Should College Athletes be Paid?

I became interested in this topic during a discussion in my Sports Broadcasting class and began doing some research. I wanted to find out how anyone could possibly believe that college athletes should be paid. “Aren’t they already being paid?,” I wondered. We all know that athletes at a big school like Virginia Tech receive tuition, textbooks, per diems for meals after games, free travel, sick gear and priority when it comes to registering for classes. This doesn’t even include items that athletes get for playing in tournaments and especially if they make it into a big game (like the NCAA tournament or the Sugar Bowl). I talked to my roommate who plays basketball here at Tech and she told me about all of the free stuff they get. To me, that was definitely already getting paid.

Once I started researching the topic, I found a surprising amount of support for a pay-for-play model of NCAA athletics. However, most of this support only applied to football and men’s basketball. Sports writers argue that universities make so much money off of big time college athletes that they should get something in return.

An article by Taylor Branch in the Atlantic Magazine stated, “student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselves.” Nothing? Free tuition for four years (sometimes five) is nothing? Tell that to my student loans, Branch.

In a response article to Branch’s, Seth Davis wrote in Sports Illustrated that, “If Branch or anyone else wants to argue that college athletes should be paid more, let them have at it. But to claim that college athletes earn nothing? Pure fiction.”

I completely agree with that statement, everyone has a right to state their opinion but it should begin by saying that college athletes need to be paid more, because they are in fact, already paid.
I understand where the argument comes from, the highest paid football coaches in 2011 made a combined $53.4 million and football programs at Texas, Florida, Georgia, Michigan and Penn State earn between $40-80 million per year. In 2010, the SEC became the first conference to crack the billion-dollar mark in athletic receipts while the Big Ten closely followed. “Athletic receipts” incorporates ticket sales, concession sales, merchandise and licensing fees but the most money comes from television contracts.

Advertisers pay big bucks and universities make big bucks in the world of college athletics. It’s the
nature of the beast. One New York Times article said that college football and men’s basketball combine to make 6 billion dollars annually — more than the NBA. It stated that there are many scandals in college sports because “the system is ripping them off.” There is some inequality in what universities make and what college athletes receive but I don’t think it’s fair to reward the most popular sports and discount so-called non-revenue sports. After all, they all put in the same amount of hours.  

It’s easy to sit here as a regular student and complain that college athletes shouldn’t be paid. I’m not discounting the blood, sweat and tears that go into college athletics. I’ve seen it in my roommate; I’ve seen it in my brother’s wrestling career. I know I couldn’t have cut it in the world of college athletics. I’m neither tall enough nor athletic enough. And honestly, I don’t know if I would have had the guts to stick it out. However, I don’t for a second think that the system is a “rip off.” Forget all the extra benefits that college athletes get, big-name college athletes get all the media attention an 18-23 year old could ever want. They get fans that love and adore them, little kids who want to be them, 100,000 people cheering their names on a Saturday night but most of all; they get an unforgettable (free) experience of a lifetime.