Should College Soccer Players Be Paid?

There has been gigantic debate recently if college athletes should or shouldn't be paid while they are in school. This blog takes a look into the debate and gives you an explanation as to why they should be paid.

                        The first thing people say is, "They're already getting a scholarship! That's more than anybody else! Don't be greedy!" Ok well let’s take a look at how much a college scholarship is really worth. On average a full division 1 scholarship is 25,000 dollars. A 25,000 dollar scholarship may seem like a lot of money, but it really only covers the nuts and bolts. A few thousand goes to unknown university fees in which we really don’t know how that’s used. Then you have about $12,000 going to tuition, another $5,000 going towards room and board. Lastly you have to spend around $1,000 or so on text books and most scholarships don’t cover that so you have to buy that on your own. A scholarship doesn't equal cash in a player's pocket. Even with a scholarship, college athletes are penniless, while the NCAA executives make well over a million dollars per year.

The NCAA currently produces nearly $11 Billion in annual revenue from college sport. That’s more than the estimated total league revenues of both the NBA (National Basketball Association) and the NHL (National Hockey League). The NCAA is making all this money but can’t afford to pay their Athletes for all the time they put into their sport. Universities bring in millions of dollars to their school through donations, ticket sales, media rights, advertising, and anything else that can make them money and the players don’t receive a single penny of it. Universities promote their school using athletics and the players still receive absolutely nothing.

According to Mark Edelman “The typical Division I college football player devotes 43.3 hours per week to his sport, 3.3 more hours than the typical American work week.” Being a college athlete is a full-time job. On a typical day, a player will wake up before classes, get a lift or conditioning session in, go to class until 3 or 4 p.m., go to practice, go to mandatory study hall, and then finish homework or study for a test.