Should College Athletes Be Paid ?

College athletes have gained immense popularity among students over the past recent years. This has resulted into the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) debating whether or payment is a result of the athletes work. This has been a controversial topic recently throughout West Essex and everyone is now making their own opinion on whether college athletes should be paid or not.

There has been major discussion if college athletes should be paid or not while they are attending school. Now the debate to whether college athletes should be paid or not are mainly within the sports that bring the most money to the school, basketball and football. Now not all the athletes would be paid.

What about scholarships that athletes receive? What about the time and talent that comes from the players hearts to win a game to earn money for their school? Should they receive at least a little bit of they money they earned? Or is that scholarship the pay.

We discussed with varsity football coach Mr. Timothy Glenn of what he thought about the topic. ‘I’m pretty sure that less than like 3% of college athletes actually go into a professional league” said Mr. Glenn. “The pay I feel would or might be different for the starting players.” Mr. Glenn is on both sides of this debate because it is definitely hard to choose.

College football players go into what is known as a “bowl” to get money for their school. This bowl is almost like an NFL draft but for college stars. If the athlete is nominated for the bowl and automatically get money paid towards their school, but if they win the will recieve get two time the amount of money.

“If college athletes are the ones to make the money, they should receive credit for their talent and maybe not the full pay but definitely some” said freshman Mike Aktas.

People all through school especially in the music department compare this argument with actors and musicians. Musicians at young ages that go to college to pursue their careers receive money for their own work. It is not giving to the school.

This on going question of whether the pay is worth it or not started with football, but also led into basketball. NCAA pulls so much money from these athletes and supposedly say it goes into their scholarships but there is no proof. Out of  a poll of 100 students here at West Essex 63 of them said that college athletes shouldn’t get paid because of the scholarships that they receive.

This has been a topic for years and everyone has basically made up their minds. Football and Basketball and the top sports, so will these players ever end up being paid in the future. D-l and D-ll schools give more than $2.8 billion annually in athletic scholarships. The NCAA seems to be handing out a lot of money, and some universities might not what to give a portion of their profit to student athletes.