Should College Athletes Get Paid to Play?
Essay by review • November 29, 2010 • Essay • 787 Words (4 Pages) • 1,930 Views
Should College Athletes Get Paid To Play
"Should College Athletes Get Paid To Play" Forget about the game-winning touchdown, forget about the cheerleader girlfriend, and forget the pageantry. What about the hard earned money college athletes will never see and earned? In the world of college sports its win or go home, and to the winners go the spoils. Most successful college sports teams rake in millions of dollars in revenue. Steve Spurrier, the coach for the Florida Gators signed a six year contract where he would make a little over 2.5 million dollars a year not including certain benefits like a free car for his wife. So with the institutions and coaches getting rich off their player who is to say that the player does not deserve a share of the wealth? Most college athletes get around 200-250 dollars a month for living expenses and spending money, this is very small compared to the student who has time to work. Some people say that athletes get paid by having a scholarship but if you look at the ulterior motive behind scholarships I think people would change their minds. Coaches try to get players who they think have the talent to make them win and to persuade them to come to their school they try to give them scholarships. So the whole idea behind a scholarship is to lure the student to come to your school. Scholarships are just a recruitment tactic. Don't confuse what I am saying though I don't think college players should be making millions of dollars but there should be a set salary for all players no matter if they make the highlights everyday or ride the pine. The players should make at least what a person who works making eight dollars and hour would make in a year, and that is a modest salary too. Every player of a college sport puts in countless man-hours of work to their sport instead of going out and getting a job they have to devote all their time to this. A huge debate is should players have the right to their likenesses? If you go to a bookstore in Jacksonville you would probably find a Rex Grosseman jersey for sale for about one-hundred-and-fifty dollars. Now even though it has his name on it and his number none of the money that was used to purchase the jersey will ever see Grossemans hand's, the money usually goes to many departments including the Dean of the school but none of the money goes to the athletic department. So who has the right to decide if the kids who put in their hearts and souls into their sport should not get paid? The NCAA has banned college players from receiving extra benefits from anybody. Recently though the NCAA has begun
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