Introduction: Since the beginning of college sports, people have been captured by it. Some fanatics will say it is not a game, but a way of life. Today millions of fans, young and old, flock to stadiums and arenas around the country. They aren’t paying to see super-star millionaires, they come to see teenagers and young adults in college compete against each other. These athletes of big-time division I college football and basketball teams aren’t your typical college students. They were chosen to come to these universities for a reason. However it is not for a higher education, rather than to play sports. The student-athletes of today’s big-time college sports are closer to full-time employees rather than students. In this paper, I’ll present …show more content…
Whether it be for pride issues or money, people have always tried to gain an edge on opposing teams. The NCAA started in 1910 with sixty-two members. According to Mary Miller (2012) the NCAA was created to “protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletic practices at the time” (p. 1141). She went on to say during her study, an NCAA employee told her the organizations “father was football and its mother was higher education” (p. 1145). The NCAA as an organization has always been about sports first, that’s why they were established. They weren’t protecting the students and their education but the athletic side of college. Even before 1920 the relationship between the student and the athlete was becoming a gray area. In Miller’s findings (2012) “Study in 1929 to the NCAA focused on the two main issues, commercialism and negligent attitude towards the educational opportunity for which a college exists” (p.1145). This has been a problem for decades now and it’s only gotten …show more content…
Rheenen states 90% of revenue generating athletes are African-Americans (2012, 559) p. More specifically poor black athletes. In 1985 Harry Edwards called African-Americans the “backbone” of revenue producing collegiate sports (p. 10). The NCAA takes advantage of these kids because they are the easiest to abuse. Universities offers a scholarship and pay for them to go to college for free or a reduced fee. Without these scholarships many student-athletes would not be able to go to college. In this instance, the NCAA and the university control the player. If the kid doesn’t comply with the NCAA and follow the rules, they take away his scholarship and he’s unable to attend his university or play his sport. Consequently these kids are caught under the NCAA’s spell. For some, the only way out of their community is to play a sport and try to make it to the professionals and the only way to do that is to play for college teams. They work their whole life for it to try and make it big. LeBron James, a professional basketball player, won’t allow his son’s to play football because
Sack states a fact when he says, “In 1957, after years of intense internal debate, the NCAA caved under pressure to subsidize athletes, and voted to allow athletic scholarships” (Sack). This tells the audience that at some point in time, athletic scholarships were not allowed, but were strictly academic. The author begins with how the NCAA officially let scholarships be awarded but later in the article he says that, over time, they have turned into more of an “employment contract” (Sack). The author also states “Because they are already essentially paid to play, they deserve the same rights and benefits as other employees, including medical benefits, workers' compensation when injured, and the right to use their God-given talents to build some financial security for their families while still in college” (Sack).
With the revenue quickly escalating, college athletes appear more as employees because of the money they are generating for their school program (Berry III,
The Ncaa is the organization that grants roughly 138,00 scholarships yearly, that sounds like a lot but in reality there are more than 1 million high school students playing football but only 19,500 football scholarships. Only 4 categories of sports get full ride while most scholarships are $10,400. Students who have no money but have to practice weekly can’t afford a job, so they go home hungry, tired and busy having to study for their classes. The Ncca, the colossal super organization that runs college sports claims that they are treating their students with the utmost respect and claim that their athletes have enough to live a well managed life but in reality students are treated as they are peasants who work daily with little money at all. You may find yourself asking how come the coaches or other sponsors chip in a little money to provide support to those players struggling to meet ends?
The organization was founded to protect student athletes but how did the NCAA go from being an agreement to promote safety standards so as to prevent death on the field, to a multi-million dollar enterprise that seems most concerned with ensuring that "student-athletes" do not receive any compensation for their in-demand talents? 1) For example Heisman trophy winner Johnny Manziel generated $37 million worth of exposure for Texas A&M last season, and in the meantime Manziel didn’t get a single penny from the revenue produced by him. V. Hardships of being a student athlete A. After being recruited to play college sports this is where athletes will hear the terms “continuing eligibility” and “progress toward degree” which means that student-athletes need to stay on track in order to maintain progress toward a baccalaureate or equivalent degree to stay eligible to at the NCAA level. 1)
A lot of sports recruits come from the inner city, country or a humble environment. Going to college is a completely new and different experience. A large portion of players are trying to adjust in the classroom and feel inferior in more ways than we care to realize. Many of the students at major universities in the United States typically come from families that have incomes that are above the national average. These players are asked to come to the college’s where they are not socially equal but they are expected to feel good about the situation and themselves.
The reasoning for the objections can include that “they are just amateurs,” and that they “should be grateful to receive a free education.” For the people who say that they are amateurs, college athletics is just as big of a business as professional sports are, but the difference is that all of the money in college sports go to the athletic directors, coaches, commissioners, and NCAA instead of going to the players. Also, they spend roughly forty hours a week playing, practicing, and training for their sport, which is almost as much as a typical job. That means that their Division I sport is technically their job, so shouldn’t they be compensated for it? Regarding the argument that student athletes should be grateful they receive a free education, this “free education” is only free for so many people.
Sports and school take up almost all of their free time. The extra time they have is used for things like sports conditioning at a gym or studying. “The typical Division I college football player
Sixty percent of college athletes drop out of school before they get through two years of college (Mcauly). Those 60% are the kids who think they should get paid to play, but they really shouldn’t because they are getting free education and even if they don't go to the pros they could put in some hard work to come out of college with a good degree. When kids are being scouted they are told that along with a free education they could (Mcauly). These kids aren't being lied to because they do, in fact, get some type of compensation, and these coaches need to be kicked out of the NCAA. This means college athletes aren't going to school to get a good degree, see the beautiful campus, or meet new friends, they want the money.
American Sociologist, Jonathan R. Cole, in his article, “Why Sports and Elite Academics Do Not Mix,” (2017), argues that highly selective colleges should withdraw from the NCAA to form their own league because these universities are not attempting to create national championship programs. He supports his claim by first describing the revenue that the NCAA receives from monopolizing college sports teams, then explains that these NCAA athletes are involved in scandalous interests due to their lack of quality education and leadership, then reveals the extent a college will go to ensure their athletes can participate in the NCAA, and finally imparts the deprivation that these universities have with diversity of their student’s talents. Cole’s purpose
The athletes don’t know how to handle all this money; so by having college athletes it helps them with handling their money. It teaches them money management at a young age. Others may say that college athletes shouldn’t get paid because they are given scholarships. The only problem is that according The New York Time they say that “ The average athletic scholarship is less than a $11,000 a year”(Zissou). This is not for kids who are going to community college or anything.
The NCAA says that they don’t want to pay college athletes because of their scholarships. As the money keeps flowing more and more each and every year, it comes with more arguments about the athletes getting the money that they deserve. Sounds as if college athletes are blindly signing a sheet of paper and the NCAA has an evil smirk saying “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into”. A court case had also gone down about a young college athlete and a car dealership. The dealership was using the athletes to make more sales with his cars and was doing behind the athletes back without
Are they students or employees? They spend more time with the sport than in school. Student athletes should be acknowledged for their performances. College athletes should be paid to play because they bring money into the school, advertisement, and they perform the same tasks of pros. College kids bring in thousands of dollars every game day.
Athletes who play football or basketball are at a higher risk of career ending injuries. These two sports are the hardest on an athletes body. Only one out of twenty-five college athletes go pro, so why put your body at risk when you don’t receive anything for doing that and your chances of going pro are slim? A lot of these student athletes are stressed out because of schoolwork participating in a college sport. This is just another reason that these athletes deserve to be
The first reason is because People would stop watching or attending the college games. Second the kids are already getting a free college education, place to stay, meals, and there book fees paid for. Finally this would cost to much money for the NCAA to pay for all the players in the NCAA. The first
One of the biggest issues with NCAA sports is should college athletes be able to unionize and play. According to their website, The NCAA is an organization that represents over 1,100 colleges and universities from the Division 1, Division 2, and Division 3 Level (ncaa.org). In addition, The NCAA doled out more than $2.7 billion in athletic scholarships along with other resources, student-athletes can utilize (ncaa.org). Although the NCAA generates mass revenue, only the top programs are usually profitable while most schools operate at the institution cost (Mitchell & Edelman, 2013). I believe college athletes should not be unionized or paid to play college sports.