The issue of whether or not college athletes should get paid for their services has generated a widespread and heated debate across the nation. Each year, millions of dollars are produced from college sports, and especially in sports such as basketball or football. Those who support paying college athletes, point out the millions of dollars of revenue created through football and basketball alone, questioning the logic behind completely withholding these revenues from the athletes who are largely responsible for generating them.
While opponents feel that the “full-ride” scholarship to higher learning institutions that college athletes receive should be sufficient compensation. College athletes have traditionally been prohibited from taking outside employment, and also accepting any kind of compensation for their athletic abilities because it disqualifies them from competing at the collegiate level.
Every year nearly 330,000 college students don uniforms and become student-athletes for their respective schools (NCAA). These students participate in a wide variety of interests, from football to crew, cross country to golf. The sports surely vary in public interest and the amount of revenue that each attains each competitive season. Sports seem to have played a role in shaping post-secondary education from the time of the earliest universities. They provide a means for the students of that university to connect in support of their teams. College athletics add excitement to life that is surely not replicated in the classroom.
Sports competitions give everyone connected to that university a sense of pride and unity that can only come from these activities. Yet this sense of school spirit comes at a cost to those directly involved (John, 1999). The student-athlete that has to practice up to 20 hours per week--the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s (NCAA) maximum allotted hours along with the approximately eighteen hours of class time and numerous....
