Should college athletes be paid Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Should college athletes be paid - Research Paper Example The paper tells that since a long time, college athletes have been working with their hearts and souls day after day and year after year for the appreciation and name of their universities. The athletes are bringing huge money in their universities by their outstanding performances, television contracts and other deals. People, who are intrinsically motivated, possess the love for their work and they do not depend on any extrinsic reward for showing good performance. One can easily put athletes in this category. However, taking wrong advantage of this intrinsic motivation is common in most of the universities and colleges in the world. The people running these universities assume that provision of education in exchange of their phenomenal performance in sports is enough but this scholarship is not enough for those who give up their freedom and blood for a one-hour game. Apart from scholarship, they get nothing for their perseverance and struggle. If one goes in depth of this issue, o ne comes to know that athletes are responsible for running a huge business for the colleges and universities. Athletes play the same role for colleges as employees for organizations. One would hardly find any organization, which pays nothing to its employees who bring in a lot of business. Many people argue that it is more than enough if they get scholarship in exchange of their games and practice but the question arises, that can they survive on the scholarship money wholly. Scholarship money includes their college fee, tuition fee, and cost of books but what would they do for their food, entertainment, phone bills, laundry, and many other activities. Had they not been playing for the colleges they would do part time jobs and earn their livings but athletes require a huge time for practice without which they cannot give good performance and get scholarship from college. Scholarship is not just enough for what they give to their colleges. This is causing many athletes leave their co lleges without completing their education and getting into professional sports. Many colleges give bonuses to its teachers and scholars out of the money, which actually comes in because of undying energy and struggle of college athletes. Chris Weber is one of the athletes of University of Michigan; he had to struggle for money to watch a movie on the other hand the university bookshop was selling his uniform jersey for $50. College athlete must receive some sort of payment from the colleges they join or from the NCAA itself. Colleges should treat athletes as humans as they treat every other student. By not considering them the major reason of earning money and refusing to pay, the NCAA and its executives want the athletes to live a life which normal human beings cannot live. Normal humans want return of their efforts and NCCA is not giving this return. Some or other way NCCA itself is putting the college athletes at a disadvantage to not finish their college education and ruin their careers. Many people say that system is fine the way it is and there is no need of paying college athletes but they would understand the scenario only if they were at the place of these unfortunate athletes. One of the clearest examples of exploitation of college athletes is that of NCCA, which signed a contract of one billion dollar with CBS giving them right to broadcast all NCCA basketball tournament games played by their college athletes. Moreover, â€Å"NCAA has a multimillion-dollar yearly budget and it earns over $20,000,000 a year in television contracts† Murphy and Pace, n.p.). Concerning this, Hunter R. Rawlings III, president of the University of