Dear Future President,

In my life, I have experienced many different college sporting events. I have seen more than 100,000 fans pour into Tiger Stadium to watch LSU’s football team. I have spent hundreds of dollars on merchandise for college sports apparel in my lifetime. College sports, especially the big money makers such as football and basketball, are basically at the professional level. Thousands of paying fans flood stadiums and arenas to watch college sports, just like the professionals. So why shouldn’t the college student athletes be paid? Why should they not receive some compensation for the giant profits they make for their universities? This is a question that has been under debate for some time and must find a resolution soon.

One main reason that the N.C.A.A. is against paying student athletes is because they want to maintain the aspect of amateurism in college sports. The N.C.A.A. does not want student athletes to appear as employees for their university, so it believes that athletes should only be given money in the form of a scholarship to help them complete an education. I believe that this is a misconception. A high percentage of college athletes are where they are for one reason: to play their sport. As Joe Nocera of the New York times said, college athletes put in “50-hour weeks at their sports … they learn early on not to take any course that might require real effort or interfere with the primary reason they are on campus.” Nocera’s statement shows that the primary reason that college student athletes are at their university is not to get an education, but to play their sport. This reveals the illegitimacy of the N.C.A.A.’s enforcement of the aspect of amateurism in college athletics. Also, the N.C.A.A.’s amateurism really has no current purpose. As Jay Bilas said it, “Amateurism provides no benefit to the athlete, neither enhancing his education nor making him a better person.” It does not keep the athletes out of the spotlight of media, it does not keep them protected by any real means, and it definitely does not stop them from producing money. College student athletes should receive compensation, but it should be equal for all players on their certain team. Each athlete should be given a certain percentage of the profit that their sport made the previous year; this way pay would be equal, and it would be a true compensation for the profits that that sport made the previous year.

From my personal experience and background knowledge of college athletics, I believe that the N.C.A.A. is wrong. Their valued principle of amateurism is outdated, and now serves no purpose. This aspect of amateurism should be gone from college athletics, and the athletes must receive some form of compensation for the profits that they produce.

Sincerely,

Jacob Leslie 

Works Cited

Bilas, Jay. "College Athletes Should Be Compensated." The New York Times. The New York

Times, 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 03 Oct. 2016.         

Nocera, Joe. "Let’s Start Paying College Athletes." The New York Times. The New York Times,

31 Dec. 2011. Web. 03 Oct. 2016