In my last four blogs, I been going back and forth on this matter of playing college athletics more than a scholarship and room and board. Both sides are fighting for what they believe is right. In my opinion, I think the universities have the better argument to not paid their athletics any more than they do now. Scholarships and room and board to these prestige universities take a good amount of money from these schools. Also they giving the athletics the best education, which many students dream about, money can afford for free. I also feel that these athletics should be thankful more than they are because the education they’re receiving is going to benefit them in the future. The athletics are investing on their future when they agree to play any college sport at a universities and also it’s completely free. How many investing are free in this world? Not that many that I can think about.
I understand these athletics feel that they deserve some of the profit they make for their universities. If the universities do start to give their athletics some kind of payments for paying for them, the big and more profitable schools would get the better players in my opinion. Small schools wouldn’t be able to recruit players like bigger schools could. My last point I would make is that paying these college athletics would take away their amateur status and make them professional. The real professional athletics would be upset about this. I hope that everything stays the same and college athletics appreciate what the universities are giving them .

In this blog, I interviewed one of my friends who is playing division one college football at West Virginia. He’s now a junior at that school. It was a long and struggling time from being in New York City to a completely different place like West Virginia. These are some questions I ask him and his response to them.

*When being a senior in high school, how many colleges were interested in you playing for their school?
I wasn’t heavily recruit out of high school, but three school were really interest in me. The schools were West Virginia, Georgia, and Michigan. Honestly I never been anywhere near these schools in my life. I knew going to school it would have been a whole new experience.

*Why did you choose West Virginia?
I choose West Virginia because when going to visit this school, I like the environment around campus and the people were very friendly. It felt so different from New York City. Also the food was amazing out there, a bit to grease but it was great. It wasn’t that far home so I could home at any time I please.

*How was high school and college football different?
Oh man. College football was much faster and harder than high school football. Also it was more time consuming then high school because college has more preparation time, harder class, and tougher practices. I remember being in high school and being able to work on the weekends but in college your glad if you get a day to just to relax in your dorm. Much more work involve than high school football.

*What does a typical day of college football consist of on the off season and season?
Off season most of the days consist of working out at least twice a days while going to video preparation throughout the day. Also practices are held throughout the off season. Its up to you how hard you want to in the off season if you slack you could lose your starter or spot on the team. While during the season you have all these same workouts and practices, with classes and games to play. Playing division one football you travel at least 6 to 7 games a year to different locations. If you get lucky you get to play in a bowl game with could be anywhere around America. Also you must keep a 2.0 GPA to stay on the team and keep your scholarship.

*Do have any time for yourself during the year?
Yeah some holidays I go back home to relax for a while but I never stay there past a week. You always have to be practicing or working out to get better and stay competitive with the other players. I can’t work all throughout the year because their is no time and I can’t miss any workouts or practices. You always have to give your all to these sports no matter if its college or the pros.

*Do you ever regent playing College Football?
Some days yes and others no depends on mood. It been hard to adjust new environment and have all this workload put on you at such a young age but I believe it made me stronger. Everyday I feel that I’m a full time job doing overtime every other day because my sport doesn’t take any off days. I would have love to be a normal college student but this is the path I choose. If I could do it again maybe I would have gone to school in New York and not played football. Live a normal and relax life without injuries and pain everyday.

　　College athletics are some of the busy people on campus. They train all year around while also going to class and maintain a GPA of 2.25. The athletics don’t have to worry about anything but focus on training an class. These colleges and universities take care of their players by providing them a place to live, clothes to wear, and a meal plan for whenever they get hungry. Also they pay for their education which is usually at a pretty good college or universities which most of the time cost a lot. They ask their players to not get into legal or foolish troubles and also not to take any money from anyone outside the college or universities.
　　Colleges believe if they pay their players it would take away the student athletic title and be replace by professional athletics. According to this article, “Sorry Time Magazine: Colleges Have No Reason To Pay Athletes”, paying college athletics would result in this, “He believes that paying the players as professionals carries a big risk of the public quickly tuning out. “It would create a massive unknown, you have to wonder if it would change the whole dynamic of what it means to be a student-athlete,”. Students would be more interest in getting paid than playing the sport they love for their school in my opinion. The students would be more demand about how much they can get from the school and from outside the school. Bigger colleges and universities would bring in more better recruits than smaller schools because they have more income to spend. It would be like free agency that occur in professional sports. According to the same article, as state before, makes an argument against not paying athletics, “There’s also another fundamental issue that never seems to come up. It’s called the free marketplace. Why don’t schools pay? Because they don’t have to. Recruits jump on the offer of tuition, room and board without hesitation. And let’s not call them exploited – they aren’t. Slaves were exploited. A scholarship athlete at a university can leave anytime he wants to, free to become a tuition-paying student like anyone else”. I believe that’s a pretty good argument to not pay students because they do give them a place to live, an education and scholar which they dont have to pay back.
　　These colleges and universities won’t give into the paying their students because it will take away from being a student athlete. Players and their schools will have to give and take to come to a compromise about this issue but colleges won’t even talk about this issue.
　　
Check out this article after reading this blog:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2013/09/06/sorry-time-magazine-colleges-have-no-reason-to-pay-athletes/

Next blog will be a personal interview with a college athlete.

News is being broadcast in some many ways nowadays that it’s almost impossible for people not to know what is happening in the world. The same goes for sports. The one sport I want to focus on is college football. The question that sports reports are debating is why shouldn’t college football players be paid if they putting their lives in risk. This debate has been going on for years but nothing has change. Colleges keep making profits from these players while not paying them or letting them work. These colleges argue that they are giving the players a free education, a place to live and free food to eat.
　　According to this article, “Hypocrisy: The College Football Scholarship” by Jack Bechta, highlights the rules for college football players which are, “Under NCAA rules, college football players are prohibited from profiting in any way. They can’t go pro out of high school and cannot negotiate the terms of their scholarship. They are limited to the kind of outside work they can do, how much they can make and where they can make it”. So in other words the players are not able to make any money while being in college. Not even summer or spring vacation because of giving up all their time and effort to get better in their sport and also catching up in class. Another quote from Jack Bechta tells us about how college football players spend their vacation, “College football players rarely experience spring break, are expected to be in school for the summer, and give about 32 to 40 hours per week during the season and about half that in the spring and summer. I truly don’t think the public understands what football players give to their respective programs. I also believe it’s worth more than the scholarship they receive in exchange for their services”. I truly agree with Bachta that these players give more than scholarship they receive from the colleges. I feel that these players are take advantage of by these colleges trying to maximize their profits.
　　Also this article highlights the physical toll that these players put they’re body through. He says that, “Any NFL GM or team doctor will tell you that by the time the players get to the Combine they are damaged goods. They have experienced multiple concussions, torn labrums, and physical trauma throughout their knees and backs. Unfortunately, as those players start aging and experiencing pain and further breakdowns of their body, they have no recourse”. Wow, you believe that. Before becoming a professional athletics you have to experience all these injuries and hardships for no payment. Its not guarantee that all these players will make to the pros but they will be left with lasting physical damages and less income from these years.
　　In my opinion these points raise alot of questions on why these players can’t receive some kind of payments for their hard work. Time will tell on how this matter will be resolve.
　　
If you have sometime read this article afterwards. I feel this article highlights many great points that I use in my blog:

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Hypocrisy-The-College-Football-Scholarship.html

Next Blog will be “College Argument For Not Paying College Football Players”

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　　 When you looking through a TV guide most of the times, sports are being broadcast on several channels. These sports are broadcast live to the audience in many popular channels like CBS, NBC, ABC, TBS, SportsCenter and many others. In other words, millions of viewers are watching sports as their past time. When airing these games, channels must pay the professional sports teams or universities for the rights to broadcast their games.
　　
These contracts bring in enormous amount of revenue to professional teams and universities. I believe that professional sports team needs these huge contracts because they have stadiums, coaches, trainers, practice faculties, doctors to pay and also the most expenses one is their players. While on the other hand, universities do have to pay for their stadiums, coaches, trainers, doctors, practice faculties, scholarships, room and board but not their players, which bring in ridiculous amount of money. Scholarships for players are pretty expense but the revenues overweight the expenses so profit is being made by these universities.

According to this article, “Paying College Athletes: Not If, But How”, from the HuffingtonPost.com, by Rachel Cohen and Ralph D. Russo, shows the profit one school will make this season, “Notre Dame will get scholarships worth about $52,000 per year and the school will receive $6.2 million for playing in the title game – to go with the $15 million NBC reportedly pays just to televise the school’s regular-season home games”. In other words, the school is making almost 20 million dollars in revenue from the several contracts. I understand running a universities takes a significant amount of money but these contracts are absurd to be given. These universities are making huge amounts of profits from these young teenagers. While these teenagers work so hard all year around to keep their grades and physical abilities to high standards. This article, “A day in the life of a college basketball player”, by Tomeka Davis, shows a typical day of a college athletic, “the mornings began at 5am with a 2 mile jog. After my first set of classes, it was lunch and to maintain a proper body weight, eating what the school provided was out of the question. I mostly skipped lunch for studying or weight training. Then it was back to afternoon classes, dinner, and game film. After game film, came regular practice, which consisted of running, executing plays, more running, and scrimmage games. Once practice was over it was back to the dorms for more studying, around 8pm, a shower and sleep”. Also Davis states this ,“Being a college basketball player was much like having a full time job, to be able to do the thing you loved, you worked. You pushed your body to the limit for no pay, basically education, room and board. I think people should really consider paying these athletes small amount of money, especially those without scholarships.That’s why you see all these basketball players jumping ship to go pro., they wonder why they should play for free when they can be paid for the same thing”. I feel that he makes valid argument in this article to push universities to pay college athletes some amount of money for playing for them. You see how hard these teenagers work, it makes me want to pay them something for their efforts. Also these players have no time to work so no money is being made of these teenagers for their personal needs. This is insane to me.
　　
Throughout the year, colleges have many tournaments or championships games that fans want to see and be a part of this event. One of the most popular one is the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament or March Madness. In the article, “Paying College Athletes: Not If, But How”, By Rachel Cohen and Ralph D. Russo, tells us exactly how much these universities make from March Madness, “The NCAA’s current men’s basketball tournament agreement with CBS and Turner is worth an average of more than $770 million per year”. This amount is divide by conferences and then distribute to each college. I feel that these universities are being greedy with their money. Student athletes should fight for some commission from these universities because they are the source of all the profit for these universities. Just imagine if these players strike or boycott the loss would be catastrophic to this universities. I believe in a few years, these college players will be pay some amount of money maybe not great but something is better than nothing. Hope you enjoy reading this blog and send me some feedback on this issue.