Ncaa

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College athletes and money has been a very touchy subject in the world of sports for a very long time. Everybody knows that college athletes aren't able to accept gifts or money from anybody as long as they are under scholarship with the university they attend, and as long as they participate in NCAA sporting events. In the past, players that did accept gifts or money would get immediately suspended from participation in any NCAA sporting event and in some cases the university that they attended would get penalized. In the past ten years, college athletes have been leaving college early for the instant riches that lie ahead for them in the pros. In the past five years, in the sport of basketball, it has been very common for some of the top high school athletes to skip college all together and enter the NBA. With the early defections from college to the pros the question of whether or not college athletes should be compensated for participating in NCAA sporting events has arose.

Every year these athletes bring in millions of dollars to their respective schools. They not only bring in lots of money but in some cases they bring their school national recognition. That national recognition creates a fan base that buys, jerseys, hats, t-shirts, etc. that the university profits off of. According to Mark Martinez "Today, networks and cable channels must pay hundreds of millions of dollars for the right to televise college football games. NCAA basketball -- with its wildly popular March Madness -- is currently in the middle of a contract that pays almost $2 billion." In return, the university gives these athletes a free education. Is that fair enough? I think not! Sean Colclough states "It's all about money in the powerful and secret world of college athletics. Money the athletes legally don't see. Money that is sometimes kept quiet." These universities give free educations to not only athletes but to kids with exceptionally high grades. Those same kids with exceptionally high grades do not bring in millions of dollars to the university. Those smart kids don't bring their school national recognition, at least while they are attending it. Shoe companies do not pay the university money just so that the smart kids can wear their shoes on a nationally televised game. All special benefits that the universities receive are a direct result from the performance that their athletes display on the field of play.

That new gym that you're working out in or the new building that's being built on campus is a direct result of the money that is being generated by these athletes. If it weren't for these athletes bringing in money, then many of the luxuries that we enjoy on campus would not be present. Colclough asserts, "As the only athletic program that turns a profit at San Diego State, the football program is big business. It supports not only its own players, but those on other programs as well. Without Aztec football, it's possible SDSU would not have an athletic program. It's possible every sport would be shut down.

Isn't college supposed to prepare you for the real world? Or for that matter, life? In the real world those with special abilities are treated and rewarded differently than those who are less gifted. If that statement were not true, there would be no such thing as a celebrity. Some people will say that a free education is reward enough for these athletes, but a college athlete that plays a major sport will say that playing a sport in college is like having a job. Yet, these athletes are not paid to play. The smart kids who get the same free education as these athletes are allowed to go a get a job. Those same kids, have a whole lot more free time on their hands than a college athlete. Most of the athletes that do bring in the millions of dollars to these schools come from very poor families. They come from families that probably could not even afford to buy the athlete the shoes in which they use to compete. Yet these athletes have to get good grades so that they are eligible to play. They also have to be part of a team, which is like having a job because most of the successful programs practice year round. On top of that, they do not even have spending money in their pockets to do leisure activities because their families are poor and they can get in huge trouble if they accept money from anybody. Life isn't fair and neither is this, yet I don't understand why everybody gets outraged when they find out some of these athletes are accepting money or are betting on their own games. How are you going to tell a kid who never had anything not to take thousands of dollars or not to drive a new fancy car? It does not make sense.

Recently the NCAA has allowed student athletes to obtain jobs. According to Deron Snyder " Athletes are allowed to hold jobs, but games, practices, meetings, conditioning and travel make time -- and strength -- for part-time work problematic." That rule is totally pointless. Now you're saying that theses student athletes have to keep their grades up so they can be eligible to play, they have to go to practice and games, and on top of that they still have to work just to have some pocket change? That's a lot to ask of any person much less a student-athlete who is bringing in millions of dollars to their university. I'm not saying that these athletes should be making what professional athletes make but they should at least get some sort of allowance so that they can buy a piece of pizza if they wanted to. Another point that Mark Martinez brings up about the NCAA allowing their athletes to obtain jobs is "School A may be able to promise Johnny A. Prospect a better job than school B. Or, lest we be naive, the coaches may even arrange for the kid to get a job that the kid never actually performs, though for which he still gets paid." That's not fair, and even though life isn't fair the NCAA tries to be as fair as they can yet they implement these types of rules that can only make the bigger schools wealthier. Martinez continues ""Such job income supposedly would further unbalance Division I, giving a recruiting advantage to teams where better job opportunities exist." Chris Isidore says "The cost of giving $2,000 cash to every major college football and basketball player would be about $27.6 million a year." He continues "major college football and basketball teams take in a total of about $3.5 billion, or about the same as Major League Baseball." Jason Whitlock, a columnist from the Kansas City Star argues, "I always thought part of the educational process at college was "the struggle." A kid shouldn't eat McDonald's