Should College Athletes be paid?

With the National Basketball Association Draft approaching in this upcoming June, many former college basketball stars are prepping themselves to move to the next level and upgrade their status from Amateurs to Professionals. Over the last couple of years there has been a great debate on whether college student athletes should be paid or not. Many people, specifically former and current college athletes are in favor of and many who aren’t fond of the idea of paying athletes who play sports for their schools. Here is the breakdown of the several pros.

Pro #1: Colleges Revenue Significant amounts of money from sports teams.

According the ESPN’s Michael Wilbon, there is a contract between the NCAA and TNT/TBS/Turner Sports for NCAA March Madness between 2011 and 2014. This television deal is significant because the NCAA revenues this money just off the month of March, ONE month. March Madness is one of the most watched sporting events of the year and none of the money is being given to the players. Harlem resident Vision Charles agrees with NCAA basketball star formerly of Duke University Jay Williams who says college athletes should strike against playing in the tournament until they get paid. “You’re too young to remember but the NFL went on the strike in the 80’s, and the players sucked, and the NFL lost a lot of money. You ain’t seen them go on strike since. The NCAA better start paying these players”, says Charles.

Pro #2: End Corruption with Boosters and Agents

Harry Anderson, a youth basketball coach in New York City, believes that college athletes should be paid because they’re forced to go to school instead of going pro after high school. “The NBA makes you wait one year post-high school for you to enter the draft. The NFL makes you wait I think two or three years, and some of these players come from messed up backgrounds where they need money immediately”. Sometimes players come from poor backgrounds and are extra hungry when playing different sports because they know that this might be their only way out of poverty. During the conversation the youth basketball coaches alluded to, since the players, young and naïve not getting paid and are approached by boosters and agents who are willing to hold the player down with a certain amount of money with hopes that the athlete chooses a specific college to play at. Usually boosters are alumni of big universities and target the stars with hopes that the star attends the university and help generate more revenue. When talking about agents, they give players money with the agreement to sign with their agency prior to their entry in the drafts.

Unlike Anderson and Charles, there are individuals who feel like college athletes shouldn’t get paid. One of those people happen to be Will Kelly, a youth basketball coach and father who says; “If a school is willing to pay for my child’s education, worth $70,000 a year, for four years, as a parent, you don’t have to give me or my child a dime, you’re helping enough”. Cases can be made for both sides but it’s up to the NCAA to take the next steps if paying college athletes is ever going to happen, and if it does it probably won’t happen for years to come.