Current event assignment
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Institution
Paying of College Student-Athletes
In sports, controversy is no longer a strange thing, especially if it is measured by losses and wins. Just like politics, every in sports has two sides. Essentially, divisive issues are all around in sports. It appears that at any given time, several big debates dominate sports headlines.
One of the most recent hot debates in sports is paying of athlete students. In 2018, the Aspen Institute Sports & Society Program, arranged for a meeting to deliberate whether college athletes should be paid (Solomon, 2018). During the meeting, the institute explored the implications if the National Collegiate Athlete Association (NCAA) athletes could be paid by external organizations for the use of their name, likenesses, and images. This debate has attracted diverse opinion from different people. While some strongly believe that athlete students should be paid, others strongly oppose. Therefore, it is plausible to analyze the pros and cons of paying athlete students and the significance of the issue in the sports profession.
To start with, being a student-athlete is a full-time job that revolves around classes, weight room, field or court, and film sessions. Fundamentally, college athletics are considered as supplementary activities, but the schedules of NCAA tournaments need extra time in which the students miss school. Besides missing school, they miss the nationally televised game that generates a lot of income and obtaining millions of viewers (Reed & Lagarde, 2017). Since the students help to generate revenue for their team and colleges, they should at least get a small portion of the profit. The pay would vary, just as the colleges with more successful teams get more television time than those with less successful teams.
Most of the income from college athletes do not go to the academic. Rather, the profit goes to the athletic directors, coaches, and some administrators. The students do not need to get a huge share like their coaches, but they could be given a relative share depending on how much the programs generate. Arguably, the scholarship normally covers the students’ room expenses and books. Therefore, sparing extra dollars could compensate for the lost time that these students have to generate income at a regular part-time job. It is imperative to acknowledge that college student-athletes are not only a part of the sports team but also a part of college advertising team (Thelin, 2018). For instance, the Flutie effect is used to define an increase in college admission after a big win in sports. In additionally, colleges use the success of their athletes to promote their school.
Therefore, student-athletes should be paid for this success as well as the extra benefits they offer for their school.
Although several arguments are supporting paying student-athletes, the proposal also comes with negative implications. If the scholarships were withdrawn and given they are given salaries, it would be more affordable and fair for the colleges (James, 2019). For instance, if the students are given salaries they will be required to pay taxes. Depending on their incomes, the taxes could be enough to cut off what they earn until they are unable to care for their tuition. People who oppose paying college student-athletes argue that scholarship is the best alternative without questioning what the scholarship money caters for (Malik, 2018). A salary could be spent on wants instead of necessities leading the athletes to debt. Besides, not paying the student-athletes would change the unique nature of college athletics. Specifically, college student-athletes are provided one of the rarest opportunity that one can get. It is quite challenging to get a position in a college team. Although it is many peoples dream, only about 7 per cent of high school athletes get an opportunity to move to a bigger state.
The issue of paying college student-athletes should be discussed in length in sport management classes. By so doing, it will be possible to understand both the positive and negative implications of paying college student-athletes. Additionally, discussing in a sports management class helps to understand the grounds on which the NCAA does not pay the student-athletes. As highlighted, paying the college student-athletes has its share of advantages and disadvantages. Despite the challenges, I believe something can be done about. One of how the NCAA help the college student-athletes is to allow them to profit from their use of names and images. However, it is important to consider that student-athletes need to be treated like other non-athlete students. In other words, they should not be treated as employees of their respective colleges. In other words, there should be a clear separation between professional and college opportunities. California is one of the states in the United States that has allowed college athletes to be paid for endorsement agents.
Although the issue of paying college student-athletes has intensified during the last four years, the debate started some years ago. In my opinion, we shall talk about this issue 5 years from now. The stakeholders discussing debating on this issue have not agreed whether to pay or not pay the college student-athletes. Therefore, this can be viewed as an issue that is likely to last for long.
References
James, M. (2019, November 4). NCAA: Why college athletes should not be paid. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@mjames11/ncaa-why-college-athletes-should-not-be-paid-dc92e73bccd8
Malik, R. (2018, November 10). College athletes should not be paid. Retrieved from https://inside.ewu.edu/engl201-20/college-athletes-should-not-be-paid/
Reed, P., & Lagarde, G. (2017, April 25). The faceoff: Should professional athletes be required to attend college? Retrieved from https://www.spectatornews.com/sports/2017/04/the-faceoff-should-professional-be-required-to-attend-college/
Solomon, J. (2018, Apri 23). The history behind the debate over paying NCAA athletes. Retrieved from https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/history-behind-debate-paying-ncaa-athletes/
Thelin, J. (2018, February 12). Paying college athletes. Retrieved from https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2018/02/12/impact-college-sports-programs-if-athletes-are-paid-opinion