Advertisement actors on television, door-to-door salesmen, and people that are sponsored by companies all have one job; they bring in customers. They work hard to receive their payments as expected. That is what we all expect, right? We have all been taught that if we work hard and we will receive fair compensation. This ideology does not seem to apply to college athletics though. College athletes have worked throughout their childhood to fulfill their dreams to reach the university that they get to compete for. College athletics is a huge market that people love to watch and support. As a result of the viewership, they bring in billions of dollars. These athletes bring in the viewership, work hard, and are doing arguably more than the actor or the salesman. However, they aren’t seeing these profits firsthand or at all. They should be paid a portion of the money that they deserve for the work they have put in as well as the viewership they have brought to the school. This topic has caught the public's eye and has become a huge topic across the United States. The NCAA has kept these players under its rules and has set out large penalties for schools and players who do not abide by their rules. How college athletics works is, schools are given a set amount of scholarships for each team. That team then is allowed to bring a certain number of players to their schools with no charge to the player. This scholarship now gives the player a place to live, an amount to spend on food, and education, as well as gear and facilities. These are what the NCAA and Division 1 colleges deem as compensation for the viewership and money that these players bring in. As an athlete that sees people wearing the jersey that they made popular and that kid isn’t making a dime off of that sale, it’s frustrating to the players. This raises the question of, whether are athletes being compensated for their work in their sport.
There are two college sports that matter to most, and that is Men’s basketball and football. These two sports generate around 4.93 billion dollars a year. (Forbes, 2020) Out of the 4.93 billion that is generated only 7 percent ends up with the athletes playing these sports. That means only 340 million dollars ends up near the athletes that earned these schools this money. This money is gifted to the athletes through scholarships and stipends for living expenses, that's it. That means there are over 4 billion dollars going to schools which are used for coaches and other activities. To show the difference between college to professionals. In the NFL and NBA, athletes in those two leagues receive approximately 50% of the revenue generated by their athletic activities in the form of salary. This means that if men's basketball and football players in the most prestigious conferences split 50% of revenue equally, each football player would receive $360,000 per year, and each basketball player would earn nearly $500,000 annually. (Beer, Forbes, 2020) These earnings would rise depending on the popularity and the position of the player. This would still give the school earnings to keep coaches and facilities open. This will just motivate the players and also keep them in school giving them a higher education. These will just boost the revenue because schools will have athletes playing longer, creating more buzz around certain players.
Athletes are distracted and exploited and put their entire future and academic success at risk just to play a sport in college that helps them pay for the education that they aren’t really given time to focus on. Due to the increased ratings of college athletics, this figure will continue to rise. The athletes being recruited for college sports are bigger, faster, and stronger than ever and will generate more money due to the number of fans who watch each week. Colleges and universities generate so much revenue during the year that it is only fair that the players receive part of that as compensation for their hard work and dedication. The athletes should get paid based on the university’s income from the sport and apparel sales. A star quarterback, point guard, swimmer, etc. will not only help sell tickets but will bring in plenty of merchandise sales as well. This merchandise has its own name on it. This means they are selling products with no compensation to the athletes. Although the NCAA prohibits the universities to sell a college jersey with a player's name on it, they are permitted to sell the jersey with the player's number on it, which is easily recognizable in local, and sometimes national markets (Gaines, businessinsider.com). As expressed, this implies that a notable competitor can't charge cash for the hours spent marking signatures, yet the college can utilize the competitor to produce many thousands or even large numbers of dollars through deals and expanded enlistment. Likewise, essential to note: in a 1989 overview of expert football players, 31% of the respondents confessed to having acknowledged illicit installments during their school vocations, and 48 percent of the respondents said they were aware of different competitors who took such installments during school (reguli, vittana.org). School competitors in all probability would not want to disrupt the guidelines on the off chance that they got pay that helped them to take care of their bills.
Many will say that these athletes are already being compensated for their efforts through scholarships and stipends. This is a good point, college athletics gives these players a stage to play on. They are given the equipment and the coaching to become top athletes. However, in today's age, we have the technology where these athletes have been under the national spotlight since they were 16. This also plays into the fact that some of these players are ready for the pros before they go to college. Because of these reasons, athletes need a reason to stay in college and not go straight to the professional leagues.
In conclusion, these athletes bring in the viewership, work hard, and are doing arguably more than the actor or the salesman. However, they aren’t seeing these profits firsthand or at all. They should be paid a portion of the money that they deserve for the work they have put in as well as the viewership they have brought to the school. The NCAA is starting to make a change to where paying athletes will benefit the players. This will go into effect in the 2021-2022 season. This will be the first step towards paying athletes fully.