Andrew Koenig
Mrs. Straub
AP Economics
November 10, 2014
Should NCAA players be paid to play?
Over the years there has been controversy on whether or not a collegiate athlete should be compensated for the work that they put in on the field. The fact of the matter is that the NCAA has an almost pure monopoly when a high school player wants to play in the NFL, the NBA, or any other professional sport. The nearest substitute would be to play overseas, which a mere three athletes have chosen to do since 2006. This allows the NCAA to have a total revenue of nearly twelve billion dollars a year, with a growth rate that outpaces companies like McDonald’s and Chevron. According to college board the average cost to go to a private college is $22,826 per year. When taken into account that there are 450,000 student athletes in the NCAA the average total cost for the industry is 10 billion dollars. Since the NCAA is technically a non profit organization, it has no shareholders and doesn’t pay taxes, so that means that there is two billion dollars that is used on things other than the students. March Madness is wildly popular, and as shown in the graph below the advertising for March Madness trumps even the largest sport in the United States, the NFL. But March Madness brings in a staggering total revenue of 1.15 billion dollars, covering the ad costs and so much more.
A common counter argument to whether or not student athletes should get paid is just that, they are students first, athletes second. But is this really the case? A few years ago players at UNC were found to be enrolled in “paper classes” which essentially were classes that in most high schools wouldn’t qualify as anything. Students were not required to attend these classes were only required to write a small paper which would end up being the entire semester grade. These papers were always given either an A or a B, no matter what type of content was on there. In reality the students are worth more to their schools when they have a hundred yard gain or an interception on saturday rather than doing well in their classes and getting something from their education. One of the final arguments that people have is that students are getting to go there for free. But then there are stories like that of Arian Foster who went to his coach and said “Coach we don’t have no food man, and we don’t have any money. And i’m hungry, either give us some food or I’m gonna go out and do something stupid.” The coach proceeded to go out and buy Arian and four of his teammates fifty tacos to split between them, which was an NCAA violation. There are countless other stories like that, all while most of these coaches are getting paid millions of dollars. In most states the highest paid public employee is a college football coach, with Nick Saban leading the pack bringing in a salary of 5.6 million dollars every year.
When it comes down to it athletes need to get paid to play in their sport. Even if it’s just enough to live comfortably. When an athlete needs to go to their coach for food and then for it to be illegal for that coach to help him out, then something is severely wrong with the system and it needs to be changed.
Works Cited
"Kantar Media." Kantar Media. Kantar Media, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
Schooled: The Price of College Sports. Dir. Susan Saladoff, Ross Finkel, Trevor Martin, and Jonathan Paley. Perf. Kevin Anderson, Jay Bilas, and Taylor Branch. ESPN 30 for 30, 2013. ESPN, 16 Oct. 2013. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
Richter, Felix. "Infographic: March Madness Trumps Pro Sports Leagues in TV Ad Spend." Statista Infographics. N.p., 17 Mar. 2014. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.
"What's the Price Tag for a College Education?" COLLEGEdata. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2014.
I like how you found an example of a pure monopoly in real life, and also another one that could be connected is the fact that if you wanted to watch a sports game in your town you would pretty much have to watch the home team, making them control the entire market in one area. this makes it so they can charge higher than necessary prices, and can use barriers to entry such as the fact they have all the good and famous players to keep other teams from arising.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your points and would like to point out that another one of the problems is that the costs are unclear which causes the players to get into the situations where they are likely to make economically poor decisions. If people were to become unwilling to play sports at that level then the issues would be fixed.
ReplyDeleteI think that you have great statistics backing up your information, but I have to say that I do not think that NCAA players should be payed to play. Although they are working all their lives for that, it is not their career and it is a privilege for them to be part of the team so I think that they should not be paid to play. I think that the money should go to something more useful like financial aid for students recruited that cannot afford to attend that college. It could also go to scholarships for other students. The industry is in demand and is large, but I do not think that these students should be paid to play the game they love.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the system is faulty if there are absolutely no fallbacks in cases like the Arian Foster situation. The cost of having athletes who face challenges like that clearly outweigh the benefits of having athletes like that around. I do however believe that collegiate athletes shouldn't be paid on level with professionals, but they should receive more compensation than they currently do for their efforts.
ReplyDeleteI think it's nonsense that NCAA players dont get paid for the work they conrtibute to the unviversity, especially given the time they put in! Not only do these players dedicate a huge part of their lives to the sports but they also have to maintain there academics and pay for them too! Granted, there are a lot of scholarships given out, but it certainly doesnt amount to the total cost of college and therefore students should be payed if they are participiating in college sports
ReplyDeleteThis is a great article l and it's one that is currently an issue in college sports right now. I think that college athletes shouldn't be paid because it's a privelage and it's not considered your "job" yet if someone is planning on going to the next level which would be the pros. If it's not your job then why should you get paid? That's just wrong and it shouldn't be the way it is. College sports should stay the way that they are because they are more interesting to watch then most professional sports because the athletes try because they are still trying to make it somewhere. if they get paid then college sports may not be as interesting as they are now.
ReplyDeleteI agree that if athletes have to go to their coaches about food because they're starving there's a problem. But if all NCAA sport athletes got paid then some could be just playing for the money and don't care how the team does as long as their getting paid. Plus, playing a sport in college is a hobby not a career. It's a privilege to be on a college team and I think players would misuse that power if they were getting paid.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you there, Morgan. The incentive to play would be diminished if the players were being paid to play the sport. I can’t even count how many times my dad has told me how privileged he was to play a college sport. I doubt that if my dad was being paid he would feel the same way. I do agree that the system is bit unorthodox in that players can threaten their coaches to get what they want. But what can you do? Lose a valuable player?
DeleteI have to say I agree with you as well Andrew. You choose a good topic and you made good points about how these athletes really benefits their collages financially yet don't get any real profit, even their education is in danger, as you pointed out. Truthfully with all this information out it seems like the most profitable option for collages that would have much less backlash is to paid the students something for all of the hard work that they point in every season.
ReplyDeleteI think that they should be paid. While having to work basically a full time job in athletics they are also required to be full time students in school. Having to take 12 credits to be a full time student, there work load is super hard and most athletes don't graduate in 4 years. Its true, there are real no alternatives get to be a professional athlete other than to go through college sports so they take advantage of student athletes. The athletes could all be paid minimum wage for all the money that they bring the university through athletics.
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ReplyDeleteGood points are raised here. While I'm sure every student in college would love to get paid to play the sport, it doesn't serve to do anything but encourage a drop in the quality of their academics, especially when the NCAA helps students propel into the NBA, a multi-billion dollar industry. By refusing to pay NCAA players until they graduate college or join on with the NBA, this establishes an incentive program that motivates the students to do better in school, if money is the endgame.
ReplyDeleteThough some form of compensation is probably deserved by these college athletes, the fact that they’re easily substituted would probably prevent anything large-scale from ever changing. Simply, there are so many people who would dream of participating in college athletics, so if the current group of athletes demanded payment, a new team could easily be formed from students who just want the opportunity to play. They might not be as talented, but this new team would still fill stadiums and generate revenue, all without being paid.
ReplyDeleteYou make a good point and justify it with numbers and statistics, and I agree that they shouldnt be paid. Or, if they are paid, it should not be an excessive amount, and they should still be encouraged to ensure their academics don't suffer the consequences of too much time spent on sports.
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