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James Fredenberg

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Why Collegiate Athletes Should not be Paid

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As college athletes are already paid, in areas other than cash, they do not need further special

treatment. The history of illegally paying college athletes goes very far back, and is nothing new. In

1987, Southern Methodist University was banned from playing football for two years, after bribing

players to go to their school. In the '90s, Michigan's basketball program was heavily sanctioned for

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having their players receive gifts from a booster. From 2003 to 2005, The University of Southern

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California had their star football player, Reggie Bush, be given gifts that were altogether worth

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upwards of 300,000 dollars. And in 2010, Auburn's national-championship-winning, Heisman Trophy-

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winning quarterback, Cam Newton, was supposedly given 180,000 dollars for going to Auburn. These

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are all breaches of one of the biggest, strictest rules of college athletics, to keep the players amateur.

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College athletes should not be paid for three main reasons: 1, College athletes are already paid with

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their full-time scholarships; 2, They are already having fun and being rewarded with publicity and

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whatever else they may want or need; and 3, if they are paid, the university will not be able to spend

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that money on other, more pressing matters.

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College athletes should not be paid because they are already paid in other areas than cash.

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One of most college student's biggest problems, tuition, is not a trouble for most scholarship collegiate

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athletes, so, they should not be paid further. When a college athlete gets signed into a university, he or

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she normally acquires a full-time scholarship from his or her school. The tuition, if one is not lucky

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enough to obtain a scholarship, is astronomical. For example, at The University of Texas, tuition is

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worth $35,776 per year. Easily, books can be 2,000 dollars a year. And room and board is, on average,

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$9,000 a year, and that number is speedily growing. This adds up to about fifty grand. That is for just

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one year. Multiplied by four, the grand total is roughly 200,000 dollars. Sometimes, an athlete, who has

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often played poorly or has been recently injured, redshirts, meaning they stay and play their sport for

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a fifth year, giving them another year of free benefits. We can now clearly see that an athlete's

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scholarship is a benefit worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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During their four-year stay at their school, college athletes are having fun playing sports. When falling

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behind In school, they are freely given tutors and classes, which are specially designed classes, in order

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to stay eligible. Literally, they spend almost all their recreational time training for their favorite sport,

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or playing it. And when they train, they are in state-of-the-art facilities. Several times a year, they have

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a golden opportunity that many people would die for, to play in front of a screaming, packed stadium,

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and on TV with millions of viewers. In the case of some big players, this publicity is a good thing. For

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example, in 2011, University of Stanford's quarterback, Andrew Luck, played in front of millions every

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Saturday. This also attracted the attention of the NFL, pro football. He was selected 1st overall in the

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2012 NFL draft, meaning, he was the first player chosen to go to the pros. And he signed a 22 million

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dollar contract. Because of the publicity he got playing at Stanford with millions of viewers. Enjoying

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themselves, in some circumstances they are living their dreams, with all the publicity and attention they

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want or need. This alone is enough payment.

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Smaller schools will start to find themselves in a financial crisis if their athletes are to be paid, and the

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smaller-sport athletes may not even be paid at all. If all athletes are paid, most schools will lose money.

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Out of the 124 Division I schools, only twelve profit from their sports programs. These twelve are able

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to pay athletes, and most large schools, in fact, support the idea of paying athletes. But the 112 others

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are already losing money; if they pay their athletes they will lose even more money. Out of every

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Division I school, every sport lost money excepting football and basketball--and in the case of 112

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schools, those sports didnt even help. In other words, the football and basketball players pay for their

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school's smaller sports with the money they generate. If they are paid, the smaller, money-losing sports

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will probably not be able to continue. Also, the small-sport athletes spend a great portion of their time

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in the weight room, just like the more known ones. If the revenue athletes are paid, the small-sport

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athletes have no reason to not be equally paid too. In the case of 112 unfortunate schools, the Athletic

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Department is already sucking in money, and they University cannot afford to continue some sports.

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Disappointingly, they will most likely have to quit some smaller sports, or, in extreme cases, drop

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sports altogether, which will hopefully never happen.

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As we look back, we can see that the college athletes no longer need payment. The university in a lot of

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circumstances cannot hand out money to their athletes. They are given scholarships, so they can

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graduate from college and follow their life however they choose to, debt-free. And throughout their

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time playing their sport, they will have golden opportunities and great experiences. The most

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important point is that small Universities cannot pay student athletes, because they do not generate as

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much money from their athletics. Restated, College athletes do not need any further payment.