College athletes should be payed

Luis 'Andres' Moreno, reporter

The NCAA made close to 1.1 billion in revenue in 2017; and just so you know, players don’t receive a single dime.

These college athletes endure sacrifice, hardships, and put tremendous effort into a sport, all with different desires in life. College athletes put their body’s through severe training sessions; working out seemingly every day to perform their best in front of the fans and to represent their school proudly. Not everyone gets the opportunity to play sports at the collegiate level, but those who do should be given some form of pay to work with and make ends meet. Therefore, college athletes should be paid because scholarships don’t cover external expenses and college athletes can suffer long term injuries where medical expenses aren’t covered by the school but the individual. 

The NCAA shouldn’t deny college athletes pay because, in common situations, some players don’t have enough money to cover external expenses, such as food, gas, clothing, etc. The NCAA should make a change and take in consideration of these factors that make college athletes lives more stressful. More or less, full-ride scholarships are only given to a selective few, so not all athletes are fortunate enough to have all school expenses such as tuition, room and board, and books paid for. There must be more consideration in the athletes’ personal lives to ensure they can perform to their best every day within the classrooms and on the field without having the hassle of making ends meet. 

Also, considering worst case scenarios, injuries due occur within collegiate sports. After a four year university, the school will not be required to be upheld accountable for the student that may have suffered a long term injury, such as a concussion, broken leg, immobility of the limbs or spinal cord damage during their time playing for the school. If students were to receive pay during their time at the school, they would be capable of saving up money for any medical expense. Especially with physical therapy remedies which can be exorbitant for a student directly out of college. 

Although, the NCAA defendants denying pay to college athletes claim that the players are too young or if one sport generates the most money within a school then all other sports program athletes will demand equal pay. This is true to an extent, but we aren’t insisting college athletes be paid like professionals. We are simply insisting that college athletes be paid adequately to the point where they have enough to make ends meet, and not worry about external expenses such as food, clothing, gas, etc. The NCAA should emphasize such stipulations within a school so it can be properly managed and college athletes get paid a substantial amount but not overwhelmingly too much. Lastly, the NCAA signed a 14-year contract for 10.8 billion dollars to broadcast the college basketball tournament; it’s logical to say that college athletes are the reason billions of dollars are generated from ticket sales and television viewers.