Should College Athletes Be Paid?

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Should College Athletes Be Paid?
Introduction
Payments and other forms of rewards are strong motivations for people. They increase their morale working and therefore produce positive and desirable outcomes. Players in learning institutions such as universities and colleges also need these motivations to boost their determination, confidence and energy. Many institutions use various forms of payments to their players, including offering scholarships, bursaries, and other benefits to motivate their athletes. The payments to college students can also mean salaries and wages on top of other benefits, such as scholarships and nonmonetary benefits. The huge income that college sports bring to colleges forces them to pay athletes so that they can retain the best talent; therefore, rewards that do not include wages and salary are more meaningful to college students. Therefore, college students should be paid because it motivates them to perform better; they take as much time as full-time jobs, spend a lot of time, have huge expenses, and make colleges a lot of money and other fortunes from college sports. The majority of the colleges do pay their athletes, but they only do so by providing other benefits, including scholarships and access to other amenities. At the same time, other people insist that the nonmonetary gains are the most meaningful compared to salaries and wages, which would reduce the value of sports. College athletes should be paid since they make a lot of money for colleges, sacrifice more time playing instead of studying, and pay for college expenses like other students.
College athletes have to be paid since they make a lot of money for the colleges, sacrifice a lot of time playing instead of studying, and pay for other college expenses. At the same time, they need to balance the curriculum and co-curricular so that they can excel in classwork. As a result, they end up straining as they thrive on meeting and satisfying both demands. Apart from the strenuous experiences amongst the students, there are more benefits they bring to colleges, yet they themselves do not enjoy such fortunes. For instance, college students make a lot of money for colleges through various other ways such as ticket purchases to games, corporate sponsorships, improvement of institutional image, and even television contracts. They are all money fetching opportunities that benefit the learning institutions. The colleges start signing huge financial contracts and deals since their image is well established, thus attracting major corporates and partners that positively influence colleges either financially or socially. Notably, college athletes should be perceived as employees of their educational institutions and make salaries among other financial benefits (Walsh 80). Based on these benefits enjoyed by the colleges, it is fair for them to pay the college sports students through scholarships, wages, salaries and other stipends that facilitate their exercise expenses and overall well-being in the institutions and outside.
Athletes sacrifice a lot of time in sports; thus, every sacrifice should be rewarded in an equal measure. They undergo rigorous training before the games to ensure they are fit and energized throughout the playtime. Additionally, during game days, they undertake other critical practices and activities that include game preparations and travelling to different venues to participate in tournaments, which are time-consuming and tiresome. All these activities need facilitation to run smoothly and produce the desired end product, therefore, demanding that college students who participate in such activities be paid handsomely by respective institutions. College tournaments attract many people nationwide and internationally. For instance, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament for men is called “March Madness” (Nocera). During its annual playoffs, over 20 million individuals watch the tournament on televisions. Numerous television networks are ready to pay hundreds of millions dollars to get the right to broadcast the NCAA games. In addition, advertisers are ready to part with at least $1.5 million for television ads running at most 30 seconds during these tournaments (Nocera). As such, the time sacrificed by college athletes to prepare and participate in games is compensated to their colleges in form of millions of dollars. That is why colleges should not deny athletes’ financial benefits since their success in the playing field generates more money for the school.
Students have many expenses they have to pay for as they thrive on meeting the requirements of the game, including being punctual and training on basic skills of the game that may need extra financial need. Moreover, accommodation fees are mostly paid for by the student in colleges, even on a full scholarship, which means they do not enjoy any benefits of participating and representing colleges in various sporting activities. They have to buy school books and other personal expenses such as food while at college. For sure, it is a shame for colleges that do not compensate their athletes and expect them to perform well in tournaments. Athletic scholarships are not enough for college athletes given the increasing cost of tuition, accommodation, and food, which often run into thousands of dollars annually (Bush 58). College athletes should not be stressed in purchasing scholarly materials, paying their accommodation fees, and getting other appropriate resources for their games that are not offered by their schools. They should be empowered by paying them so that they can afford everything they need to maintain excellent performance in games and their academic activities. As a result, it is imperative for the colleges to exempt the athletes and other sports students from paying accommodation and other basic needs to motivate them to get more impressive sporting results.
Imagine a college using an athlete's name, image, and likeness (NIL) to generate revenues and failing to compensate that specific student? That act can be perceived as misusing an athlete’s identity to benefit oneself, which is ethically and morally unacceptable. In reality, a scholarship alone is not enough to cater to the needs of college students entirely. Keeping in mind that not all students are talented athletes, those with these capabilities should get something in return when their names, likeness, or images are used by colleges to advertise themselves. Based on a lawsuit opened by O’Bannon, the former basketball player, a company used his image in a video game character who resembled him and even wore the jersey number that represented him in college (Day 329). O’Bannon sued the Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) and the NCAA. The court ruled that no firm is allowed to use athletes’ names, likenesses, or images without their consent. As such, the company involved was barred from using O’Bannon’s character in its video game. In addition, the NCAA allowed colleges to give stipends to student-athletes as they deemed fit. Consequently, college athletes should be paid based on their contributions to their schools' sporting activities.
The American culture emphasizes working hard to earn, which is the opposite when it involves college athletes. Excellent sports performance does not come easy, and these athletes have to train and practice rigorously to win. If the school is getting money from the hard work of athletes, why should these students not be compensated? Nowhere in the world is work provided for free (Ketchum III). Many colleges are not accountable for the revenues they get from sporting activities. Instead of even using that money to lower tuition fees, the cost of college attendance keeps rising. Colleges are businesses just like any other, and one of their objectives is to make profits. Without the impressive game outcomes from athletes, some colleges would not admit many students as they do. These institutions of higher education use the images and names of renowned athletes to advertise and market themselves (Hurst). Through those advertisements, they admit numerous students from different parts of the world. Specifically, some talented athletes choose the schools to attend due to how their teams are well-known in the sports arena. The failure to pay such athletes makes no sense when these colleges know very well that they get more money from using their names, talents, likeness, and images. 
On the contrary, paying college students would kill the sport of college football. They will feel like they are in employment; thus, there will be no attachment or connection between them and the institutions. They will focus on the financial value and compensation, thus compromising the quality of the game. Additionally, athletes would never feel associated with school and the spirit other than for the money. In the process, they will develop a money-oriented mindset that may drain the institution's financial coffers and thus deteriorate its relationship with other stakeholders and potential partners. Although college athletes need to be shown respect for their dedication and contribution, it does not mean necessarily paying them. Based on a 2019 Seton Hall poll, approximately 49% of Americans thought that it was good to pay college athletes from revenue-producing sports (Maese). However, not all colleges make millions of dollars from sporting activities. Generalizing that these institutions of higher education should compensate their athletes would not be favorable for all schools. College athletes might as well not be interested to attend schools that do not pay them, which kills the morale for college sporting activities.
On the other hand, the school system wo...