Collegiate sporting teams have been around in this country for nearly over 125 years. Collegiate sports have not always generated revenue in aide to its institutions as they do now, however, there has been recent years of a steady income coming into institutions across the country year in and year out.
Why are collegiate athletes not getting more of these funds back somehow in return for their hard work for their institutions? Is it because the NCAA does not believe in compensating collegiate students? Many student-leaders across collegiate campuses in this country are compensated for their service to the student body. So why aren’t college student athletes being paid for their services to the institution at-large?
Enough is enough, when will the NCAA stop “pimping” student athletes and give them some other type of compensation other than scholarships. Just recently football players from Northwestern University are trying to form a union that shows they do indeed fall in line of a worker labors. They see the light so how long until the NCAA see it?
Most academic institutions depend on its athletic department revenue to keep the schools finances afloat.
Colleges such as: University of Florida, University of Alabama, Notre Dame, University of Texas, and Florida State University football programs by themselves make more than a school like Florida A&M University’s whole athletic department on a yearly basis.
Young women and men ranging from the ages of 18-22, who we call student-athletes, are the key entities that help generate these funds into these athletics departments.
However Molly Block an opinion columnist for The University Star feels paying athletes might not be the best idea, “If universities started paying college athletes, it would be grossly unfair to the peers who work hard just to make ends meet.” Block said. “Student athletes who are already awarded scholarship money to attend college should not be paid any additional amount on the side.”
These student athletes are indeed different than the next student that sits in their classes with them solely on the two different types of lifestyles. Student athletes are constantly on a tight schedule with little to no free time for a whole academic year.
Being a student athlete is a Monday through Sunday job. In essence it’s a Sunday through Sunday job. Student athletes put in so much into their institutions, and what do they get out of it? There’s only one true thing they receive which would be either a full or part time scholarship.
A player that sees his or her jersey number in market retail stores etc. and these players don’t make any money off of their own brand is a little absurd to me. So what is the result of this? Easy answer, you have these same very athletes trying to go around the many NCAA rules and regulations.
Former Florida A&M University football player Adamasen Felix, agrees that his days as a college athlete were like being on a job.
“I do believe playing a collegiate sport is like a job, because you have to approach it like a business.” Felix said. “You cannot be late to anything involve in your sport or you will get punish. You spend all your free time doing things involved in your sport.”
You see players like Johnny Manziel, a former football player from Texas A&M and now the starter for the Cleveland Browns who had allegations with getting paid for giving away his autograph. You could also flashback to a past situation where former University of Southern California football player Reggie Bush receiving funds from "outsiders" and then stripped of his Heisman trophy and the school had to suffer with losing scholarships.
Reggie Bush even told the NFL TV Network in an interview that his situation was an extremely unfortunate circumstance.
“In regards to the NCAA and my situation, to me it was the closest thing to death without dying, because I have such a great love and respect for the University of Southern California.” Bush said. “At this moment in my life I can’t worry about if there’s anything I could have done differently because this is what it is now.”