Should College Athletes be Paid?

The question that should college athletes be paid has been a burning topic for debate for long. The reason for this is because both the parties, those in favor as well as those in opposition have solid grounds for their points.

There are of course many other questions that crop up apart from college athletes getting paid. The discrimination between athletes based upon the sports that they play is also a major concern in this debate.

So, Should College Athletes Be Paid Or Not? 

Many completely favor the fact that college or university athletes should be paid and there are those who are in complete opposition. In order to present a clear picture of the argument, it is important to understand both sides of it. So, here are the pros and the con of this debate

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Pros Of Paying College/University Athletes 

#1. The athletes put their body on the line in order to win prestige for their university, and it makes absolute sense that they get paid for it. In the year 2013, Louisville player Kevin Ware who was playing in the NCAA tournament suffered a major injury. Thankfully he recovered within the next six months but there have been instances of players getting paralyzed on the football field.

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#2. These athletes bring in a lot of money for the university; the figure had even gone to the billions when a deal was finalized between the NCAA and CBS/Turner. It is only fair if the money trickles down to the people who are doing the major hard work.  

#3. Providing athletes with a good amount of money would mean curbing the corruption that athletes face at the hands of agents, boosters, and others.  

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The pros give a solid reasoning as to why athletes need to be paid and here are the CONS to the argument.  

#1. The first point against the argument is that athletes receive monetarily help even otherwise in the form of scholarship. They get free tuition, room, and board along with which they receive stipends to help towards books and other basic needs. Also, they are paid in the form of experience; they get to learn and practice right from the very basic level. Most of the time they get to have their pick of the litter as far as where they want to go and play is concerned.  

#2. There is also another point that many people are huge fans of collegiate-level sports primarily due to one reason which is that players who play at this level do it out of their love and passion for the sport. Adding the money factor would mean taking away the true love that the athletes have for sport at that level. Professional athletes keep a lot of factors in mind while playing and don’t take a lot of risks if a national championship is not involved.  

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#3. Not all schools can really afford to pay their athletes a huge chunk of money every time they win a game. The bigger schools can easily do that, and hence the athletes choose to go to bigger universities while they could have got a good education in a smaller school. 

#4. Not every sports rope in the big bucks. While there are sports such as football and basketball that are the money making sports many other do not get a lot of importance and are cash strapped. It is no way fair for those athletes who are also putting their body online and earning prestige for the university but due to money shortage are not compensated monetarily.

What are your views on this topic and how important do you think it is to gain admission in a reputed college. Comment on the box to tell us!

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