College Athletes: Pay for Play

Matthew Mussoline

Mrs. Griffith

Research Paper

April 24, 2014

College Athletes: Pay for Play

"College sports is professional in every aspect but one. They don't pay the players." Michael Lewis, author of Moneyball and The Blind Side, is a strong advocate for paying amature athletes who are playing for colleges and universities (Cheney-Rice, PolicyMic). College athletes are not able to perform as well in the classroom as other students due to the rigorous schedule they must meet to be members in their schools’ athletic program. Many college athletes are not able to participate in activities, such as study groups or going to a tutor, to enhance their college educations as other students can. This often leads to college athletes getting a worse education, and causes them to graduate at an outstanding 25% lower rate than non college athletes. These same athletes only have a 1% chance of going on to play professionally in their sport (Cheney-Rice, PolicyMic). College athletes do not get any compensation for their hard work. However, the schools that they attend generate a large amount of money off of the programs, especially basketball and football. For instance, in 2012 alone, over one billion dollars were earned off the March Madness tournament (Cheney-Rice, PolicyMic). Not one dollar of that billion went to the athletes who were playing, but all of the money went to the NCAA and the athletes schools. Although most student athletes have obtained scholarships, college athletes should also be financially compensated for the time and energy they put into their school athletic program, and for the money the colleges and universities generate off of their athletic performances.

Some people argue that college athletes should not be paid because of the wide disparity of money that each program generates for the school. Some college athletic programs do not gain as much money for their school due to their sport’s lack of fans. Each sports program makes a percentage of money for the school, and basketball and football are usually the top earners. Athletes whose sports are more popular and generate a much more significant amount of money for their school, should not be punished for other sports and their lack of fans. All players, no matter what sport, should and can still be paid. To do this, each program can pay their players with the money they make for their college or university. For example, the 2013 University of Texas football team made over 104.5 million dollars in 2013 alone (Gaines, Business Insider). If the school gave a very small percentage of that money, all of the players could be paid and the university would still make millions of dollars off of the team. This system would be fair because all of the athletes would make the same percentage of money off of their respective program.

The chart to the left, courtesy of Painttouches.com. describes the individual value of a Big East basketball player. The estimated amount of money that a Big East player brings in ranges from about $550,000-$150,000. None of those players are not getting paid; and they should be compensated for the money they bring into their respective school.

Throughout big time college sports, there are illegal transactions happening all the time as an incentive for athletes to play at their highest level. In Illegal Procedure by Josh Luchs, Josh comes clean on many illegal actions he performed as a sport agent with college football players. Josh described the first time he paid a college athlete, which is a violation of NCAA rules. He said, “Kanavis McGhee was the first player I ever paid. But not the last… [Kanavis talking] My mom is not well and she just lost her job and she can’t pay her rent. She’s going to get evicted from her apartment unless I can find twenty-five hundred dollars for her” (Luchs, Illegal Procedure, p. 39-40). Luchs went on to pay him the twenty-five hundred dollars. College athletes are constantly part of undercover deals, some even more lucrative than