For many years, playing sports in college was merely part of the curriculum, done for the love of the game. But things have changed dramatically and this paper argues that today, college and university athletes should be paid.
Discussion
There was a time when playing college football or other sports was something young people did because it was fun and because it took some skill to make the teams. A person on the football team was important, a sort of hero to his classmates. Over time, of course, professional sports became a huge industry, and college sports started to become big business as well. Bets were placed and large amounts of money changed hands at college bowl games; universities and colleges were known for their teams rather than their academics, and endowments sometimes came the way of those institutions whose teams won regularly. Colleges made a lot of money from sports, but the athletes themselves saw little or none of it. The situation is infuriating to athletes and one is doing something about it. Ramogi Huma is a former linebacker for UCLA who has organized a group called Collegiate Athletes Coalition (Davis 46). It is the aim of the CAC to …show more content…
If someone wants to give their son or daughter a car, take them out for a meal, or give them some money for expenses; that’s fine (Looney). But if the student is an athlete, he cannot accept any of these gifts—despite the fact that, as noted above, his scholarship, if he has one, leaves him $1500-$2500 per year short of money for living expenses (Looney). The idea of college athletes being innocent young people playing for love of the game is an archaic way of thinking; it’s no longer the 1940s, and with the entrance of big money into sports, that innocence was lost (Looney). Now, since they work so hard and have none of the privileges of the other students, it’s time to pay these athletes
Discussion
There was a time when playing college football or other sports was something young people did because it was fun and because it took some skill to make the teams. A person on the football team was important, a sort of hero to his classmates. Over time, of course, professional sports became a huge industry, and college sports started to become big business as well. Bets were placed and large amounts of money changed hands at college bowl games; universities and colleges were known for their teams rather than their academics, and endowments sometimes came the way of those institutions whose teams won regularly. Colleges made a lot of money from sports, but the athletes themselves saw little or none of it. The situation is infuriating to athletes and one is doing something about it. Ramogi Huma is a former linebacker for UCLA who has organized a group called Collegiate Athletes Coalition (Davis 46). It is the aim of the CAC to …show more content…
If someone wants to give their son or daughter a car, take them out for a meal, or give them some money for expenses; that’s fine (Looney). But if the student is an athlete, he cannot accept any of these gifts—despite the fact that, as noted above, his scholarship, if he has one, leaves him $1500-$2500 per year short of money for living expenses (Looney). The idea of college athletes being innocent young people playing for love of the game is an archaic way of thinking; it’s no longer the 1940s, and with the entrance of big money into sports, that innocence was lost (Looney). Now, since they work so hard and have none of the privileges of the other students, it’s time to pay these athletes