Whether or not college athletes should get paid has been a debatable question for a while now. Twenty years ago there were only six sports related channels on television. Today, there are over 150. This is mainly due to college athletics, ranging from football, men’s and women’s basketball, volleyball, baseball, and softball. This fact alone would make one question why the profits are not going to the athletes who are working hard. They are the ones who make the main event possible. Without the athletes, there would be no game. They are the entertainment that the crowd is paying for and they receive none of the profit.
The number one reason why college athletes should be paid is because they deserve it. College student athletes are working hard anywhere between 30 to 40 hours a week to be successful in what they do. On average, every college athletic season ranks in between 10 and 150 million dollars in earnings and zero dollars are rewarded to the athletes. Las year, there was about an 11 billion dollar deal made between the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the television station, CBS. The deal revolved around a popular event in men’s college basketball, March Madness. The deal was that from 2011 to 2024, CBS would be the station to air the three weekend long event, and again, zero dollars go to the athletes making the event possible. March Madness doesn’t exist without the athletes and