Rules are Rules: Pay for Play

Over the past few decades, college athletics have gained immense popularity across the United States and intercollegiate sports have caught the attention of sports fans, alumni, and students. With this increased popularity has come increased revenue to some universities. With all this revenue earned by universities, many articles suggest that we should compensate these athletes for their work outside the classroom. However, I can one-hundred percent disagree with their opinions, and believe that we should not pay Division one collegiate athletes. The reasons we should not consider paying collegiate athletes is first we need to think of what the universities are doing for the student athletes in regard to discounted and even free education for their talents. Colleges are also allowing these athletes to gain publicity and popularity for their future careers if they decide to continue professionally. Another reason we should not consider to pay college athletes is that it would be nearly impossible to create a payment system that would be equally fair to all collegiate athletes. The last reason we should not pay these athletes is because we can’t and it is not in the budget for colleges to pay all their athletes. The rules created by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) allow athletes plenty of luxuries, and they should not be paid for their efforts anymore then they are currently.

Anyone who is in favor of paying athletes should take into perspective that student athletes who are on athletic scholarship are essentially being paid when they have free tuition, room, meal plans, stipends for books and expenses. People in favor of compensations may beg the question that not all athletes get scholarships. While this may be true that not all Division one athletes are receiving free tuition; they still have universities provide them with exclusive academic counseling, special athletic tutors, life skill trainings, nutritional advice and much more special treatment over a student who is paying full boat. It becomes clear that these athletes are receiving special extras paid for by universities around the country. Also what is often overlooked, is student athletes are receiving free professional coaching, strength and fitness training, athletic trainers and physical therapists whenever they need them. A recent article in Forbes magazine provides statistics that “Athletes are having services paid for by the school which is on average $2,000 - $3,000 dollars per week.” (Dorfman Para. 6) Using these valuations, and adding in the value of a scholarship, a student athlete at a major conference school on full scholarship is “…Likely receiving a package of education, room, board, and coaching/training worth between $50,000 and $125,000 per year depending on their and whether they attend a public or private university” (Dorfman Para. 7). These numbers are for each individual athlete which gets extremely expensive for universities.

In addition to college athletes receiving free services throughout their stay during college, they also gain much important publicity. Student athletes are using colleges to gain very essential publicity that professional sports teams can use to evaluate their play and talent to see if they have what it takes to play at the next level and how good they are. After watching their college careers and talking to college coaches, professional team managers can determine how the athlete would react, perform, and assess if it is worth investing money in a player. Going to college and playing athletics lowers the uncertainty about an athletes future performance which means they can receive large contracts when they decide to play professionally. Using the universities to gain publicity really increases the “stock” of a player and carries large economic value, however it cannot be quantified how much value. For example, one-hundred percent of players drafted in last years National Football League (NFL) draft attended college.(NFL.com). The National Basketball Association (NBA) also had a high percentage drafted in last years draft with seventy-eight percent of the picks having attended a college.(NBA.com) Professional sports teams want college athletes because there is more video publicity of them. Organizations can evaluate the maturity of athletes, ability, coming from universities displaying their student athletes.

A specific athlete who used college as a way to gain publicity most recently is the Cleveland Browns back-up quarterback, Johnny Manziel, also known as Johnny Football. Manziel was an outstanding athlete at Texas A&M who made College Station, Texas his playground to gain the most publicity ever seen by a college student-athlete. Manziel gained negative attention from the media and was criticized over his social media activity so harshly that he deleted his Twitter account because of the media saying “I've kind of just shut it all off. With how the media has been with me for a while, I just shut everything off”(ESPN.go.com). Manziel gained both positive and negative publicity and was followed by media every step he took. Even at parties and events where media wasn't allowed, Manziel would always find himself on the cover of magazines, ESPN, and social medias for his immature party nature and success on the field. The massive explosion and popularity of Johnny Football eventually led him to endorsement deals and number one in jersey sales currently in the 2014 calendar year. These endorsement deals and sales are not all because of his professional play because he has not played. Some of his recent economic success can be attributed to the publicity he received in college when he became the character Johnny Football. Colleges are showcasing their athletes to the world and the publicity gained by these athletes is growing everyday.

Over the past decade there has been proposals for athletes to be paid but the NCAA has stood firm on any possible changes to the system. It is important to note the complexity of changing a system that has been in place for so long. In addition, if we were to change the current system that allows direct pay to the athlete, it would be difficult for universities to be able to afford it. According to Cliff Peale most Division one athletic programs only make money in three sports(USA Today). Those sports are Football, and Mens/ Women’s Basketball. These three revenue sports would essentially would be paying for all the other athletes in other sports. This brings up the questions if we were to change the system do we pay all student athletes the same. Do we play all athletes on the same team the same or impact players more? Do all schools have the same pay scale or would bigger schools essentially buy their players similar to what the New York Yankees are known for in baseball. If we were to pay athletes we would only be creating more complicated issues in college sports making it nearly impossible to establish a well organized system. On top of attempting to make a system it is also not in the budget for universities to be able to afford to pay players. USA today states that “23 out of the 228 Division one athletic programs recorded a revenue last year”(Peale). This is an alarming statistic that shows that schools do not have the money to pay athletes for their work. First and foremost colleges are in place for education and most of the money that is made through sports is either put back into the program or back into the school so that the universities can attract new prospective students and student athletes. Athletics aren't everything, and colleges goal is to improve academics, buildings, and campus living through grants, tuition, and revenue from sports. The money gained by colleges is but back into school and improvements leaving minimal amounts money for athletes left if any.

As a student at Gonzaga we should care about the NCAA retaining the current system of not compensating college athletes for their performance because it would create an inequality in social class. Athletes would grow even more apart and distance themselves from a university’s community. As a college student I would like to see college athletes more apart of the community and payment would allow athletes to buy extras that the average college student cannot afford which in cases would diminish other students sense of worth. Also, think about the problems that a college athlete would run into if he or she were to be paid. Extra cash would be nice to have but giving young inexperienced and immature athletes money could lead to more problems than benefits. For example, on the University of Virginia’s radio broadcast they say “84% of college students drink alcohol” which includes athletes (UVA Today Broadcast). Payments to athletes could encourage alcohol consumption and poor spending decisions. Trusting young adults with money, when most haven't seen income before could lead to bad choices resulting in negative attention students and universities do not want. All college students should care whether athletes are paid because if they were it means less improvements around the campus, an unwanted social class, and more possible negatives that would enter university communities.

In conclusion, It is absurd to even think about paying college athletes because first off they are using the universities for free services. Universities are spending money that can go unnoticed at times until you really break it down and come to the realization of the hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent to aid athletes. Athletes use colleges to gain publicity throughout their collegiate careers for their futures. Publicity is unquantifiable however it can be used to these athletes advantage later in their lives. Finally, paying athletes would be financially troublesome for almost 90% of Division one programs. The funds are not present to be able to pay athletes. The bigger picture of why we should not pay college athletes is because if universities do, then it bleeds into professional sports. Universities would thus be shifting away from education and putting emphasis on athletics over academics.

Annotated Works Cited: College Athletes Pay for Play

Dorfman. "Pay College Athletes? They're Already Paid Up To $125,000 Per Year." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 02 Nov.

2014.

Dorfman is a journalist writing for Forbes magazine with much experience. Dorfman had the same opinion that I have on whether college athletes should be paid. At first I believed that college athletes should be able to be paid however, he persuaded me the other way and encouraged me to write my essay on this piece and then later to work on my final project on it. This was a very important source that helped me research further into my topic. This source is intended to help the reader put a dollar sign on what athlete services cost and reasons why universities are doing to much almost.

Peale, Cliff The Cincinnati. "Athletics Cost Colleges, Students Millions." USA Today. Gannett, 15 Sept. 2013. Web. 16 Nov. 2014.

This article was written by Cliff Peale a journalist for USA Today who worked on writing about the revenues for athletic programs. This article provided very important stats on how many programs receive profit from their athletics. My audience would interpret these statistics to see how division one programs struggle to obtain profits through athletics.

"2014 Draft Board | NBA.com." 2014 Draft Board | NBA.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2014

NBA.com is a very credible source and I used this source to see how many players attended a university and how many were drafted elsewhere. This source was used to help support my claim that publicity in college is very important for future professions as seen that 78% of last years picks attended college