Pay for Play

Essay by hawkfan123College, UndergraduateA, October 2014

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Dylan Anderson

Research Paper Draft

30 November 2011

Debra Young

Pay For Play?

Imagine that you are an incoming collegiate freshman coming to play a sport that you love for free while receiving a top-notch education that would normally cost around $100,000 per year. Sounds great doesn't it? But that isn't enough for the majority of student athletes nowadays. The value of a free education has plummeted while the value of "getting paid" has skyrocketed. That's the problem with college athletics today and college athletes should continue to not be paid because paying college athletes creates more problems than it solves. Paying college athletes presents too many economic and legal problems to ever be a viable option in the future.

The discussion on whether or not collegiate athletes should be paid is a fairly recent issue. There had always been talk about paying players but those talks were merely whispers compared to what they are today among players, coaches, and members of the media.

The recent scandals at the university of Auburn, North Carolina, Miami, and Ohio State University have added fuel to the pay for play fire. All those scandals listed involved players receiving improper benefits according to NCAA rules from University boosters. The players argue that they wouldn't need to break NCAA rules if they just paid them but it is a complex issue that has many layers and externalities to it.

Both sides of the argument have valid points but looking at the big picture not paying collegiate athletes would be best for everyone considering the economic impact. Paying college athletes would be near impossible to do considering only about half a dozen athletic departments turned a profit according to a study done by the NCAA. According to another study that the NCAA conducted only...