Kelley 1
William Kelley
Ms. Norman
English 1123 – 206
3 April 2013
To Pay, or Not to Pay
Should college athletes be paid? A controversialtopic that is nearly impossible to discuss without stepping on a few toes. It is a question that has started many heated debates over fairness, slight comparisons to slavery, and societal based moral standards. Since the 1960’s, Colleges have been trying to decide whether or not to pay their athletes. As it stands now the NCAA does not allow athletes to receive any form of compensation for all of their time and effort beyond that of a scholarship. Before I started my research I was mostly in favor of paying college athletes but I was naïve to the reality of the situation. Things are never as black and white as I sometimes wish they could be. I learned from my research that the opinions held by people on both sides of this argument are convincing, but the truth of the matter is the possibly devastating toll paying college athletes would have on Universities and America as a whole. Equality, or the eventual lack of equality, the detriment to our already struggling economy, and a severe lack of funds brought on by paying colleges athletes would outweigh the possible benefits athletes could receive.
The opposition to my position does, however, bring up a fair point. One of their arguments is that college athletes fill stadiums and bring in record profits for universities without receiving a dime for it. Athletes give up most, if not all, of their time to their sport and still have to perform up to standard in the classroom; therefore they deserve some compensation. Those that disagree, however, believe that college athletes already receive more than enough compensation in the form of scholarships and world-class fitness training. They also believe that payment incentives will lead to unfairness, athletes only attending college to be paid to play, and smaller schools not being able to compete with bigger schools that have more money to spend on players.
It would be very unfair to smaller schools with athletic programs if college athletes were paid. Big schools that can already afford better equipment and coaching staffs would have little trouble providing a salary for top athletes. In Taylor Branch’s article, "The Shame Of College Sports," Branch makes a comment about the money that can be made easily by bigger schools. “In 2010, despite the faltering economy, a single college athletic league, the football-crazed Southeastern Conference (SEC), became the first to crack the billion-dollar barrier in athletic receipts. The Big Ten pursued closely at $905 million” (Branch). Smaller schools with athletic programs could never match the vast amounts of money generated by the SEC and The Big Ten. In Josh Flory’s newspaper article, "Local: Ex-Vol Says Student-Athletes Deserve To Be Paid," Flory quotes Will Ofenheusle’s statement that “a major program like Tennessee or Florida generates more revenue than smaller schools – ‘so that gives the bigger schools an unfair advantage in recruiting’" (Flory, Ofenheusle).In a world were college athletes are paid, the better athletes would most likely go to the highest bidder and would not really care where that is or the level of education they may or may not receive there. Smaller schools simply could not afford athletic programs if they also had to pay their athletes just to stay competitive in the recruiting process. College athletes should be going to school to learn, not to be paid to play a recreational sport. I do, however, understand the work and time that colleges athletes put into their sport and also into keeping up with their classes. That said, hard work and time, among others, are things that athletes agree to give for the opportunity to play at one of the highest levels of sport. In Allen Sack’s article, "Should College Athletes Be Paid?" Sack refers to “a recent survey of college athletes by the NCAA found that the majority of those polled identify themselves more as athletes than as students” (Sack). What happens to that athlete after they graduate and enter into the real world then?
In our struggling economy, we need smart people to find new solutions to old problems like energy resources and consumption, economic stability and eventual rise, and medical advancements. If some college athletes are going to school only to get paid and not to earn a good education, then are we not limiting our own future and theirs? In Daniel Keiper’s Washington Post article, "Why College Athletes Should Be Paid To Play," Keiper states, “the skills in which the athletes are trained are useless in the working world except in the case of the fortunate few who go on to have professional athletic careers. (My boss has never asked me to slam dunk)” (Keiper). How can we be competitive in the marketplace with out competitive businessmen and women with the skills necessary to be successful? America would only be placing its self further behind the rest of the world if the motivations to attend school turned from education and the prospect of a great job into quick money by playing sports. Especially when all of those athletes who only wanted to earn money and not so much an education in school do not get selected to play in the professional leagues. Then we would have a population of workers-to-be who possibly did not try as hard in school because their paying job at the time was their sport. Keiper goes on to say that, “Most college athletes will be finished with sports when they leave school, whereas most students trained in other fields can have a reasonable expectation of finding related employment at some level” (Keiper). If the highest priority for athletes is to make money in the college world then they will most likely not be prepared to make money in the business world. In John Lotshaw’s article, "Paying College Athletes," Lotshaw proposes the idea of college athletes being paid to play and asks,“what [then] is the purpose of college, and is an athlete’s decision to attend reason enough to deny them compensation?”(38) Lotshaw goes on to state that, “at college, getting an education should remain the most important purpose… Some may attend college, but because they’re getting paid to play sports, [will] learn nothing and consequently suffer when the real world hits them on graduation day…” (Lotshaw38).
Which brings me to my final point; paying college athletes also raises the question: where does that money come from? Obviously for smaller and even medium sized schools it would have to come from the tuition of other students. It does not seem exactly fair to have non-athletes go into almost certain debt to pay for the ever sky rocketing cost of tuition only to be supporting the athletic program. Non-athletes would prefer their money to be spent on things that benefit their own college experience. Things like new computer labs, recreation centers, and parking lots. Those that have never even been to a sporting event on campus will probably say with certainty that they do not want their tuition to pay the athletes who they do not even care to watch. Those students apparently are not alone because a research study undertaken by Terry J. Knapp, Charles Rasmussen, and Roger K. Barnhart titled, "What College Students Say About Intercollegiate Athletics: A Survey of Attitudes and Beliefs," provides statistics of non-athlete and athlete students who answered various questions about the student athletes and the athletic programs on campus. They were asked to rate the agreeableness level of statements numerically; five being agree to one being disagree. The underlined numbers on the left of the chart are the average answers submitted by non-athletes and the underlined numbers on right are the average athletes’ answers. A few results of the survey are as follows:
Statement made: / Non-athlete average / Athletes average“Monies spent on
intercollegiate athletic
programs would be better spent on the general student body.” / 3.42 (1.04) / 2.81(1.28)
“Student athletes should
be paid to play.” / 1.83(1.18) / 2.56(1.33)
“None of the students fees
I pay should support
intercollegiate athletics.” / 3.27(1.28) / 2.84(1.42)
“Donations to universities
as a result of a winning
athletic program benefit
primarily the athletic
program.” / 3.85(1.06) / 3.63(1.16)
(Knapp, Rasmussen, and Barnhart.)
The survey shows that the average of non-athletes, at least somewhat, support the idea that money spent on “athletic programs would be better be spent on the general student body”(Knapp, Rasmussen, and Barnhart). It also shows that the average of non-athlete students does not believe that college athletes should be paid to play. The survey shows that the average of non-athlete students do not want their fees to support the athletic program and that they do not believe that donations to the school, because of a winning team, support that rest of the school. (Knapp, Rasmussen, and Barnhart.)This research study confirmsthe belief that non-athletes, on average, feel negatively in regards to paying for athletic programs.
The negatives of paying college athletes far outweigh any positives that can be seen at this point. Yes, athletes would have some spending cash but at the cost of other students. When searching for answers to problems, we must always consider the negative consequences that are sure to follow. Smaller schools will not be able to stay competitive in the recruiting process, our future economy will suffer, and this will result in a skyrocketing tuition for non-athletes. To pay or not to pay; seems fairly simple to me.
Work Cited
Branch, Taylor. "The Shame Of College Sports." Atlantic Monthly (10727825) 308.3 (2011): 80-
110. Religion and Philosophy Collection. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Flory, Josh. "Local: Ex-Vol Says Student-Athletes Deserve To Be Paid." Knoxville News-
Sentinel, 23 Sept. 2010: Newspaper Source. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Keiper, Daniel W. The Washington, Post. "Why College Athletes Should Be Paid To Play." The
Washington Post, June: Newspaper Source. Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Knapp, Terry J., Charles Rasmussen, and Roger K. Barnhart. "What College Students Say About
Intercollegiate Athletics: A Survey of Attitudes and Beliefs." College Student
Journal 35.1 (2001): 96. SPORTDiscuswith Full Text.Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Lotshaw, John. "Paying College Athletes." Teen Ink 17.10 (2006): 38. MAS Ultra- School
Edition.Web. 24 Feb. 2013.
Sack, Allen. "Should College Athletes Be Paid?" Christian Science Monitor 07 Mar. 2008:
Academic Search Complete.Web. 28 Feb. 2013.