As the Final Four just concluded, the debate over paying college athletes is only heating up. The NCAA has undoubtedly enjoyed another profitable year after raking in over $1 billion in revenue from last year’s tournament in the form of ticket sales, advertising, sponsorships, and media rights. In addition, the NCAA signed a 14-year deal with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting in 2010, a lucrative contract worth $10.8 billion. Following an extension in April 2016, CBS agreed to pay the NCAA an additional $8.8 billion in order to retain rights to air March Madness games through 2032. Despite the schools receiving such large amounts of money from their participation in the NCAA and March Madness, student athletes see no direct form of compensation, even though they are the ones who are creating the revenue. A survey conducted by the NCAA in 2011 found that college football players at Division 1 schools practiced for an average of 43 hours a week, but they are also offered stipends of $2,000-$5,000 per year. I do not believe they should paid a salary as they are compensated through free tuition and room and board throughout the duration of their college career- in addition to the added weekly stipend. However, putting myself in the athletes shoes, I see their arguments as college athletics is a billion dollar industry, but the athletes are the only people involved who don't get a share of it through personal income.
Any other points to be made in either direction? Should they be paid or not?
http://www.masstrib.com/as-march-madness-heats-up-so-does-the-debate-over-paying-college-athletes/
For a lot of high profile college athletes, the incentive of leaving college in pursuit of a professional career has outweighed the benefits of finishing their education. On many occasions the decision has been made in order for these athletes to support their family. I think the NCAA needs to find a way to create a positive incentive for college athletes to hold off on a professional career to obtain their degree. Maybe this could be supporting athletes families, instead of paying athletes?
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of finding ways to entice athletes to stay through their academic careers. I see monetary compensation as an easy and good way of doing so, but I also completely understand how they are still being compensated for their athletic work in other ways.
DeleteI think its easy to say that they should be paid but like the issue of taxes, if they are paid they may be faced with other consequences. But there definitely is a disconnect between the players interests and the NCAA's interest. So the question is what are schools doing to limit the exploitation of the players' images?
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot I want to say about this, but I think John Oliver does a great job in sharing my sentiments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX8BXH3SJn0
ReplyDeleteI'm with Adam on this one.
ReplyDelete