Don’t Muddy the Purity of College Sports by Paying Athletes
February 4, 2015
It is no secret that some college athletes bring in millions of dollars to their respective universities through their play on the field. It’s only fair that these athletes get their share of this money, right? No, it is not. As a matter of fact, this premise is ridiculous.
Athletes on premier football teams or basketball teams have enough perks while attending school.
* Many receive scholarships that pay for their tuition in full.
* Some schools pay for their athletes’ meals and allow entire teams to stay in a house or dorm together.
* Some college athletes are often allotted extra time to complete assignments for their classes.
* Some college athletes receive free gear and equipment for the sport that he or she plays. The list goes on.
Now, in addition to all of that, they want to get paid?
Some people tend to forget that these are “amateur” athletes. They are not pros. The whole purpose of attending a post-secondary school is to get an education. Playing a sport comes second. In this sense, college should be no different than high school.
There are still some students, however, who take advantage of their status as a top-tier athlete for their school. Some “student”-athletes do not attend class or put in any effort towards their studies. In fact, there are some athletes who don’t think they should attend class at all.
National Champion Ohio State’s starting quarterback, Cardale Jones, expressed his opinion on attending class as an athlete with this gem of a Tweet:
“Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS”
He’s clearly taking advantage of all those books that the school paid for when he made his decision to attend OSU…… #sarcasm!
Do we look at players like Jones and Florida State’s Jameis Winston and think it is a good idea to pay these guys while they are still in college? Who knows what they might do with a stack of money in their pockets. We all know that Winston is not exactly the best at making good decisions. With the added variable of money, players may become more of a liability to their team.
Another potential problem if athletes are paid: How will the NCAA determine which sports receive pay and which will not? Of course, big revenue sports football and basketball become first priority if college athletes are to be paid, but what about, say, volleyball or golf?
Does the NCAA pay those athletes, too? Or do those sports get discriminated against because they don’t generate the bucks that the most popular sports bring in.
How will the NCAA resolve protests by those athletes who play less popular sports if they don’t end up receiving a paycheck. In addition to this, Title IX lawsuits would may come into play if female athletes do not receive pay similar to male athletes.
Athletes should play for the love of the game and, in many cases, a free education when they are in college, not for the money. Adding money to the equation simply takes away from the purity of amateur sports.
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Scott Holzknecht • Mar 12, 2015 at 6:30 am
I disagree with Mr. Cywinski on this one. I think it’s a strange and outdated system to tie a human’s athletic development to school. What if the flip were true? What if in order to get an internship at great law firm, you had to complete sufficiently in CrossFit?
I think I feel for the guy or gal who graduated from highschool (did fine academically), but really wants to make a 100% go at his or her sport. There’s no outlet for someone like that. They have to go to college. If there were an alternative–a semi-pro league like baseball has were high school talent can go and forget college–I’d think differently. If a baseball player were saying what Cardale Jones said, anyone could say, “Well…don’t go to college, then! Take your talents to the minor leagues!” There’s no alternative like that for basketball/football players.
Thanks for writing this article…I think it’s an important justice issue…billions of dollars in revenue at stake!
John • Mar 16, 2015 at 5:34 pm
I personally think paying student athletes is absurd. What happens when universities start paying for it’s student’s athletic abilities? Where does the money come from and how does it affect the student body as a whole?
If it’s university funded, how does that effect the overall student-body? Do the universities take a financial hit at the expense of athletics? Money that was once funding clubs, organizations, campus events, expansion and teacher’s salaries are ultimately scaled back, right? As a result, the university would be putting education second to athletics, which should never happen. A universities primary funcition is to educate.
Does tuition rise? If so, there’s already a very public issue with student debt, and this could potentially inflame that problem while the promising athletes presumably have all their financial bases covered. Increased tuition would perpetuate a problem that’s hurting a lot of the young post-grad population currently. If it’s tuition based, how do you allocate the funds appropriately without upsetting one sport vs another. And what constitutes a sport? Mathaletes, table tennis, etc?
If the athletes are funded by sponsorship how does this change the game(s)? Are teams sponsored as a whole or individual players? If it’s individual players, what happens if they’re injured or they hold out for more money? If it’s a team sponsorship, what would happen if the sponsor suddenly pulls their funding for an opportunity at another team?
Universities already offer a myriad of benefits to athletes. In addition to the benefits they’re often getting a free education; something that should be coveted in our current economic environment. An athletes greatest failure would be not taking advantage of the education offered to them, and often times this is the case. More than making a point or asking for a formal response, I’m trying to raise some of the questions here. As you can see there are a lot! I’ll end on Ryan’s final point; an athlete should, first and foremost, be fueled by passion for their sport not by the a financial perk that could ultimate distract from the game.