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Trace Smith
Mrs. Crist
English IV
17 February 2015
Should College Athletes Get Paid?
For many years, NCAA athletes have been going to schools on partial or full ride
scholarships to play sports at their university. Many of these athletes will become big time
players at their universities with all the hard work they put in practicing and playing games. Over
time though, these athletes may encounter little time for academics, become shorthanded on
money for school and may suffer possible career ending injuries that will force them into
possibly thousands of dollars in medical bills. Therefore, if these college athletes were paid by
their university, they would be receiving payments that could help them pay off any school debt
and pay off any medical bills they have from injuries received in their sport.
Every year across the country, major college football and mens basketball teams help
their university make billions of dollars through their games being televised, their success
leading to ticket sales and their teams merchandise that is sold. Under NCAA rules, the money a
school makes will strictly go partially towards the NCAA, some will go to coaches, but none to
the players. Why is that? In the article Should College Athletes Be Paid? Two recent rulings may
change the face of College Sports it is stated under NCAA rules, players have been considered
amateurs who are not allowed to profit from their sports (Majerol 1). Since this is the case, a
federal judge has decided that players from big time programs should be entitled to receive
money if their names or images are used in video games or TV broadcasts. Before this occurred,

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former football players at Northwestern University were granted the right to be recognized as
employees and were allowed to form a union. The fact is these players put in too much hard
work for their teams and do the best they can with the little time they have for academics, and
they should be rewarded by getting paid a partial amount of money they help make for their
school.
College athletes may go to school to play sports on full-ride scholarships or partial
scholarships. A major concern for some of these athletes is student debt that they may have to
pay back. Full-ride scholarship athletes are the ones who may be more fortunate, but still might
have to take out loans to cover other living expenses. It is the athletes that are not on a full-ride
scholarship who attend major universities to play the sport they love and to practice hard on the
field, but will not have the money to cover the costs for the school they attend. Former
Jacksonville State fullback Robert DiMarco had to take out $22,000 in student loans before he
graduated from school. DiMarco says My athletic department had absolutely no impact on loans
nor did they properly educate any of our team during pre-season, offseason, and recruiting
(Heitner 1). College athletes should be more educated on the student loan-process so they do not
go into major debt while playing their sport at their university. Being paid some of the money
these schools make will help these athletes overtime to try to avoid going into debt.
Many athletes that attend the top universities in the country for sports always have a
concern about what if they were to get injured. Some major programs make sure their athletes
are covered with insurance if they were to get injured while playing but that is not the case for
some athletes. Erin Knauer, a former rower that attended Colgate University, injured her back
and legs while training for the team. She said I thought I would be coveredYou never think
you are going to rack up that much of a bill (Peterson 1). Erin Knauer ended up having $80,000

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in medical bills because Colgate officials deemed her condition as an illness not an athletic
injury. Jason Whitehead was a former football player that attended the University of Ohio that
suffered an injury so bad he was temporarily paralyzed and had $1,800 in unpaid medical bills 6
years later when he tried purchasing a car. Jason says, The coach says you are on a full time
scholarship, if you ever get hurt we will make sure to take care of you (Peterson 1). Jason
attended a major university on full scholarship and was not fully covered after his career ending
injury and this is reason why college athletes should be paid so they do not have be unlucky like
Jason and Erin.
In the near future, the decision on whether college athletes should be paid will be a topic
of discussion and will be debatable between other athletes and their universities. The fact is
many athletes that attend major universities work too hard for their sports teams and know the
risks they could obtain while playing sports. Whether they get injured or go into student debt
while at school, they are going to end up being financially hurt and may not have the money to
pay these things off. That is why the NCAA should allow college athletes to receive payments
while attending school and playing sports for their university.

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Works Cited Page

Heitner, Dan. "College Athletes Are Not Immune To America's Student Debt Dilemma."Forbes.
Forbes Magazine, 3 June 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2015.

Majerol, Veronica. "Should college athletes be paid? Two recent rulings may change the face of
college sports." New York Times Upfront 2014: 14. Academic OneFile. Web. 10 Feb.
2015.

Peterson, Kristina. "College Athletes Stuck With the Bill After Injuries." The New York Times.
The New York Times, 15 July 2009. Web. 12 Feb. 2015