Daniel A. California

College Athletes Should Be Paid

College athletes are some of the hardest workers on their college campus, but do they really deserve to be paid?

Dear President,

College athletes should be paid because, they spend about 40 hours per week practicing their sport, and rack up about 11 billion dollars for the NCAA each year.

College athletes are some of the hardest workers on their college campus because they spend most of their time competing in sports. For example, college division 1 basketball players devote 39.2 hours on their sport per week, according to Lynn O’shaughnessy and CBS. According to “Best Colleges Online,” most coaches in the NCAA do not follow the rule set by the NCAA, for a maximum of 20 hours of practice per week. The main reason that a lot of college athletes put in so much work is that, they have a big dream of going pro. The only way to go pro, is that if you are really good. This dream is a long shot because the chances of making it into college sports are pretty slim, and the chances of making it professional are even slimmer, at one out of every 25 college athletes will make it to the pros. Some of the college athletes don’t even graduate. If some athletes do not graduate, at least they will have some money to get back onto their feet, if they get paid.

College student athletes generate the NCAA about 11 billion dollars per year, because people just enjoy to watch college sports. The NCAA annually generates about 6.1 billion dollars off of ticket sales, radio and television receipts, alumni contributions, guarantees, and royalties, according to the NCAA website. A big reason that college sports are very popular is because, people who attended (attends) their respective colleges in the past or the present probably support their own college as alumni’, so they buy merchandise, watch or/and attend games, etc. This is a big money maker. When coming down to the bottom line of this whole revenue idea, ultimately, the college students athletes make the NCAA mostly all of their money. If you think about it, if there are no athletes, there are no sports. In accordance to this idea, I feel like college athletes shall be paid according to what sport they play, what division they play for, and ultimately, their performances. The NCAA should make a guideline of payrolls based on the factors just recently stated above.

This payment to college athletes however, can be unfair to full time students who are not getting paid at their college because, they are paying for their tuition, instead of getting paid. According to ESPN, some people do not view college sports as business, which is understandable. College athletes might be getting around a 10,000 dollar tuition per year. On the flip side, full time students at college need to pay a lot of money for their tuition, guessing that they do not have a scholarship. College itself is a business, with getting people to pay for tuition. On the other hand, colleges are paying some athletes to come to them.

Overall, College athletes should be paid. College athletes are hard workers with a lot of drive and determination. Athletes provide hours of entertainment for people and it might be an important part of a lot of people’s lives.

Thank you for your time, Daniel

 O’shaughnessy, Lynn. “Do College Athletes Have Time To Be Students?” CBS News. N.p. 11 Feb. 2011. Web. 5 Nov. 2016.

@bcotweets. "14 Surprising Facts About Being a College Athlete - BestCollegesOnline.com." BestCollegesOnlinecom. N.p., 12 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.

"Revenue." NCAA.org. N.p., 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.

Jackson, Scoop. "Pay for Play Isn't Answer for College Athletics." ESPN.com. N.p., 12 Sept. 2013. Web. 05 Nov. 2016.

Diablo Vista Middle School

Zhebel - English 8

Zhebel - English 8

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