Should College Athletes Be Paid - Essay Example

The key question posed by many previous reformists is whether college athletes should be paid. Given the consideration of many factors such as health, behavior, multi-billion dollar industry, moral decay, physical condition, talent and popularity, it stills remains an issue at stake whether student athletes should be paid (Sack & Staurowsky 139). Various magazine articles have been presented, covering the issue which has necessitated immediate action from reformists and ranking professional in the field.

The National College Athletic Association over the previous year provided that schools should award the students two thousand dollars per year as a stipend but dropped the proposal after concerns were raised on how it would be achieved by the media. Upon pressure by the highlighted events through media coverage such as Euro sports and sports columnists, prominent coaches think that this idea should be revived and have sought to have it implemented. This is based on the argument that the playoffs fetch more money that is given to the directors, coaches and NCAA and which should also be given to the students.

In my opinion, the media have enhanced the speed of consideration of this issue by providing information on the step taken and direction thus far. Student athletes should be get non cash payments from their colleges while if hired by companies they should receive monetary compensation for their time and energy. In this case, payment depends on a variety of things and can be achieved in many forms. Television coverage of sports competitions among the various institutions to determine the winner generates millions of dollars as additional revenue for the participating schools in which case the thousands of college and university students should be part of the cake (Shropshire & Davis 156).

Cash payments should be made when the students play for an outside team or when hired by the companies outside the scope of the school. Through the media, open discussions and forums have come up to discuss issues relating to payments of athletes. Some magazines provide coverage on certain players posing probable concerns on payments and television shows invite athletes on talk show trying to get their views on the matter and other issues in the federation. Colleges on the other side need to focus on the students as a motivational tool and award them benefits in kind such as insurance schemes, proper housing, full educational scholarships and other fringe benefits (Griffin 91).

The coverage of significant presentations such as ESPN show that student athletes spend more time in the field practicing and in most cases utilize most of their energy to gain money for the schools which then should have a responsibility to motivate them by offering them some form of payment. It is essential to note that talented students will most likely attend colleges that offer rewards for their efforts and thus most of management will seek them immediately after high schools with enticing propositions such as scholarships awards.

This is not enough though, and they need to further offer cash and remuneration after the games athletes participate (Shropshire & Davis 162). Sporting events are also covered in movies which try to bring more action on what actually transpires in the field. High school