Exploitation of College Athletes

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The professional athletes in America are some of the best players in the world, but then why do people prefer watching college sports?  More people enjoy watching college football on Saturday than watching the NFL on Sunday.  That’s strange because the NFL is a mixture of the best college players.  What’s even stranger is why those college athletes aren’t paid.  College sports is a billion dollar industry, just like other professional sports in America, but the players don’t see a penny of that revenue.  The players get money for scholarships and that’s about it.  College players should be paid for all the work and time that they put in and for all the money they bring in.    

Fans against paying college athletes always say that they are student athletes and student comes first for a reason. They are students, but they aren’t treated like students.  In an article written by Brian Frederick he says, “If a student-athlete is hurt or unsuccessful, the coaches and administrators suddenly discard the noble ideals of "education" and a player is left with nothing”.  The colleges get rid of that student athlete in a blink of an eye, but why?  I thought that they were students first and if they truly were student athletes they would still be in those schools.  Most athletes that suffer career ending injuries get their scholarship revoked and they drop out of school.  Those athletes are playing sports at the risk of a major injury and they might lose their education and future because they were working for free.  

The athletes bring in too much money to not get paid.  They make these schools rich and the school’s exploit these athletes.  The players deserve the money because they aren’t taken care of.  The players receive no support with medical bills and they need the money.  The players can be making thousands, maybe even millions of dollars playing college sports, but they don’t because they aren’t considered professionals. Why should these athletes stay in college? They can go pro and sign the big contracts and big endorsement deals and that's what I'll talk about in my next post.

College athletics draws a big crowd because of the style of play.  Some of the stadiums seat 80,000 plus and they sell out every game.  With the big crowd is a lot of hidden costs. People don’t realize that they are bringing in money from so many places.  Another writer in the debate on paying college athletes, Bobby Rush, said, “Without them, we wouldn't have millions of fans buying tickets for games and subscribing to expensive cable and satellite sports television packages, corporate sponsors purchasing luxury suites and boxes in college arenas and stadiums, or consumers paying top dollar for sports paraphenelia, and jerseys.”  All those factors bring in millions of dollars for the school and the players see none of the money.  Another hidden cost is the amount of students that come to the school because of good athletics.  Students want to go to a school with a winning tradition, so they attend football powerhouses and this makes the school even more money.