Dear Future President:

Collegiate athletes should be compensated financially for their participation in athletics due to the amount of time they put toward their sport. When athletes are young, they usually have a family support system that helps to provide nourishment and financial support for their athletic endeavors. But, when these athletes grow up and become independent and go off to college to pursue their dream, they are launched into a world where they have the difficult challenge of trying to balance school, a sport and often a job as well. College athletes dedicate most of their time to their sport, and have small amounts of time to do the other important thing in their lives.

College athletics are gigantic commitments and require large amounts of hours towards practice, travel, games, etc, leaving no time for anything else. “Many student-athletes reported that they practice at least 30 hours a week on average, with some sports reporting weekly practice commitments of more than 40”(Jacobs). Imagine working for 40 hours a week and not receiving any money in return. The legal amount of time spent practicing in a week is 20 hours . This rule is set in place so students can work and also study for school. The rule is often broken, and some lawsuits have come into play from athletes against schools. Until recently, athletes weren't allowed to work outside of their sport until summer, or when the school allowed it (Greenlee). After a ton of fighting, Division 1 schools passed a rule that made it so athletes could now work part time jobs. However , college athletes have very little time after school, homework and athletic practice to also maintain a part time job. These athletes must be included in the payroll and doing so is an easy fix.

Paying athletes make financial sense and would be an easy system to implement, due to the excessive amounts of money produced athletic departments. College athletics are multibillion dollar industries. “The Kentucky-Wisconsin late game set a new record for the most watched college basketball game in the history of cable television – 22.6 million viewers among TBS, TNT, and truTV, (Yoder).”The March madness tournament is highly viewed and generates around 10.8 million dollars just on television deals. Yearly the NCAA makes around 871.6 million dollars.(NCAA). This money is made on the backs of athletes, yet none of this makes it to their pockets.”This year's Final Four coaches--John Calipari, Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski and Bo Ryan-- have more at stake at the 2015 NCAA basketball tournament than a championship.” Coaches have stake in these tournaments. Coaches can have an increase in salary, and a bonus on top of that, by getting further into tournaments such as March Madness(Wray). Leaving coaches with one of the highest paying jobs ever, which creates a gigantic gap between the athletes and their coaches. “Universities allow athletic departments to keep all excess revenues on an updated basis during any given budget period,”(Fort). This quote even further disproves that universities can’t afford paying the athletes, and that universities wouldn't be able to, “break even.,” if schools were to decide to pay athletes. “Under the current amateur requirements, players generated their MRP, and it is then spent elsewhere is the athletic department,”(Fort). With all the money produced by the athletic department, from athletes, TV deals, and tournament bonuses, there is no question that there is enough money to share. Yet people still think that it is economically impossible to pay the athletes.

Collegiate athletes should be compensated financially for their participation in athletics due to the amount of time they put toward their sport.They put in excessive hours of practice, produce tons of money and get limited financial support. That is more than enough reason for college athletes to be paid.