Analysis: Why Student Athletes Should Not Be Paid

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One of the hottest debates in the sports world is whether or not college athletes should get a cut of the revenue they produce for their school. Men’s basketball and Football players produce billions of dollars a year through television contracts for their schools, so why don’t they get a percentage of the profit? Recently, star basketball player for Wisconsin, Nigel Hayes was on College Gameday and held up a sign that said “Broke college athlete, anything helps” and the sign had a referral to his venmo account “BrokeBadger”(Hoffer) . Nigel Hayes gives his heart and soul playing basketball for the University of Wisconsin and he does not even have enough money to eat. Another example for this is Shabazz Napier, who said he went to bed hungry …show more content…
For example, The John E. Jaqua Academic Center for Student Athletes at the University of Oregon is a “sparkling glass and stainless steel building and is 40,000 square feet of spaces to facilitate college education for student athletes” (Chudacoff). Most student athletes at major college programs are accommodated with buildings like the one at Oregon. Chudacoff claims that not only do student athletes get to learn in the best facilities, they also receive full scholarships for their school and have no debt after they graduate. Many students straight out of college usually find themselves in debt, but student athletes do not have that problem because they receive full scholarships. Also student athletes receive a bunch of free clothing from major companies, such as Adidas, Nike, or Under Armor (Chudacoff). He points out that these companies not only provide student athletes with jerseys but also clothing of their choice for no charge (Chudacoff). The author states that student athletes, mainly those who play basketball or football receive high quality medical care and the newest weight and conditioning equipment (Chudacoff). They have the best treatment available for their injuries. For example, in 2009, Baylor star quarterback Robert Griffin III tore his ACL and his surgery was performed by Dr. James Andrews, who is known as one of the best sports …show more content…
So they do not really know what is like to be in people like Nigel Hayes or Shabazz Napier’s shoes. On the other hand I believe that student athletes should be paid. I believe this because of my personal experiences. In high school, I devoted my whole life to golf. I played all four years in high school and know how much time and energy it takes to be a student athlete. On average, I probably spent 4 hours a day practicing. That is 28 hours a week and on top of that I had school work. I am not trying to say that high school athletes should be compensated at all but I do believe college athletes should because playing sports is like having a full time job and on top of that they also have to keep up their grades in the classroom. Another reason I believe that college athletes should be paid is that more athletes would stay in school longer to get their degrees. One thing Chudacoff and Scott may have not considered is that many basketball players play one year in college and then declare for the draft because they need the money. In 2015 only 1.1% of all draft eligible NCAA men’s basketball players were drafted. (NCAA) If they are paid many student athletes would stay in school longer, develop their skills more and more athletes would earn a degree. That degree is very important because less than 1 percent of college athletes actually make it to the pros and they

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