College Athletes Research Paper

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NCAA: Always and Forever Amateur Imagine being able to go to college for free and be able to play the sport you enjoy the most. This is the life of many college athletes. They get free rides in college, and they get to play their favorite sport as well. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, has kept the athletic events amateur since the beginning of college sports. Now, athletes are demanding that they get paid for their college services. Student athletes already get advantages in school, colleges are forced to deal with these advantages, and the NCAA has to set up regulations for athletes. The NCAA tries to keep a balance in the system for fair play. However, if these athletes were to be paid, college sports would …show more content…
Costs and Advantages for College Athletes: To begin, Dennis Dood states that student athletes must pay for their medical bills. On average, these bills add up to $1,500 during their college experience. However, the majority of college athletes do get a full ride in college. With the money they save, they should be able to pay for routine checkups and such. The average college athlete will also receive $2,000- $5,000 in money for room and computer expenses while in college. The excess money from these costs could be put towards medical bills, so college athletes are still ahead when it comes to paying for college bills. Student athletes also get easier assignments while in class (Merkle). This allows for them to be able to miss classes to go to their sporting events. If the athlete has a shot to go pro, he or she will get lower classes so they can focus on sports and not have to worry about education (Merkle). Since student athletes get full rides, they do not need to focus on working as much. This allows them to have more free time to do their homework that they may have or they could focus on practice for their sport (Mitchell). Dennis Dood also points out that since …show more content…
While in college, sports are done on an amateur basis, for leisurely entertainment and for the students to showcase their skills (Mitchell). If they are to be paid, then they will treat the game as a job, and it will take the fun and excitement out of the game. Also, paying athletes would cause the NCAA to be a professional organization, which would ruin the point of them being affiliated with colleges (Strachen). Another issue with paying athletes is that this could cause bidding wars for the best players, which would cause the NCAA to have to cap a player’s value (Merkle). If their value is capped, it could be unfair for the subpar athletes. Also, bidding wars could hurt competitiveness because the bigger schools would get the best athletes buy bidding higher (Merkle). The NCAA must keep the gameplay fair and competitive for the fans to want to watch the

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