Should College Athletes Be Paid?? By: Ricky Johnson

What’s the harm? If the student as athlete can find a way, he/she should be able to endorse products, to have paid-speaking gigs, to sell memorabilia, as Allen Sack, the author and professor at the college of business at the University of New Haven has suggested in recent years. The best college athletes in the two revenue-producing sports have always been worth much more than tuition, room, board and books. The best football and basketball players in the Big Ten have produced to the degree that a television network has become the model for every conference in America, a network worth at least tens of millions of dollars to the member institutions. Yet, no player can benefit from that work. The players have become employees of the universities and conferences as much as students -- employees with no compensation, which not only violates common decency but perhaps even the law. Michael Wilbon

The NCAA’s amateurism states that all students are required to adhere to these principles : DO not allow Contracts with professional teams Salary for participating in Athletics Prize money Tryouts, practice or competition with a professional team Benefits from an agent or prospective agent

Taylor BranchMark Emmert There is a false illusion of propaganda that collegiate athletes are humble and are content on playing the sport that they love with passion. However, it is shown that players do, in fact, have a price on them and are addressed as being a tool for substantial wealth to universities. “The NCAA makes money, & enables universities and corporations to make money, from the unpaid labor of young athletes”. ◦Ex. $11 billion deal between the NCAA and CBS/Turner Sports for March Madness between , $500 million deal with ESPN ◦Nich Saban $5.9 million salary ( Most distinguished professor won’t make that ever in his/her tenure ◦SEC conference surpassed the $1 billion mark in football receipts Mark Emment, the president of the NCAA, tries to rationalize the issuance of the stipend by stating it was “motivation to students and to increase the value of scholarships”(Nocera). Then he tries to counter his claim by stating, “If we move toward a pay-for-play- if we were to convert our student-athletes to employees of the university –that would be the death of college athletics”(Nocera). This contradiction was presented because of the organization being under scrutiny about paying students the $2000 stipend. Huma and Staurowsky, head the National College Players Association They also add in that schools should pay for costs beyond the tuition, student fees and room and board covered by the athletic scholarships. In a report, they calculate the shortfall for the full cost of attending college- when things such as clothing and emergency trips home are added in- at $952 to $6, 127, depending on the college. That leaves students on full athletic scholarships living below the poverty line at around 85 %

Taylor Branch refers to the role of collegiate athletes to be “slaves”. While educational institutions are thriving off of the substantial sales and revenue the athletes are bringing in, the students have to proclaim wealth to them. In this sense they are, indeed, slaves. One source sides with the point that borrowing images of players to be shown in videogames and through sale of jerseys to be wrong. They should have a percentage of sales and received royalties. Dan, a published writer of Imprint Magazines, says “But should companies like Nike have to give student-athletes a piece of their jersey sales? Absolutely”(Cassavaugh). Royalties should be permitted to athletes because it should be at their requests to have their images exploited on games and their jerseys for retail sales. The NCAA showing off their “prized commodities” through commerce is contradicting to their term of amateurism that they so carefully protect. The notion of doing this and depriving athletes of any cut in profit goes into boundaries of immortality

MY Viewpoint All in all, I think the scheme of the NCAA using amateurism should not continue to be used. It has created despair for college athletes that were injured to not receive aid from the NCAA, and the manipulation done by the NCAA is corrupt. They should be up front in address the concerns college athletes has to try to reach a compromise that would satisfy both parties. This being said, the NCAA should not be the only ones befitting because it shows a prime example of imperialism in a sense of exploiting the helpless image of college athletes