Men’s college football and basketball players generate billions of dollars a year through television contracts. The discussion of if these student-athletes should be getting paid because they are generating money for their schools shouldn’t be a discussion at all. They know when they accept to play college athletics that no money will be rewarded but their compensation is through these athletic scholarships they receive. Many people are not aware that most collegiate athletic departments actually are losing money year after year trying to fund their university athletic programs. Out of the 120 division one schools, only twelve covered what they invested or made a profit last year. The money they would be using to pay their athletes would be coming out of the university’s general funds, which would mean taking funding away from academic scholarships, classroom resources and professors’ salaries. Athletes already have their tuitions paid for, not to mention their room and board, meal plans, and all of the other benefits they …show more content…
If a particular sport is not producing revenue for the university because of poor performance or simply the interest of that sport is not there, where are these universities supposed to find the money supply to pay the athletes of that sport? The end result in paying these college athletes would lead to a decrease in the number of sports offered by schools and therefore a decrease in the number of opportunities available for student athletes. Sure, the big time athletes of each university work extremely hard on their sporting fields and excel at their sport but, how about their fellow teammates that maybe aren’t as talented or putting in that same work effort as them in their sport? Pay all athletes equally? No, that would not work because those better athletes would argue they provide more for the university and they play better on game days so they should earn a lot more money because of their excellent performances compared to their teammates average performances or those who didn’t even play at all. Paying them would ultimately result in devastation for the rest of the sports world. The idea that college athletes should be paid should be put to rest based on the consequences that would arise. Professional athletes are paid because that is their profession and line of work.