Student Athletes Should Be Paid

A college degree has become a necessity in today’s society. Today, “workers with at least a bachelor’s degree had median annual earnings of $45,500,” while high school graduates have median annual earnings of $28,000 . The opportunities that a college degree gives a student are vast and valuable. However, many think that those opportunities are not enough. In particular, the idea of paying athletes has become a hot topic recently and many universities have already started compensating their athletes. Universities should not be paying their athletes because they are students receiving an education, not professional athletes. While juggling a full course load, practice, team weight lifting, and home and away sporting events is not an easy task, athletes are students first. We need to create a superidentity to show that student-athletes and regular students …show more content…
Providing scholarships is compensation enough. Although, to help student athletes, universities should continue to provide services to help athletes, for example, tutoring services, career counseling, dinning services, etc., anything that helps a student athlete manage and flourish even with their intense and rigorous schedule. A lot of people do not understand what a college athlete goes through, but through identifiably, making a campaign that highlights the stories of student-athletes and their education would not only show people that student-athletes are very impressive, but they are also students that go to class just like everyone else. If we change the perception of student-athletes this will help them in the future when they are not professional athletes, but adults trying to get a normal fulltime job. Being a student athlete is clearly hard and universities should have programs and services to make their intense schedule and harsh hours manageable and worthwhile. However, compensation beyond athletic scholarships should not be a part of those