The Importance Of Paying College Athletes For Sports

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For many years, the debate on if college athletes should be paid for publicity has raised controversy throughout society. According to the NCAA, Division I and Division II schools provide $2.7 billion in athletic scholarships annually to more than 150,000 student athletes (“Recruiting Fact Sheet,” 2016). Yet, sports administrators argue that paying for athlete’s college tuition simply is not enough as the athletes publicity is producing revenue for universities and the NCAA (Breslow, 2013). While controversy throughout this pivotal topic is understandable, college athletes should not receive additional financial help because education leads to money, payment plans would be a disaster, and college athletes receive “lavish” benefits. Paying college athletes for publicity rights stirs up extreme controversy as the NCAA received numerous complaints. The issue here is whether student-athletes, who help produce millions of dollars for their colleges, universities, and the …show more content…
While stressing the fact that student athletes should not be paid for publicity rights, there are a few reasons why it is understandable for people to believe so. Some believe that athletic scholarships do not provide a free education. It is argued that some scholarships do not distribute “enough” money because some range from $20,000-$100,000 over a four year period. Now what if an athlete receives a full scholarship? They would still need to pay out of pocket for living expenses. It is understandable where one could argue that college athletes should be paid; however, what about students who are extremely talented with school work and do not receive scholarships? They are stuck with a hefty tuition bill as well as those out of pocket living expenses. An institution should not favor an athletic student over an academic student because, as previously stated, the main focus of school is to learn ((Johnson & Acquaviva,

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