Thursday, December 10, 2009

Student Athletes

Justin Kramer
Comp 106
Dec 8


Student or athlete?

In America, today there are over ten million student athletes, thought elementary school to college athletes. A student athlete is a participant in an organized competitive sport sponsored by the educational institution in which he or she is enrolled. The term student athlete is used to describe the direct balance of a full time student and a full time athlete. Even at the early age, children are able to play sports while going to school, and even at the early age there are requirements for students to be able to participate in sports. Some of these requirements to play sports while in school are, you must be in school at least half the day to play in a game that night, you must keep your grades up, having at least a 2.0 GPA to be able to play, you have to be a full time student. As you get old and move up in grades and competition levels the requirements may vary to change. Like when your at the college level and even some highs schools you may be required to take a drug test, in this test they look for different level of steroids and other drug use. These are the requirements that make an athlete a student athlete.
When you are playing sports at a young age, I believe that the kids just want to play because it is fun and they get to play a sport with there friends, and they care more about the sport, but school is still very important to them because there parents are pushing them to do good while in school. But as student athletes get older they start to think either they can go somewhere in sports and start to focus more on the sports then schooling, or they realize that schooling is going to get them where there going in life. But even if the students start to focus more on the sports then there schooling, being a student athlete they are still required to keep there grades up to be able to play the sport. This is the good thing about playing sports in school because if your grades start to slip you will get a warning and you may have to sit out of your sport till your grades get back up, but if it’s a travel sport, they don’t know how well your doing in school and you won‘t have to keep your grades up, so it shows schooling isn’t as important if the parents don’t watch them. With the fact that 1 in ever 3 million student athletes will reach the professional level. This is why most parents try to keep there kids on the good part of schooling and focusing on school more then the sports.
Sports at the college level, is a completely different level of sporting then any high school or travel league you could have played for before. By the time student get to college they probably have a good idea what they want to go to school for, but some student are just going to go to have fun. While attending college playing on a team is a good way to meet new people and to continue to play the sports your interested in. When you join a college team some student want to play to get better and keep moving up in levels of that sport, and some student play because they like the sport and love to play. Just like college sports the student athletes are required to keep up there GPA and attending classes. With colleges have tryouts and wanting to have the best team, and being able to give out scholarships to students the competition level is very high. There are different levels of colleges sports, there is Divisions 1, 2, 3, the is NAIA, Junior colleges, community colleges, and many other levels of college sporting. At all the different levels the colleges are able to give out different amounts of scholarships to student athletes. Some levels are able to give a students what is known as a “full ride”, means that all of there tuition and housing and food will be paid for by the school as long as they keep there grades up and are able to stay eligible to play. At different levels the colleges aren’t able to give out scholarships, because of the schools amount of money or if they would rather give out scholarships for grades over sports, these schools are more worried about the students grades then the schools sports teams.
With some schools “full ride” student are giving a budge to spend on food, housing, books, and schooling, and what ever is left over is for the student to use with what ever the student wants to spend, so in a way the students are getting paid to play. But with the rules of the NCAA college are not technically allowed to “pay” the students to play. This is one of the little loopholes that colleges do to get students interested in there school, by in a way “paying them”. Another fight that colleges go thought is, while a college is trying to recruit a student athlete they are not allow to “bribe” or pay or provide the students any free stuff to persuade the students to come to there school. But with colleges today they try to way this and get passed it any way they can, by loopholes. For some college they will do anything to get a student to come to there school, because they want to have the best sports team possible. This is where the question start, “Are they Students or Athletes?” With colleges wanting to have the best sports team in the nation coaches and recruits are doing much more traveling all over the nation and “bribing” athletes to come to there school. With all this going on it causes many debates.
One of the major debate that is going on today is, should student athletes get paid to play? There are many points in view on this debate, some people say yes they should get paid because, for there participation, some collegiate events being in so many people they are earning millions of dollars, Donne Clarke, says “they should get paid in a account that is receivable upon gradation.” (Westside Gazette) Kernisha Hardy says, “ Yes college student athletes should get paid colleges make million of dollars from collegiate sport. Few players make a career of sports yet colleges make enough money to last each player a lifetime. They should get some of the money. It should pay for the entire teams tuition and books.”(Westside Gazette) There are many other people that agree with these two men, some of the other points for there argument could be, college teams are just like professional teams, they sell paraphernalia, sell tickets, and sell players, and the players have the same risks of injury, so they are just the same just not at such a high level, but soon could be at the professional level. One thing you could argue from student athletes to get paid would be with playing a sport at such a high level, with training, games, work outs, and school, where is the time for the student to get a job for some spending money? Athletes are allowed to get a job on campus but are only allowed to make $2000 a semester, but with some sports being so demanding, and with school work there is little time to work. Most of the student athletes coming from families that can afford to get the students spending money. A big question about playing student athletes is, “Why aren’t athletes already paid when so many schools make so much money?’” The NCAA, figures say most schools don’t make enough money of athletics. Most people think that a scholarship is worth about $40,000 a year depending on the school.(The Miami Times) There are many arguments for paying student athletes and theses are just a few of them.
Pay to play that is the big question todays with college sporting events making millions of dollars and so many fans, many people debate over if student athletes should get paid or not, here are some reason why they shouldn’t get paid. Many people don’t care if the NCAA nets one trillion dollars in total revenue from schools, networking, and advertise ring, you can’t pay student athletes to play the game.(Los Angeles Sentinel) Because some student athletes take avenge of there “full ride” by not going to class or leaving class early and not getting a diploma, the should not be paid because they are STUDENT athletes, the question is how would the NCAA be able to track the students that don’t keep there grades up and attend class. If you pay athletes to play you will set a precedent that many schools will not be able to live up to, and create a slippery slope that the NCAA will slide down. .(Los Angeles Sentinel) Some people say that getting the student athletes a scholarship is paying them enough, getting a scholarship are valid as long as the player keep up his or her grades. People are worried about this because some athletes take avenge of the scholarships and don’t go to class and just sit around playing Xbox and partying, but as long as the can shoot hoops or get touchdowns they can do what they want. .(Los Angeles Sentinel) Watching college football over professional football many people pick college football because people love to watch college students are armatures who play for the love of the game and the pride, rather then the dollar. A big problem with paying student athletes would be how would the big schools and little school compete and same with the different sports, how would you be able to give a big football player $50,000 and the softball player $5,000, that wouldn’t be very far at all. People may say athletes aren’t very smart but if a athlete was offered $500 a week and the other was offered $200 what do you think they will choose? Of course the bigger number so how will the smaller schools compete with the big schools, this will cause a “ Yankee System,” and many people don’t like the Yankees because they just have deep pockets and can just buy anyone. .(Los Angeles Sentinel) From a poll 73% of the American public say athletes should not be paid money beyond their scholarships. (Speakin’ Out News) Many people are worried about that if student athletes are paid to play they will focus more on the sport where they are student athletes and should be worried about graduation, so they will have something to start there career. Most college athletes will not move up to the professional level, so shouldn’t the athletes be more focused on there grades.
There are many views on paying student athletes but my personal view is that college student shouldn’t be paid to play, they are going to college to learn and get there degrees and if they end up moving up to the next level of sports that is when I believe they should start to get paid. As for most people around the nation they are sticking to only giving student athletes scholarships and not paying them more then that. So for now student athletes will not be getting paid, we will just have to wait as the debate continues on, if student athletes will be getting paid in the future.















Justin Kramer
Comp 106
Dec 8



Work Cited


Allen Barra. "Pro Football's College Tuition Bill. " Wall Street Journal 30 Apr. 2009, Eastern edition: ABI/INFORM Global, ProQuest. Web. 8 Dec. 2009

Barber, J.. "Should college athletes be paid for playing collegiate sports? " Westside Gazette 18 Oct. 2007,Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW), ProQuest. Web. 8 Dec. 2009.

Clark, Leroy .. "PAY TO PLAY: Is it Time to Change the Playing Field? " Emerge 1 Oct. 1994: Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 8 Dec. 2009.

"Nebraska proposal to pay college athletes stirs issue. " Miami Times 12 Mar. 2003,Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW), ProQuest. Web. 8 Dec. 2009.

Rooks, I.. "To Pay or Not To Pay (That is the Question). " Speakin' Out News 23 Jan. 2008,Ethnic NewsWatch (ENW), ProQuest. Web. 8 Dec. 2009.

“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Sentinel Los Angeles, Calif, Mar 30- Apr, 5 2006, Vol, 71 Iss 54, Pg. B2, 2 pags