For years, there has been the debate of whether or not college athletes should be paid to play their sport. On one hand, I do believe they should be paid, but I also know that to pay every college athlete would be unsustainable financially. In turn, I believe college athletes should be compensated through alternate ways. Most college students need financial aid in their college endeavors, and for college athletes, it is even harder to hold a job to pay for their education. Frank Deford (2003), said “Why should a college student who happens to be a good athlete be denied the same right as a college student who is a good musician or a good writer or a good actor?” (pg. 673). Deford makes a very good point. Other students with talents besides
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Even the ones that could afford it may not be able to sustain that funding through shifts in support and records. Steve Weiberg (2011), can be quoted as saying, “but it’s also financially implausible, given the scores of programs that can't keep up with existing expenses.” (pg. 682). With that statement, Weiberg is correct. For example, ESPN reported that in 2008, ranked #40 “Huskies” made a revenue of about $55,218,003. Subtract their total expenses of $55,025,374, which includes tuition, visitors, coach pay, recruiting, team travel, games, and marketing, and you get $192,629 to divide between their player count of 68 (Fox Sports). Each player would get about $2,833 for that one season, not counting any amount of money going back into the program for the following season or back to the college. And what about non-revenue producing sports? Sports that are just as valued by many, but do not charge to watch. How should they be paid? Should teams attempt to split the costs of revenue producing sports with non-revenue producing sports? This would likely give the athletes barely enough/none to get by.
So if athletes should be paid, but it is unsustainable, how should colleges go about paying their athletes? I say the solution is to compensate college athletes by alternate means. For one, more colleges could offer more scholarships. If you think about it, the athletes are choosing their college. They could always choose to go to a college that is better, more qualified, etc., but instead, choose to represent that specific college. Being that they are a representative and are a way to bring recognition to the college, more or higher scholarships are a way to compensate their
Even the ones that could afford it may not be able to sustain that funding through shifts in support and records. Steve Weiberg (2011), can be quoted as saying, “but it’s also financially implausible, given the scores of programs that can't keep up with existing expenses.” (pg. 682). With that statement, Weiberg is correct. For example, ESPN reported that in 2008, ranked #40 “Huskies” made a revenue of about $55,218,003. Subtract their total expenses of $55,025,374, which includes tuition, visitors, coach pay, recruiting, team travel, games, and marketing, and you get $192,629 to divide between their player count of 68 (Fox Sports). Each player would get about $2,833 for that one season, not counting any amount of money going back into the program for the following season or back to the college. And what about non-revenue producing sports? Sports that are just as valued by many, but do not charge to watch. How should they be paid? Should teams attempt to split the costs of revenue producing sports with non-revenue producing sports? This would likely give the athletes barely enough/none to get by.
So if athletes should be paid, but it is unsustainable, how should colleges go about paying their athletes? I say the solution is to compensate college athletes by alternate means. For one, more colleges could offer more scholarships. If you think about it, the athletes are choosing their college. They could always choose to go to a college that is better, more qualified, etc., but instead, choose to represent that specific college. Being that they are a representative and are a way to bring recognition to the college, more or higher scholarships are a way to compensate their