Reflecting on the Shame of College Sports: Should NCAA Div 1 Basketball and Football players get paid

Pay for play has been a pressing issue in the past decade. It takes away from the amateur style of sport, but the NCAA and colleges make so much money shouldn’t the players get some? These are the types of debates that are happening around this touchy subject.

In today’s society everything is represented by a brand. It is no longer the slam dunk competition it is the Sprite slam dunk competition, or no longer the NBA all-star game it is the Kia All-star game. When companies put their name on something like the dunk competition they are paying a lot of money to the program that they are endorsing. The players now get a little more money for participating, and some of that money comes from Kia. As our NYtimes article talks about “big-time sports has become the public face of the university, the brand that admission offices sell” if college sports is the face of the university in essence the college is compared to Kia as the sports team is compared to the dunk competition. The dunk competition will represent Kia and Kia will get a good name as the dunk competition gets paid. The sports team will represent the university and the university will get a good and as the sports team will not get paid. This is the dilemma we have with players getting paid. Is it free labor is the question?

   The argument against paying athletes is that with such a wide range school wealth across the nation some schools could afford to pay their athletes and some couldn’t. This would make the stakes uneven for D1 sports. For example Colorado St would never have even the slightest chance of beating Norte dame. Norte dame just has too much money to offer good players while Colorado St would not. Another problem there would be is who do we pay? Some players offer more worth then others. If you are driving down the street and look up and see your starting quarter back on a billboard or you see the starting long snapper, which one would make you more interested? The quarter back of course, so should he get more money than the long snapper?

                The problems I find with the NCAA not paying athletes is that they don’t know how to distribute the money.  As an athlete myself I think we should get paid just because I want to get paid. After I learned what exactly the NCAA makes as well as the schools make I believe that we need to get paid and I feel used in a way. I think the NCAA should make a fund where they put money into from every school, brand, or company that makes money off Sports then divided it up to every scholarship player. They should make it like a player tax, where the tax goes to the players.