College, for most people, is a wonderful experience where a person gets an education in preparation of his future; however, there is a small percentage who sacrifice the college experience: division one athletes.
These athletes spend 12 months of the year working on their craft while having to balance the difficulty of college courses. Universities should be paying these college athletes for everything they do for their schools.
College athletes who play on ESPN, Fox, CBS and other television stations bring their school publicity, revenue and pride for wearing their colors. In 2016, more than 20 universities made over a 100 million dollars in annual revenue from their athletic departments, with the top school, Texas A&M University, making nearly 193 million, according to data collected from USA Today and the U.S. Department of Education. Colleges benefit from these athletes for the short amount of time and then move onto the next athlete.
These players are bringing in massive amounts of revenue for these colleges while these players are receiving nothing in return. The argument disputing my point of view is that these athletes are receiving a free education.
This argument is invalid because athletes at many colleges, like football players at Alabama, aren’t there receiving an education. The only reason many are there is to play football and bring money for the university. A study conducted at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014 found that not only were athletes not receiving an education, but 60% of football and basketball players could not even read above the eighth-grade level.
I know how financially difficult college can get sometimes. College athletes have school and their respective sport to balance, as well as maintaining some sort of financial stability for themselves.
Many college athletes have initiated this topic as they know how tough it really is from a firsthand experience. It’s tough on them physically, mentally and financially.
Universities are benefiting from these players, but many of the players aren’t really gaining anything from these universities. Coaches get very hefty bonuses for bringing their school a national championship, but the players are the ones practicing, going to the gym and working out every day to win that championship.
These players often sacrifice their time because being a collegiate athlete means that sport is the main focus every day. These men and women don’t have free time to hang out with their friends or study for an upcoming exam.
These men and women are constantly working to get better at their respective sport. Mostly, these men and women run the risk of long term injuries. These universities are robbing students just to make some money off their talent and it’s about time these kids receive something for their endeavors.
It’s simply not fair for how much time they spend competing for their university for them not to get any compensation.
