Since the time of agents and multimillion dollar professional paid athletes there has always been the debate and the constant battle against agents paying student athletes under the table. http://www.usatoday.com/sports/2004-08-31-top-ten-number-7_x.htm Kelly Whiteside presents an argument that really illustrates the problem and the attempt to try and make it better.
The argument I would use is that the whole system would be simplified if you pay each sport according to profit made. For instance Football makes the most money out of all the other sports so each in player should get paid an equal wages. This would eliminate agents ruining players careers because they cant afford to be living on there own. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=shanoff/lipsyte/050316 this link talks about how March Madness made a ridiculous amount of money during March Madness and now they are expanding the tournament to attract more sponsors. The players deserve a piece of the action because there the ones attracting fans and paying them enough to live away from home isnt going to kill any of there profit margin.
The other side of this argument is illustrated through http://www.imprintmagazine.org/sports_and_recreation/other_side_college_athletes_shouldnt_be_paid if anything this should prove that college kids should get some sort of cash incentive. Scholarships are great and should continue but if a kid is going to college and practicing every hour of every day and is only getting enough money to last him the weekend while the University are just draining the profits dry for themselves.
Excellent argument--you might want to keep this in mind as a possible research topic for your last paper.
ReplyDeleteI love my student athletes, and I hate the way some universities use theirs. I'm proud to have taught at two universities that actually care about how their athletes are doing academically (Kansas State in Manhattan, KS; and MSSU).