I researched for both sides of this argument. First I found information all about why the athletes should not be paid. There is actually a ton of evidence for that side of the argument. It is very easy to defend the overall benefits education gives to a young adult. Then I researched the other side, we should pay the athletes. This side of the argument is basically all about the legal aspect of the argument. This argument ultimately boils down to the moral code of education vs. the the national labor laws. The two essays that follow are the two sides of the argument. I agree with both sides but I definitely lean more towards not paying the athletes. However my overall opinion is for a compromise.
Tyler
Steckbeck
Prof.
Nyland
English
151 OM2
November
5, 2013
Athletes or Employees
College sports is a billion dollar
industry that benefits so many people in this country. Many people like to
claim that it benefits everyone accept the athletes who provide the
entertainment for the country. Those people push for the fact that those athletes
are actually employees of the schools they play for and should be fairly
compensated with a salary pay for all the work they put in on the field. That
claim is absolutely ridiculous. Anyone who truly believes we should pay our
student athletes undermines the principles of education and the value that
attending a four year school gives to a young adult trying to make it in the
“real world.” Sensible people know that college’s purpose is to educate young
adults, schools already operate on a budget and asking them to pay athletes
would be irrational, and federal law would never allow students to be paid.
People who truly care about college sports, and all that it brings, understand
the reasons why it is important to keep the system sacred and not allow, money
hungry, corporate America to turn it into a cash cow where young adults can
make money by playing a sport at a young age and lose sight of why they are
actually at school.
Colleges and universities are places
where the primary focus is learning. The definition of a university is an
institution of learning of the highest level, having a college of liberal arts
and a program of graduate studies together with several professional schools,
as of theology, law, medicine, and engineering, and authorized to confer both
undergraduate and graduate degrees (Dictionary.com). Nowhere in that definition
does it say a place where athletes can go strictly to get paid to play a sport
for an institution. That is why they are called student athletes. Notice even
in the name, student comes first. Now obviously schools benefit greatly from
having winning teams and having star players. That is why schools recruit and
try as hard as they can to bring in the best coaches and athletes. People argue
the coaches get paid to win games, the university gets money for having winning
teams, why shouldn’t the players get compensation? The answer to that is
simple, they do. Scholarships are handed out every year to top notch athletes
that pay for their entire education, the reason they went for further
schooling. These athletes make a commitment to the school that they will do
their best in their respected sport and in return they get a free education at
a high class university. One can’t put a price on educational opportunity such
as that. Ask any parent in the world and I am pretty certain they would trade
anything for their child to attend one of the best schools in the nation for
free and all they had to do was make a commitment to work as hard as they can
at a sport they love. On top of earning a degree, these athletes get food,
shelter, access to the best facilities they could imagine, and the experience
of playing at a very high level. If they are serious about making it as a
professional athlete, then what better place to prepare yourself then at an
institution where you can be educated and play at a level that compares to the
professional level. By paying student athletes we are completely going against
everything a university is supposed to stand for.
All universities operate on a budget
and many of them do not have much wiggle room in those budgets, asking them to find
money to pay their athletes would cause huge problems for many schools. Most
universities have about twenty intercollegiate sports teams with each team
having roughly fifteen to sixty players depending on the sport (The Klown
Times). We don’t even need to do the math to be able to see that there is going
to have to be a whole lot of money shifting to come up with the funds to pay
all those athletes. Advocates for paying athletes then say well you only pay
the sports who bring in the most revenue. So is the university going to
prioritize its sports now? Who decides which sport is more important? The
process is just plain illogical. The next question is who gets paid and how do
you decided how much they get paid? Will the starting quarter back, or the
Heisman Award candidate get the same pay as the fifth-string linebacker (The
Klown Times)? To ask a school to answer all these questions and so many more is
ridiculous. Why not take that money you would spend to pay one student and
spend it on the entire sports program, which is what most schools currently do.
All the money made from a winning team is put towards making that teams
surrounding better so they can continue winning. Paying individuals takes away
from the team aspect and the all for one and one for all attitude that is
supposed to be learned through sports.
There are already current federal
and common laws that prevent the paying of student athletes. The NCAA (National
Collegiate Athletic Association) has been under fire for this topic many times
and every time they prove that student-athletes are not employees in accordance
with the court. There is a common law economic reality test that uses four
factors to determine whether an employment relationship exists. The four
factors are:
1.
Employer’s right to control or dictate the activities of the proposed employee.
2.
Employer’s right to discipline or fire the proposed employee.
3.
Payment of wages and specifically the extent to which the proposed employee is
dependent upon the payment of wages or other benefits for living expenses.
4.
Whether the task performed by the proposed employee was an integral part of the
proposed employer’s business (Belzer).
Now
one may read these factors and see that there are similarities between student
athletes and employees. However, they do not quite meet all the requirements.
The first two factors are pretty easily met. The coach has much control over
his players with mandatory practice times, meetings, study halls, etc.
(Belzer). But contrary to popular belief, the coach cannot tell his player they
cannot take a certain class or major. They just have to simply work together to
find other ways of accomplishing that goal. Also, coaches have the right to
discipline their players and if needed take away their scholarships due to
infractions by a player (Belzer). The third factor is where things get
interesting. What a player receives from a scholarship is the necessary
resources they need in order to fulfill their education at that particular
university. These benefits are not considered taxable compensations although
some things received can be translated into money value (Belzer). Of course
others who are advocates for the paying of athletes can interpret these factors
differently but, so far no courts have been able to agree with their
interpretations. There are of course many comparisons to the sport an athlete
plays being their job. The athlete was brought to the school to perform and in
exchange they receive free schooling which many families know is a huge deal.
If the athlete doesn’t fulfill the agreements they can still attend the
university, they just will have to pay like any other normal student. If the
athlete feels that compensation is not enough they can opt to go professional
and try to achieve what they believe they deserve.
In conclusion if student athletes
were to be paid it would make an absolute mockery of the college athletics
program and ruin everything that has been achieved through the system so far.
More wealthy schools would become powerhouses since they would be able to offer
their athletes a higher salary. Thus in turn destroying any chance of fair
playing fields and ruining the excitement of collegiate sports. The change in
rules would cause so many problems for universities that some may even
eventually just crumble. The amount of under the table and back alley deals
that would go on would tarnish the ever so prestigious reputation that has been
earned by the NCAA throughout its over a century of existence.
Belzer,
Jason. "Leveling the Playing Field: Student Athletes or Employee
Athletes?" Forbes.
Forbes Magazine, 09 Sept. 2013. Web. 06
Nov. 2013.
Cooper,
Kenneth J. "Should College Athletes Be Paid To Play?." Diverse:
Issues In Higher
Education 28.10 (2011): 12. Master
FILE Premier. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Dictionary.com.
Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
"The
Klown Times." The Klown Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
Tyler
Steckbeck
Prof.
Nyland
English
151 OM2
November
5, 2013
Employees or Athletes
A typical day in the life of a
division one college athlete starts of like this wake up hours before class,
get a lift or conditioning session in, go to class until about four in the
afternoon, go to practice, go to study hall, finish homework or study for test,
and then on top of that enjoy and take in the college experience (Harnett). On
top of a full schedule athletes have the added pressure of being expected to
perform at the highest level every week in front of, in some cases, millions of
people. This seems like a lot and you tend to wonder, what do these athletes
get in return for all of this work? The answer is nothing. Many former and
current college athletes who all went through this same unjust system agree
that college athletes should be paid since playing a division one sport is
practically like having a full time job, everyone else in the system seems to
get their cut of the revenue, and there are different solutions to change the
current rules. These athletes put their entire life in to their sport of choice
and it is time to finally reward them for all the hard work, blood, sweat, and
tears they shed while playing.
Playing a division one sport is very
comparable to holding down a full time job accept being a division one athlete
you get no benefits for all the work you put in. People who do not support the
paying of college athletes argue that their benefit is the scholarship they
receive to go to school. Well much like how an employee can be fired at any
time, an athlete’s scholarship can be revoked at any time no matter what their
GPA is at the time (Rose). So an athlete must perform at all times in order to
keep their scholarship which constantly keeps a huge amount of pressure on an
athlete. The fact that despite an athlete’s grades they can still lose the only
way they are going to school at a university just proves that the primary
reason these students are at the university is to win games. If they win games,
they can stay. If they fail to perform, they are out. What is that teaching
young adults about priorities? Also two law professors from Michigan State
University have found that according to the four tests of Common Law college
athletes can be classified as employees of the NCAA (Cooper). The four tests
are:
1.
Employer’s right to control or dictate the activities of the proposed employee.
2.
Employer’s right to discipline or fire the proposed employee.
3.
Payment of wages and specifically the extent to which the proposed employee is
dependent upon the payment of wages or other benefits for living expenses.
4.
Whether the task performed by the proposed employee was an integral part of the
proposed employer’s business (Belzer).
They
pass the first test due to the fact of the schedules the coaches can put the
athletes on and the amount of control the university has over the scholarships
the athletes receives. The second test is passed since, as previously stated,
the university and the NCAA has the ability to revoke an athlete’s scholarship
at any time. The third test is met since the athletes depend completely on the
scholarship they receive for food, shelter, their education, and for the little
extra money they receive. The fourth test is passed since college athletics has
transformed into a billion dollar industry. With all the revenue from events,
video game deals, television deals, the NCAA is not the same as it used to be.
None of this would be possible without the dedication of the athletes. If we are
looking at these test by the facts, it is certain that college athletes can be
classified as employees and should receive proper payment for the work they put
in day in and day out.
College athletics is a billion
dollar industry that has quickly become a huge place of revenue for
Universities, coaches, and the NCAA. Everyone seems to be cashing in on this
enormous business accept for the ones providing the show, the athletes. When an
athletic program is winning and getting major spotlight time through their
sports the university makes a large profit. All of the revenue generated by the
events the athletes play at goes to their university. Since the better your
team the more money you receive universities recruit based on what athletes
they think can boost their program, or revenue, not their GPA or abilities in
the class room. This forces the coaches to recruit the same way since if their
team is winning games their salary is larger. The average salary for a division
one college football coach in 2012 was $1.64 million ("NCAA Football
Coaches' Average Salary at $1.64 Million."). The average salary for a
division one college basketball coach whose team made the NCAA tournament was $1.4
million ("The Economics of College Basketball: Do Coaches Earn Their Pay?
- VU Hoops."). Plus is a coach makes the playoffs, wins a championship or
has any big accomplishments they receive a bonus. So the players, the
employees, are showing up every day and putting work in with no pay while their
coach, who is supposed to be their leader and friend, is making millions
barking out orders and having complete control of the future of these athletes.
The NCAA is also cashing out on the business that these athletes create. Along
with the video game deals with EA Sports that the NCAA has, they have also
signed a television deal with CBS worth $10.8 billion over 14 years (Harnett).
On top of these deals the NCAA receives huge revenue from tournaments and
different games such as March Madness. While everyone else is swimming in the
money the athletes are left with a packed schedule and struggle to pay for a
dinner out. Tell me what’s fair about that?
There are solutions that have been
proposed to change the NCAA rules slightly to allow players to at least be
somewhat compensated. The rules now basically force the athletes to not be able
to have any money at all. It is nearly impossible for athletes to pick up a
part time job with all of their prior commitments to their sport. Even if they
do get a job there is a limit from the NCAA on how much the athlete can make at
that part time job. So if you won’t allow the athlete to make money on their
own it only make since to give them some return pay for their full time job of
being the best they can possibly be at their sport. One big proposal for this
idea is the idea of a stipend that would allow the athlete to receive about
$2,000 per semester just for spending money (Rose). This would also insure the
athletes are stay for whole semesters. Many former big time college athletes
support this idea as well. Former guard at the University of Michigan, Jalen
Rose, states, “providing a $2,000 per semester stipend to student athletes will
at least offer these kids a drop in the bucket to cover living expenses…”
Coming from a former player who knows a lot about being a big time college
athlete that means a lot. He lived the life that these athletes currently go
through and knows their pain. If anyone knows how much athletes should be
repaid it would be Mr. Rose.
To sum it all up, college athletes
who perform at the highest of levels should be paid simply because it is the
right thing to do. For all of the work that these young adults put in to their
sport, or profession as some may look at it, they deserve to receive some kind
of payment. These athletes give up their entire lives for their university and
their sport, it is time that their university gave them what they deserve. The
unjust free business these athletes provide to so many has been going on too
long. It is time to do the right thing and give these hard working students
their cut of the money the NCAA and universities have been hogging.
Works Cited
Belzer,
Jason. "Leveling the Playing Field: Student Athletes or Employee
Athletes?" Forbes.
Forbes Magazine, 09 Sept. 2013. Web. 06
Nov. 2013.
Cooper,
Kenneth J. "Should College Athletes Be Paid To Play?." Diverse:
Issues In Higher
Education 28.10 (2011): 12-13. ERIC.
Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Hartnett,
Tyson. "Why College Athletes Should Be Paid." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, 21 Oct. 2013.
Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
"NCAA
Football Coaches' Average Salary at $1.64 Million." USA Today. Gannett,
n.d. Web. 11
Nov. 2013.
Rose,
Jalen. "Should College Athletes Be Paid?." Jet 119.11 (2011): 48. MAS
Ultra - School
Edition. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
"The
Economics of College Basketball: Do Coaches Earn Their Pay? - VU Hoops."
VU Hoops.
N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
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