Paying college athletes is a controversy that has been gainging a lot of attention in recent times.
College athletes getting paid is more complicated than people may think and is a responsibility that college athletes themselves are not ready to have.
For starters, college athletes are already getting paid in a way that is more helpful to them than what the physical money might be. Their pay is an education that most people across the U.S. and around the world wish they received.
Some of these athletes attend prestigious Ivy League schools that offer them a quality education which they will not receive anywhere else. And most importantly, it’s paid for them, in the case of scholarships.
There are some cases in which athletes barely graduate high school with poor grades. Because of the impact sports have on colleges they are attending, athletes are admitted over people who are non-athletes but might be making a difference.
Added to that, most athletes don’t stay in college for many years and only use college as a trampoline in order get into the big leagues like the NFL, MLB or the NBA.
One example is former NBA player Allen Iverson, who barely graduated high school yet he still got a scholarship to Georgetown University. He was only there for two years because after his sophomore year he entered the NBA draft.
So paying them would not be right when someone else could have been in their spot for the education all four years and would have taken school more seriously.
One of the most important reasons why athletes shouldn’t get paid is simply because sports are an option and something one signs up for regardless of the consequences it might bring.
Athletes know the physical consequences of playing at the next level and know that collegiate sports don’t pay, yet they still sign up.
No one is forcing them and it’s their own decision to continue their athletic career in college.
Money has a negative effect on a young person which is another reason why athletes should not receive any type of compensation for their performances. Multiple young athletes get drafted by a professional team, receive a huge paycheck and then tend not to know how to deal with the responsibility of being a millionaire and being famous.
Money and fame have proven to be a bad combination that typically leads young athletes down a road that is hard for them to come back from.
One concrete example of an athlete who didn’t know how to deal with money and fame is former Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel, who after being drafted 22nd overall in the 2014 draft was in rehab for alcohol issues two years into the NFL and was accused of assaulting his girlfriend.
In professional sports, athletes are held to a high standard both on and off the field and receive a payment for that.
Young people in college generally make mistakes and it’s OK they are young. But if you want them to get paid, then similar responsibilities that professionals have should be established for college athletes. I’m not sure they will be able to handle that.
I understand that college athletes are putting their health at risk at times for these college programs and that they earn the schools’ huge revenues every year with their performance.
But sports are not an obligation and athletes sign up for them knowing what it brings and also know that quality education is more than enough considering that many times athletes shouldn’t have been admitted into universities in the first place.
