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College Athletes Should Be Paid
How would you feel when schools benefit from activity funds, sports funds allocated by the governments and you don’t benefit from such talents? Talent, profession, and work are three dockets that people use to earn a living. Employment usually takes the form of skilled and semi-skilled where organizations hire staff to carry out their duties and improve productivity. Consequently, Compensation for such activities is salaries and wages. Professionals learn skills for performing work and their services are paid as well. Separately, entrepreneurs and talented people use their skills to perform activities or engage in entertainment at a fee. Likewise, college athletes fall under gifted individuals whose talents are further nurtured for best performance. As a result, their actions entertain audiences hence should be paid. Athletes deserve payments for their skills since they build the reputation of institutions as well as their countries at the international level of competition.
Athletes should get their payment due to their tremendous performance in sports. Most of the athletes who participate in games realize their talents at a younger age and develop such skills to become their long-term careers in life. As the athletes attend colleges, they participate in different sporting events that build the reputation of various institutions (Anderson, 2015). As a result, most colleges appreciate these students by offering a scholarship that covers all the educational costs. However, such payments are not enough to cater to other expenses. For example, athletes who take more than 90 hours in a week of training and studying starve. The scholarships do not provide additional cash or dining options hence the students spend out of their own pockets (Anderson, 2015).
Schools use athletics to build their reputation and brand for admission. For example, The University of Texas is a college that values brand. The school has a brand that combines people’s feelings, thinking, hearing and observation regarding the school. Thus, it values positive public perception and upholding is the name. Separately, Colorado State University embraces the concept of the brand in its advertisement. Therefore, they invest a lot in athletics and use the sports team as their brand. In support of the above sentiments, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education appreciates athletics in colleges as a way of earning their reputation hence organizes sports programs. Thus, it is essential to pay the college athletes who participate in such events due to their tremendous effort to build the status of the institution (Anderson, 2015).
Besides, college athletes should be paid instead of being exploited by the sports management committee of the schools. Regarding financial benefits, NCAA and college systems take advantage of college athletes. Such organizations reap a lot of profits from live media coverage on the events, the sale of merchandise, and other benefits while athletes get nothing from the benefits. In most cases, college athletes have fans that follow them. Consequently, organizations benefit from the sales of jerseys, tickets, food, and fan paraphernalia resulting in huge revenues. Contrarily, the athletes get nothing from such events hence many of them get discouraged since they never get income to generate in their accounts. Therefore, it is high time college athletes should get payments for their talents. On the same note, college athletes as far as should pursue lucrative business deals and endorsements that the organization offer schools (Edelman, 2014).
College athletics benefits colleges in the enhancement of school spirit. During the competitive levels in universities, students, fans, and other supporters turn up and cheer in solidarity for their school. The participation of athletes in sports encourages the bonding of the school with the community. Also, the local community and businesses profit from game days since people spend money hence reinforcing the municipality support. Besides, such events encourage donors who see the extent of love for sports. Separately, colleges benefit from loyalty and pride due to games. Therefore, the pride invites financial contributors, stakeholders, and other organizations to allocate more resources for the schools. On the same note, the institutions benefit from such donations for the development of infrastructure among others. However, participants in such events are neglected for no reason. The most important individuals in such circumstances are the athletes who work hard to ensure that their colleges emanate winners in the long run. Thus, the athletes need support through the payment as a reward for their performance.
Colleges benefit from athletics in the form of student recruitments and increased support from alumni. Most of the success of colleges comes from athletic programs. Therefore, more students tend to enroll in such institutions with competitive sports. Besides, the successful schools get local, regional and national exposures that attract many student applicants. However, the apex of such performance squarely lies on athletes who get nothing from participating in such events (Edelman, 2014). Therefore, it is fair if such students are paid as an appreciation for their performance in ensuring that such institutions gain admissions. On the same note, colleges that perform better in sports get encouragement and support from alumni. Only athletes develop a tangible, visible, and exciting base that is enough to make the alumni remain connected with their respective alma mater. Therefore, athletes who participate in such sports should be paid for such hard work to ensure such relations (Edelman, 2014).
Lastly, college athletes should be paid as compensation for their missed class opportunities. As the students engage in sporting activities, they devote over 43.3 hours a week to the sport that is 3 hours more than a typically employed American in a week. Employees spend 40 hours a week and are paid for their services whenever they work between 8 am to 5 pm five days a week. On the other hand, college athletes spend 43 hours a week that is more than full-time employment and such sporting activities bring revenue. Therefore, the athletes should get full payment salaries (Peebles, 2015). Irrespective of the NCAA proclamation that college athletes are students, they participate in events that require them to miss classes. The games are televised hence bringing revenues, and yet the NCAA does not compensate them for the lost classes. For example, the NCAA Division I football championship takes place on Monday nights. The football championship games at the national level will enable most football players to miss some classes. However, the NCAA is silent on how the student will compensate for their time lost during sporting events. Besides, the schedule by NCAA regarding the men’s basketball tournaments interrupts six days of classes for college athletes hence such lost opportunities for learning should be compensated by payments (Peebles, 2015).
In conclusion, athletes contribute immensely to colleges regarding revenues, sponsorship, and reputations while the community and a country benefit regarding revenue just like others employees who participate in various organizations. However, no benefits are accorded to these athletes in proportion to their efforts. Thus, a sure way of motivating as well as compensating their contribution is through the payment as is done to other talented works and professionals.
References
- Anderson, D. (2015).Top 10 Reasons College Athletes Should Be Paid. List Land. Accessed on 13 October 2017 from https://www.listland.com/top-10-reasons-college-athletes-should-be-paid/
- Edelman, M. (2014). 21 Reasons Why Student-Athletes Are Employees And Should Be Allowed To Unionize. Sports Money. Accessed on 13 October 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcedelman/2014/01/30/21-reasons-why-student-athletes-are-employees-and-should-be-allowed-to-unionize/#62d2f0698d05
- Peebles, M. (2015). 7 Common Sense Reasons Why College Athletes Should Be Paid (According to Jay Bilas). Complex Sports. Accessed on 13 October 2017 from http://www.complex.com/sports/2015/12/jay-bilas-interview/