One of the more relevant issues in recent sports is should college athletes be paid. Opponents to paying them argue that they are students and shouldn’t receive money.  They already get free housing, travel, publicity, food, top healthcare, and education.  The two main money gainers for universities are football and basketball.  The revenue they bring in helps to support the other athletic programs that do not get the attendance or notoriety. Paying them, some say would take away from the innocence of college sports.  All these are valid points. The NCAA has several multi-billion dollar television deals yearly for example.  They got $6 billion for the rights to the 2005 March Madness.  The highest paid coach makes over $5 million a year.  They pretty much all at least make six figures not including their television deals and endorsements.  Major sports programs in an institution bring in over $50 million per year.  So if a particular school’s football program brings in $25 million, the basketball program $5 million and the rest of their programs bring in nothing…You’re telling me it would hurt to pay the athletes a small amount.  A rational group of people can decide how much.  Especially the students who come from a poor background. If they have wealth they can decline it.  They should be made to apply for it like any other type of financial aid. 

 This can’t really hurt the innocence of programs which are a large part of a multi-billion dollar gambling industry.  Programs sell jerseys of players but don’t allow the athletes to profit from them.  Can you honestly say that paying the athletes wouldn’t eliminate the corrupt agents, all the Reggie Bush scenarios?  And why is it high school baseball players can get minor league contracts but upon doing so lose their college eligibility.  In short it seems to me an industry trying not to come off as a business; comes off seeming greedy and not wanting to share the profits with the people who are the sole reason they are making money.     

This article was contributed by J. Darien Stokes.

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