I personally believe that the college athletes should not be paid the stipend for the play they play. The reality is that college sports programs, namely the big name programs such as football and basketball programs at marquee schools, are businesses that stand to make a large amount of money for their respective schools.
According to an article in the Journal of Business Law School "In the past twelve years, the amount of money generated by these two sports has increased nearly 300%, such that they now fund almost all other sports programs.” The student-athletes who participate in these programs are part of the reason why these schools stand to make such handsome profits: through ticket sales, endorsement deals, broadcasting deals, and jersey sales (although player names cannot be represented on jerseys), among other things. (Meshefejian, 2005)
One may say that while universities are making millions from college athletics, the student athletes who are responsible for generating that revenue do not have enough money for a Saturday night date. Mark Murphy, Director of Athletics at Northwestern University, who participated in an ESPN debate on the topic of paying student-athletes, argues that these athletes currently receive scholarships, whose value, in some instances, totals close to $200,000 over four years.
He stated that all student-athletes have made similar commitments to the schools, and that football and basketball players should not be treated any different than other athletes, who participate in sports that are not as popular and lucrative. Paying athletes anything beyond a scholarship, argues Murphy, would cause problems, particularly from a gender equity standpoint. What Murphy seems to referring to when he says "gender equity" is Title IX federal regulations, which cut off federal funding of colleges if those colleges discriminate on the basis of sex. Paying male student athletes more........
