Sunday, November 6, 2011
Clay Strawser, Stephanie Zimmerman, Surui Sun, Chunyao Tang
With more scandals involving college athletes getting improper benefits coming up, there will always be the question of whether or not they should be paid. This article explains the reasons why they should be paid for playing. What do you guys think? Is there any fair way that they can come up with a system to fix this?
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This article brings up a good point; however, I disagree with it almost entirely. College athletes, especially those who are on a full ride, do not need to be paid. They are having their housing, meals, and academics paid for entirely. And if they are not on a full ride, it was there choice to play the sport instead of getting a job. They knew what they were getting into and the sacrifices that come with it to play something that they love. Technically, they are being paid; the amount they're being paid just depends on how big the scholarship is. And say they do get a weekly allowance to help pay for other things (most of them are probably not necessities since their food, room, and school are being paid for with their scholarship), it certainly shouldn't be $100 dollars a week. That is more than I make at my job in 2 weeks. Also, where will they get the money for this allowance? Most likely from our tuition, which is already rising at an exponential rate.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Justin 100% on this. athletes are already getting a full ride including their meal plan and housing, why should they get paid as well? Every other student that isn't an athlete and doesn't have a full ride has to pay for their tuition housing meal plan/ food, not to mention books and if they go out on the weekend. Plus we have to pay to watch our classmates play for our school, to me that's screwed up. So if athletes have to pay for books and going out so what? so does everyone else. It is not like these athletes are broke either. Have you seen how many of them have MULTIPLE tattoos? If they have money to waste, then they can buy their own books. I do agree with the article that the NCAA is screwed up and needs to be changed. There are so many stupid rules that prevent coaches or anyone else for that matter do something nice for an athlete. If any other person were to buy someone food they would be seen as doing a good act, but not to the NCAA apparently.
ReplyDeleteI agree fully with the previous two posts. Athletes make a choice to play, just like the college students who have a job choose to work. If athletes should get paid, so should a student for getting good grades; both are bringing good attention to the University. Also, if athletes in college would get paid, then who is to say that high school athletes shouldn't get paid? They have the same dedication to the sport, while also having school work. Paying college athletes is a horrible idea, and if that starts, who knows who else will want paid for doing good in or out of school, at any level.
ReplyDeleteI tend to disagree. I have friends that are on full rides for academic standing and they are provided a stipend along with free tuition, housing and meal plan. They take hard classes and have to maintain a certain GPA but have plenty of free time to get a job, if they needed to. Yet, they are provided with extra spending money by the University so that they do not have to. Should athletes be treated differently because they are on a full ride for other reasons?
ReplyDeleteIt is true that technically all of their needs are provided for. However, college students are not only going to go to class and eat. They need money to do other reasonable needs, such as new clothing, go to the movies, have a nice dinner, or get a tattoo. Basic things that any other college student with a job would be able to do. I disagree with Joe, not all athletes have money. Actually, many of them come from poor families and give whatever little money that they are getting from the University to their families.
This obsession over not allowing college students to receive money for their status leads to crazy penalties for receiving “improper benefits” as touched on in the article. For example, if you are an athlete meeting your girl friend’s family for the first time, you are not allowed to have them treat you to dinner. This is ridiculous. Their careers can be ruined over one dinner.
Furthermore, colleges and universities make millions of dollars off of major sports such as football and basketball .The coaches, concession workers, ticketing people, etc make a living off of the sport. Yet, the athletes make nothing. I am not presuming that they should make enough money for fancy cars, etc. However, they should be given a minimum salary for extra spending money. Nothing extravagant.
I didn't really have an opinion on all of the "improper benefits" scandals before reading this article. Now, being a little more informed, I can agree with Joe and the fact that the NCAA is screwed up. The story about Majerus is so disappointing in that, during a meal in which such heart-breaking news was delivered, he couldn't even purchase a bagel for his player without receiving a punishment. Incidents like that don't deserve attention from the organization and should be completely detached from the formal coach-player relationship they're expected to have. I do agree that the so-called allowance talked about in the article is completely unfair. Athletes have a choice to play in college in hopes that their athletic ability will take them farther in life. The scholarships received by the players and the satisfaction felt from participating in a sport they love at a collegiate level should be enough to "reward" the athletes. College is a job for all of us, whether we're here for athletics or academics. It consumes a lot of our free time and produces a good amount of stress to get our work done. However, the student body doesn't get paid for demonstrating our academic abilities so athletes shouldn't get paid for demonstrating their athletic abilities. Whether you're an athlete or not, we're all students and we're here in hopes that later in life these four or five years will help us make a living doing something we love.
ReplyDeleteI have mixed feelings on whether college athletes should be paid to play. While they are on full rides and have all their school paid for, they don't have time to get jobs so I do understand that they need some spending money. But I feel that its not the schools responsibilities to give the athletes spending money. Athletes have the choice to play in college they have but all of their school is being paid for. While students like me have to pay for our own school and have jobs to pay it off. I also feel that the NCAA is screwed up. I feel they have nothing better to do but punish athletes and coaches for pointless and harmless reasons. The fact that a coach was penalized for buying his player who just lost his father is ridiculous. I agree with the post above that the NCAA is screwed up and needs to change.
ReplyDeleteI agree that being a college athelete is tough, but so is being a science major and being pre-med. Yeah, they practice a lot and it's very time consuming. Some of my best friends play football and baseball for Ohio State and it's tough. Yes it takes up a lot of time, but college in general takes up a lot of time. If the rest of us can have hard as heck majors, do internships and research and being highly involved on campus, so can they. Football players get like 4 free gatorades after every practice and the school provides them with team dinners. My friends talk about it so I know that it's true, seeing as they play the sport. I know being a college athelete is hard, but this article is a little dramatic about how much they struggle to make ends meet.
ReplyDeleteWhile I agree that some of the NCAA rules are harsh and should be changed, I don't think college players who are already on full rides need to be paid extra money. So college students have all of their tuition, plus their books, plus some of their meals, plus their housing all paid for. Having said all this, they probably do need a few extra bucks here and there for clothes, extra meals, etc., which is fine; however, this brings up a question for me: if student athletes don't have enough money to put clothes on their backs and pay for a couple meals, how were they able to do so before college? Did their elementary schools give them an allowance for being athletes? Also, if money is really that tight, why not do what many regular students have to do and take out a loan? If an athlete is really so good that it would have actually been worthwhile for the school to pay him/her more money, won't that athlete make so much within the first 3 years after college that their extremely small loan would be paid off in no time? Plus, if the student doesn't even turn out to contribute all that much to the team he/she is on, he/she got a free education without helping the school financially at all.
ReplyDeleteSo then comes in the argument of the school making a bunch of money off the players, so the players should earn some of it. Well, in a way, they do, just not immediately. Again, the school gives them free education, which can be used to make more money later in life. Plus, if a student is making his/her school a significant amount of money in something like jersey sales, the school is providing the student with a ton of national exposure. This exposes students to pro scouts, and gives them big contracts when they go in the first and second rounds of professional drafts.
Another issue with paying players is how do you monitor it (especially with smaller amounts of money). What limit will you set on the amount of money you give players? If it's too low, players will just push for it to be higher, just like they're pushing for extra money now. If the amount is too high, it creates an unfair advantage for some schools who can afford to give players better "contracts" than other schools. More scandals would also probably arise from schools trying to recruit players by slipping them more than the "legal" amount of money. Furthermore, there's a chance not all schools can even afford to start paying players. Not every school brings in the revenue from sports that OSU does.
On top of all the expenses college players have paid for them by the university, they are also treated like gods on campus. How can you feel sorry for someone who is worshipped every day of his life for being athletic? Most college athletes probably have the time of their lives in college, and now people think we should give them more money to be worshipped, even though they are already being handed all essentials.
Yeah, the NCAA has some ridiculous rules about improper benefits that should be changed, but should the players actually be given an official "allowance" by the university, in addition to all the university is already providing for them? No.
This article seems to be using pathos, trying to make the reader feel bad for the athletes. That's nuts though they are basically being paid thousands a year anyways, just by not making them pay for tuition or meals. I do, however, feel that a player should be able to be bought a bagel without punishment. Players should not get cars, allowances, etc. Maybe there should be a limit on what players can receive, and if so it should definitely allow for a bagel.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with that being a college player is tough when to balance the time for study and the time for practice. College athletes work harder than normal student. They need to keep practice and they also need to keep their GPAs. However, harder work doesn’t mean they have to be paid.
ReplyDeleteCollege sport team is a place to fit students who like to do external contribution to the school. No politics says that each college student need to join a sport team, and joining a sport team is not on the GEC require list. The Students who choose to be a college athlete they definitely know that what they are going to sacrifice. They volunteer to represent the whole school, city even whole state. And I also agree with Matt. The entire article is trying to make the readers feeling bad for the college athletes. The author has big attitude about Utah basketball team was punished by Majerus to buy his player a bagel.I think that is sensational hype. But that still not a reason for college athletes should be paid. Those players can totally afford a bagel by their scholarship.
I would say that athletes have a tough time in managing their college loads and sport. But till I think they should not be paid because the college is giving them a lot of benefits life free living, food, tuition and a lot of stuff so it would be useless to pay them more. As a played they are not getting their pay check but they are getting benefits from college which in turns out to be their pay check.
ReplyDeleteWell, seems like most of comments saying college athletes don't need to paid. However, I really think they need to be paid. Now colleges are really taking advantages to their atheletes. I remember the year I just came to OSU, President Gee were saying our football team win the campinionship for entire country. All of the buckeyes are really proud of. This is all because atheletes. When do the comparison to college schools, how good sports team they have take big parts of evaluation. Colleges are depending on sports team, so it is reasonable to pay atheletes. Also, most of athletes are not just for interests, they are doing for career. They are not only don't have time for job, they even don't have time to study. Most of them will take more than 4 years to stay in colleges to finish their degrees, how they can live without any incomes? Therefore, I think college athletes should be paid
ReplyDeleteCollege athletes are different from professional athletes. According to this fact, they should not be paid real money. I do agree the article states that college athletes use a lot of time and energy in practices to help their schools win games. And I do not even doubt they bring a large amount of economical profit to schools by the sports tickets. However, it is the reason why they can get full scholarships. Being paid full scholarship is not an easy honor for a non-college athlete student to get unless the student has really good grades. For students who can get full rides by academic success, they also use unbelievable effort than others in their academic careers. Therefore, college athletes are in the same situation of good grades students. They both bring positive impacts to school. If college athlete can get real paid money, good grades students also should be paid. But school is school and it is not a stage for business. On the other hand, paying real money to in-school athletes may bring troubles. Athletes may even give up academic study to practice in sports in order to get more money. However, I agree schools can give athletes more conveniences like free on-campus resident halls, free school meals, and travelling fees for games. But the school should not give athletes real cash.
ReplyDeleteI fee that the college athletes should be paid. Because i think it is not the schools responsibility to spend too much money on the athletes spending. It pretty good for the school's athletes get a good position among the countryside but it is not the school's duty to being paid for. I think there should be some changes in the NCAA and NCAA is screwed up.
ReplyDeleteAccording to this question, from my point of view, we should consider this issue from two different sides. The first one should be what Justin thinks about. The college athletes are paid for their housing meal and tuition, it is fair to say that these fees cover what they should earn. However, from another point, somehow we can understand that getting extra money stimulates them to works harder and to do better. Maybe it is not a large amount of money, but it really has a good impact on college athletes.
ReplyDeleteI agree that college athletes should be rewarded for their perspiration on the field. They did imput extra efforts into the practice, bring joys to people and gain reputation for the whole school. They worth the returns at no doubt. However, I can't agree that besides tuition and priority in housing and meal plans, they should earn extra money. Think about if they are paid extra, where does the money come from. With no concern, those budgets must be balanced by charging extra tuition to other students. I think university is still a place that academic affairs should be considered at the first place. Too much expenditures on sports just like putting the cart before horse.
ReplyDeleteFor my point of view , I think college athletes do not need to be paid.As a student , you should earn the honour for the school ,and as I know most of college athletes get the scholarship from school ,and they also have better place to live and eat than other normal student , I think it is enough. If we paid them , the school change to the company, they are working but not studying here .School is a place for student not for work , so I think we should not paid for the college athletes .
ReplyDeleteThe athletes work hard with a lot of practices as a part of their couches program witch is a time consuming. They have to manage this demand additional to the school work. That is a price of being athletes. In such situation you get a degree and a sports career after college if offered to you and you choose to have. Not to mention being known from early start to the future clubs or sport organization. This is a big pay by itself. In college it should be pure competition for the sake of competition not money. This will teach the athletes to be patient and give the best disregard the materials benefits.
ReplyDeleteCollege athletes are controlled by the NCAA which stops them from receiving any type of money and or gifts. I believe for one they should receive some money not enough to live on but enough cash to go buy food pay some bills as you know that we as college students have a lot of bills. Also the part of the NCAA saying if you receive as example “Gold Pants” that you cannot sell it or trade it for other services and items should be changed for one they are gifts and as gifts they are now your property to sell or trade at will.
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