Analysis: Should College Athletes Get Paid

Should College Athlete’s Get Paid
Universities across the country are earning millions of dollars each year from their various athletic programs. Many college athletes face countless hardships because they are facing a magnitude of restrictions while attending college that normal college students do not have to deal with. Student athletes are risking their personal safety and putting their futures at risk for the benefits of the universities. Nevertheless, the only compensation they are allowed to receive are scholarships that can only cover the cost of educational expenses and can only be warranted on a yearly basis. Though many fans and coaches argue that college athletics should remain amateur because their main focus while attending …show more content…
According to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), “an amateur is someone who has not profited above his/her actual and necessary expenses or gained a competitive advantage in his/her sport” (What is Amateurism). National Collegiate Athletic Association prioritizes amateur status in order to maintain the quality of education a student athlete will receive while attending a university. Universities use the model even though men and women are athletes out on the playing field, their priorities should be student first and athlete second. National Collegiate Athletic Association has implemented many rules and regulations to make sure that student athletes precedence while attending college is to obtain a quality education and that each athlete is competing without an unfair advantage. When a student athlete is applying for admission to colleges, they have to be certified as an amateur and with many coaches recruiting players from around the world it has become even more challenging. To remain eligible for intercollegiate competition every student is required to adhere to the NCAA guidelines regarding amateurism. A variety of things that the amateurism guidelines do not allow are, having contracts with professional sports teams, receiving pay while participating in intercollegiate competition, getting benefits from an agent or prospective agent, and receiving …show more content…
Many times, athletes do not have a choice in what major they choose because they spend at least 30 to 40 hours a week participating in their respective sports program while having to take a minimum of 12 credit hours to remain a full-time student. The mental and physical fatigue is very demanding on the student (Cooper; Eitzen). “Ramogi Huma is a former college football player for University of California Los Angles (UCLA) formed a group called the National College Players Association (NCPA) to help promote and protect the rights of college athletes (National College Players Association).” Some of the main goals of the NCPA is to raise the cost of scholarships to cover the amount all expense a student athlete might face. Secure health coverage for all sports related workouts because once a student athlete is hurt they have to pay for their own medical expense, also if it’s a serious enough injury that could prevent them from returning to the playing field which makes them loose their scholarship. Probably the most important one is to eliminate the restriction on student athletes from being able to seek employment while in college (National College Athletes). With the NCPA pushing for better rights for the student athlete hopefully in the near future they will be able to get what they are owed by the NCAA and their

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