Philip Gentile
Everyone makes money off the NCAA tourney: schools, coaches, networks, conferences. Everyone that is, except the players. It’s long been debated if student athletes should get paid. While researching for this article, my opinion flip flopped numerous times. Both sides of the argument have very valid points.
NCAA has a $6 billion deal with CBS to broadcast the Tourney
On the one hand, student athletes bring their schools millions and millions of dollars every year and never see a penny of it. Imagine having a job you’re really good at, and a boss who collects your salary. A majority of the athletes have scholarships to cover tuition, but that’s chump change compared to the money they bring in through ticket and merchandise sales, as well as generous contributions from alumni who want their Alma Mater to be the best.
On the other hand, student athletes are paid. They don’t pay tuition, and more often then not, student athletes get the best dorms, first pick of classes, etc. At my school, the dining hall had a separate buffet line just for the football team. If athletes were paid, it would ruin the thing people love most about college sports: no longer would we be watching amateurs; they would be paid professionals working hard for the money, like Lebron, Tiger, and Jeter.
Overall, I don’t think paying college athletes is a good idea. It would almost certainly taint the amateur nature of college sports. How would a smaller school compete with big schools like Texas or Michigan if they wanted to pay there football players more? Would a backup player earn the same as a Heisman winner like Tim Tebow? Would football and basketball players get paid the same as athletes of sports that don’t bring in as much revenue for the school, like soccer and volleyball? Final(personal) verdict on paying college athletes: I think it would be a really bad idea.
Image Source: http://www.youthsportsny.org/images/MoneyBall.jpg
Tags: buffet line, college athletes, professionals, student athletes
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on Monday, March 9th, 2009 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Deportes!.
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