Payment for College Athletes

How much money for college sports really goes to the athletes? Athletes spend so much of their own time training, and working like pro athletes. They act like they are pro and are even portrayed as professionals. College athletes should be paid. Springer said “there professionals without pay.

“(Springer, 2015) Dennis Dodd said, “Remember the bad old days when college athletes couldn’t make ends meet?”(Dodd, 2015). College athletes still have to struggle to get by with today’s economy. Farniok said “Free education yeah, but at what cost to the students?” Players send home money to their families to help them live a better life. College’s bring in millions upon millions of dollars because of their sports programs. How much of that really goes to the sports and not into the dean’s pockets?Sports are some of the biggest contributors to the colleges funds and money raising.

The state football champions, the Ohio state Buckeyes, bring in $115,737,022 annually from sports. They get all of this money from apparel, tickets, sponsors and donations to their teams. The Crimson Tides bring in the most money almost hitting $125,000,000 a year due to sports. Even the lowest number is still over $50,000,000 for a D1 school which is an extreme amount of money. (College Athletes Revenues and Expenses, 2008) Most of the college athletes fall below the national poverty line in the USA.

The national poverty line is $11,700 for only having one person depending on that income which will be you. It may seem like a lot of money but it will quickly go away with bills for your house/apartment, food money to eat and gas money or even a bus ticket if you don’t have a car. For most athletes their sport is their job and their life; it is hard for them to keep up with a job, play their time demanding sport and still have enough time to tackle the piles upon piles of schoolwork. One of the most common jobs for a college kid to work is in a bar because they are usually at night when kids have no school or work to do but athletes can work in bars or any place with alcohol because the school does not want them associated with it. Most of the athletes buy some of their own customized equipment for their sport so they can perform at the highest level.

Also they pay for their transportation to get around the gigantic colleges and to good visit home. They need to buy gas and if they don’t have a car they will have to buy bus tickets or train tickets.(Alford, 2015) Being a D1 athlete is a full job for most of these young adults. They train from sunrise to sunset on most days except for sundays. They work harder for the starting spot or their national title then most people work for a job or anything else they’ll ever do in there life.

(Economists argue it’s unfair that college athletes aren’t paid, 2015). Most of the normal college jobs for kids athletes can do because they can’t work around alcohol and it’s hard for them to work at night because they are so tired. If they really wanted to they could find a job on campus. But with what time and what energy? Players send home money to their families to help support them financially like John Varvatos that his family can live a better life. A player from Oregon ducks sent home as much money as he could to his single mother mom who was raising his two younger brothers by herself and was just barely getting by. The money that she got from him helped her pay her bills, her car insurence and helped with the food bill.

“Once you get out, reach back and pull others out with you.” Said Horace Mitchell. That’s why most of these kids who have come from rough neighborhoods where their lives were no good and they walked down the streets with fear for their life and for their families work as many jobs as they can so they can afford to reach back and pull their friends and family back out with them. People argue that they are not professional athletes so they should not be paid like them. Do we not watch college football like we do the NFL, or wear their theme colors like our own? They work just as hard if not harder than the professional athletes. Do we not put the same amount of pressure on them as is put on the pro to perform at the highest level of competition and make money for the school with popularity.

They’ve put in the time and effort and have earned the right to paid for what they’ve done in the sport. College athletes should be paid because they train, act, and are portrayed as professional athletes. This calls for them to be threaded like a pro and also to be paid like one. And not just told your not at that level yet like they are because they are. They work to hard and give up to much to not get paid by the school.

References Springer, S. (2015, Feb 22). They’re professionals without the pay. Boston Global Retrieved from http://sks.sirs.comHope, H. (2008, February 7). Retrieved from HTTPS://star.txstate.eduDodd, D. (2015, February 27).

Sports – CBSSports.com Sports News, Fantasy Scores, Sports Video. Retrieved from http://www.cbssports.comFaith, A. (2015, February 2).

Retrieved from skis.sirs.com Frost, A., & Slo, C. P.

(2015, February 18). USA TODAY College | Preparing students for tomorrow with USA TODAY. Retrieved from http://college.usatoday.com Mitchell, H. (2014, January 6).

U.S. News & World Report: News, Rankings and Analysis on Politics, Education, Healthcare and More. Retrieved from http://Www.usnews.com