Should College Athletes Be Paid

Should College Athletes Be Paid? There has been much debate on whether or not college athletes should be paid. Can one imagine college athletes receiving pay for play on top of all the money they are given to attend that college? College athletes should not receive payment for play. There are many reasons why college athletes should not be paid. For these athletes, school is already being paid for from scholarships. If they were to be paid, it would be unfair to other non-athlete students, they are not professional athletes and should not be paid like one. Also, NCAA sports would not be fair in competition among schools if college athletes were to be paid. Paying athletes would undermine the primary role of universities which is to offer …show more content…
However, many college students are broke and deal with these inconveniences on a daily basis. Not being able to afford things is a way of life in college. Furthermore, the jobs most students do find pay minimum wage and cannot sustain constant trips to the mall. The average college student eats frozen dinners and Ramen noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner, not expensive restaurant food. The wages average students earn from their low-income jobs mostly go towards rent, tuition and groceries—expenses many college athletes on full-ride scholarships never have to worry about. The scholarships awarded to these athletes are well deserved and very big. These scholarships take place of a minimum wage job. They don’t have to worry about debt from college loans or anything, it takes the place of minimum wage jobs. If universities started paying college athletes, it would be grossly unfair to the peers who work hard just to make ends meet. Student athletes who are already awarded scholarship money to attend college should not be paid any additional amount on the side. Students are not professional athletes who are paid salaries and incentives for a career in sports. They are students receiving access to a college education through their participation in sports, for which they earn scholarships to pay tuition, …show more content…
There are many reasons of which these student athletes should not be paid. These athletes do put their bodies on the line day in and day out which is a huge task to ask. They do it because they love the game they play and they want to get noticed. The point of college athletics is to hopefully move on to the next level of being a professional athlete. At that point, they will be paid a very large amount of money for playing the sport they love. These students revive free tuition along with a high caliber college education. Playing in college athletics is an experience like no other. There is no other feeling of playing in front of tens of thousands of people. It is a lot of pressure but the fact that these are the top players in the country shows that the pressure doesn't matter. These kids are also young and have not yet experienced the type of money of a professional athlete. Most of these athletes are getting everything paid for including their tuition, meals, and housing. If they were to be paid on top of that, what would be the point of trying to do good in school. The money to these athletes would out weigh getting good grades and would in turn hurt education. The whole point of being good at a sport in a collegiate level is to reward the athlete with an education and a college university. Rewarding them with a salary also would further demonize college sports. The colleges that pay more also would have all the top