Summary: Should College Athletes Get Paid

In 1910, an association called the NCAA, or the National Collegiate Athletic Association was founded. The NCAA is an association dealing with college athletes. It “regulates athletes of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations, and individuals,” according to Wikipedia. College athletics have been around for a long time, over a hundred years. That’s crazy to think. But the people who make these athletics possible is the athletes themselves. Without them, the college athletics would be nothing. There is a long debate on if the athletes that make this possible should get paid either by their college or university, or by the NCAA. While both sides of this long lasting debate are very strong and compelling, the side that should become reality …show more content…
Some may agree, and most of them make a compelling point as to why they shouldn’t. Some of these points are because the athletes get paid already in scholarships and specific aids. As Rebecca Zissou states in the article, “Fair Play: Should College Athletes Get Paid?” "Many top players receive tuition, books, tutoring, housing, meals, clothing, elite coaching, medical care, travel expenses, and career counseling." What she fails to mention is that most of these things that the athletes receive only cover a small portion of the actual whole cost of living and learning, and being sheltered, and traveling; the list could go on. What she also fails to mention about these things being covered is the student or athlete has to pay a significant amount for all of these. Some people also say that athletes shouldn’t be paid because they get scholarships, but scholarships also don’t cover the cost of everything. According to Veronica Majerol in the article, “Should college athletes be paid? two recent rulings may change the face of college sports,” “Still, the average full-scholarship athlete accumulates $3,200 in debt for each year they're in school, according to a recent study, because meal plans and other incidentals often aren't fully covered." Scholarships are supposed to help pay for school, not bring the students in debt, and as said above, the scholarships don’t cover the cost of …show more content…
Athletes are humans too, and every human needs things like, food, water, toiletries, and a place to live. These athletes especially need lots of food to give their body the nutrients that it needs to survive, or just to run in general. Think of an athlete’s body like a machine, machines need fuel to run correct? It is completely, 100%, the same thing. Athletes need the food to fuel their bodies, especially football and basketball players, because they are always in the gym training and lifting weights aside from actually practicing for the sport. Muscles need protein, athletes have lots of muscle mass, and protein is found in food and in supplement shakes, thus meaning that these athletes need some sort of sustenance to keep them from being or going hungry; According to Becky Pallack in the article, “Should College Athletes Be Paid?” "Athletes going hungry is a common theme in college sports." It is crazy to think that such a big problem like this can seem so small to anyone, when it is definitely a problem needing of fixing. In the article, “Should college athletes be paid? two recent rulings may change the face of college sports, “ Shabazz Napier the point guard for the University of Connecticut stated, "There are nights that I go to bed and I'm starving." This is as problem that could be solved if college athletes were