College Athletes Essay

There are thousands of athletes playing for different colleges. They put their time and effort in it, yet they don’t get paid. When athletes play a sport, they have even more stuff to worry about than a regular student. They have to worry about their grades, staying fit to play, stay healthy, attend to practice every day there’s practice, and then after practice go home and do all their work even though they are tired. How much do they get paid for going through all that? Zero dollars. College athletes should get paid to play too. The average salary of a third division college coach is forty five thousand dollars a year. An average third division athlete makes nothing. Why are coaches being paid and not the athletes? Yes the coaches are giving up their time to coach the players, but the athletes are too, and they are also risking themselves of getting injured every time they step in to play or practice. If an average NBA player makes about ten million dollars a year then why doesn’t a college basketball player get paid? There is this new rule that when a college gives away a scholarship, it can be renewed. That means that if a player quits the team or gets injured to the point that they can’t play anymore, the college can renew the scholarship and take it away from the player and give it to another athlete or someone else. That is not fair because if a player gets a serious injury for playing, the college can just take away their scholarship, and their career gets ruined. One of examples involved Texas Christian University. Running back Kent Waldrep was paralyzed in a game against the Alabama Crimson Tide on October 26, 1974. TCU paid his medical bills for nine months, then cut him loose. They also took away Adam’s scholarship, too. College athletes are human just like every other student. By not giving them the ability to make money and not paying them, colleges and its members are expecting the athletes to live a sub-human existence, and putting them at a disadvantage to finish their college education. Athletes are big money makers for the colleges. College athletics are a big role in making money, and they attract students to their college. Colleges depend on their athletes to produce and maintain the popularity of their school’s name. Many people argue that student athletes should not be paid because they are getting a free education through a scholarship. These people feel that they have already done a lot for them by giving them a scholarship to their colleges. On the other side, people think that the college athletes make enough profit for their colleges , and they argue that the colleges should owe the athletes more than just a scholarship . Student athletes should be given at least small profit from their income. College athletes aren’t allowed to work. How are they going to pay for all the necessary expenses if they come from poor families? This also leads to players accepting illegal money, cars, and clothes. When athletes that have the opportunity to leave school and turn professional they go for it, because college athletes live in near poverty. College athletes live in near poverty because the money they receive isn’t enough to pay for all of their expenses and necessities. The few athletes that graduate from college, that could turn professional before their senior year, stay because their parents support them by sending money. If college athletes are eligible to be paid, there would be more athletes graduating. Paying athletes would be good for everyone and players would go for an education instead of only concentrating on sports.