaches and staff do not put their life on the line for their university, they do not showcase any skills for the fans but they get a lot more “rewards” than any college football player. College football and basketball players should get paid. Many journalists that argue against the idea of college athletes receiving pay always say that the gift of free education is enough. But the most talented athletes usually do not stay all four years to receive a degree anyway. So that states that college is reaping tons of more rewards from the college player than the college player is from them. All the college player receives is scholarship money that is used mostly for tuition, food, and living but the university receives countless dollars from the performance of the athlete that fans pay to see. So really the student athlete is just a host being taking advantage of by the university or the parasite. Some journalists also claim that the university has to pay for the enormous traveling costs, but the reason for doing this is not for the athletes but to go play teams that the fans want them to play. This results in sell out games in which the universities, once again, capitalizes on much profit on. The universities are playing their role in the sports entertainment business very well and are gaining a lot of profits that aid the university. Michael Lewis, author of “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” reported “In 2005, the 121 Division 1-A football teams generated $1.8 billion for their colleges.” Helping the universities expenses as a whole is not a crime but the main reason they are accumulating all of this money is due to the athletes. The athletes should receive some kind of cut for all of their hard work. Coaches do not feel the same pain the athletes do. About half of the Division 1-A football coaches receive at least one million dollars a year. Some coaches even get a cut of the ticket revenue, according to the USA Today Oregon's Mike Bellotti was given $631,000 last season because of the amount of tickets sold. There is a problem, this coach did not do any significant action to sell tickets but the athletes did. The tickets were sold to the fans because they want to see the players play not the coaches coach. So why did this coach get such a massive cut for no reason? All-year round college football players prepare for the sport. They work out, watch their eating and practice all the time. Student athletes work so much and hard that there have been recorded deaths on the field. They also have to keep their grades at a certain average, if not they will be suspended. College players have a lot on their table and have to deal with all of that stress. But out of all of this work they do not really gain much that is worth it. When the opposite side of this argument considers the idea of paying players they ask how the NCAA would do it. They claim if you pay the players based on their stats that would create jealously in teams. I say you pay a team according to their success. At the end of the season, after all of the bowl games the pay to your team would depend on your ranking in the BCS poll at the end of the season. So if the Miami Hurricanes finish first each player on that team may get one-hundred thousand dollars, but if a team finishes twenty-fifth each player may only get fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. The coaches’ pay in basketball is not as much as football but definitely not too far behind. In the six major conferences the average coaches’ pay is 1.2 million dollars a year. In the game of basketball players are more prone to get injured than in football. There are no pads or any other type protection but still contact. Basketball players work just as hard by running, working out, and practicing every day. The coaches just sit back and watch them play the game but are getting hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some players receive career ending injuries that not only physically hurt them but damage their life. If a player gets seriously injured he loses his scholarship and does not get a chance to make into the NBA. So it is possible for a player to receive nothing from a college basketball career, no money or degree. Most of the college basketball players leave before their senior year anyways so what are they obtaining. No degree, no money, just a little fun. The players need to receive a cut of all the money made by their university’s program. Moses Malone, a six foot ten inch center, was the first player drafted out of high school. After him many followed the trend of jumping from high school to the NBA. Some players that made this leap to the NBA from high school are some of the league’s best players but a lot more are busts. One of the biggest busts in NBA history is the one of Sebastian Telfair, who came out of Abraham Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York. He was so hyped up, always on Sportscenter, in magazines, in everyone’s mouth. But when he arrived to the NBA he did not make any impact. Everyone was so disappointed, if he would have gone to college he probably would have been able to harness his natural skill and become a good NBA player. The reason he went straight to the NBA was because of money, his family was living in poverty and he needed to help them. If college paid student athletes even a little amount money maybe it would better affect the game of basketball. The way it would affect it is if a player knows he is going to get an income in college but also wants a degree he might decide to go there instead of going straight to the NBA. This would make the NBA more talented and America a little more intelligent. Two years ago the NBA got tired of young high school players coming to the NBA and not making an impact so they formed a rule that makes them wait a year after high school to join the NBA. This rule was made to make high school graduates to attend college for at least one year. This planned failed when these graduates that were supposed to go to college went over-seas to Europe for one-year to get paid. Maybe if colleges paid their athletes Americans would not have to go to Europe and make them money but could stay in this country and help a university make money in the United States. If I were to compose payment plan for men’s Division-1A basketball it would, once again, be based on a team’s success. In college basketball a team’s success is determined in the NCCA National Tournament. This tournament consists of sixty-four teams and farther a team proceeds in the tournament the more successful the team would be. If you are not one of those sixty-four teams then your team participates in the NIT Tournament. Say a team goes through the National Tournament unbeaten and wins the National Championship then they would get paid the most but a team that finishes fifteenth overall would get a fairly less sum of money. College athletes should get paid in football and basketball because it will help these student athletes stay in school and get degrees. Growing up in a low-class family many players are quick to jump to the professional level. But if the NCAA would pay them they could settle for that salary and complete college. These players also go through a lot of stress and hard work without pay while the universities take all of the profits. The college athletes are the reason a certain program makes money and should be compensated for it. I am not saying players should get paid more than coaches or anywhere near as much as the professionals but at least put some spending money in their pocket.