Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay

896 Words4 Pages
Currently there is significant controversy over whether or not colleges should be allowed to pay their student athletes. Both sides of the argument make valid arguments to support their claim, however, neither side is willing to seek commonality with the other which is what may be causing the greatest portion of the issue. The solution is simple, pull advice from both sides. Do this by not allowing players to be paid by their schools, but allow them to receive compensation for money made on the sales of their images and name. As shown by Warren Hartenstine in his article, “College Athletes Should Not be Paid,” many of the students who participate in college athletics do not go on to become professional athletes, they choose other careers outside of their athletic interests. He notes that of his Alma Mater's football team’s 800 living lettermen, only 15 percent of them moved on to play professional football as a first career. The majority of the rest of the players moved onto careers such as K-12 educators, corporate sales executives, and professionals in other fields (doctors, lawyers, dentists, financial executives, etc.) (476-477). These players use athletics…show more content…
Although these players are being used as a source of revenue, the money they help bring in goes back to them in the form of coaches (Reschke, 1). Furthermore, these high level schools are more often than not the schools that students wishing to be recruited for professional athletics play for. It is less common for athletes at these schools to pursue other careers as anything other than a backup plan for if they do not make it to the pros. Being as this is, the selling point for these schools is often that players are more likely to be noticed by professional teams by playing for them (Marx, 474-475). This increased likelihood of recruitment may be seen as a form of
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