Should college athletes be paid - Research Paper Example

These athletics provides an opportunity for post secondary education that could provide the beneficiaries a successful transition into professionalism. However, college athletics also comes with challenges, both personal and academic as documented by Block. Even so, there has been a concern for the well-being of college athletes from as early as 1905 as cited by Kissinger and Miller (2). There are arguments for and against paying college athletes which need to be well understood before making a decision on which argument to follow.

There is a body of debaters who argue that college athletes should not be paid. This argument is based on the fact that paying such students would result in unfairness to the rest of the students. According to Hartnett, a college athlete gets a scholarship amounting to $25,000 per year for a full Division 1. This amounts to $100,000 in four years. Though the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA argues that such scholarships only cover tuition, fees, textbooks and boarding, this has been noted to give college athletes greater advantage over the other students.

They receive greater aid than average students. Secondly, college athletes are already being paid through scholarships and should not be paid any further than that. To put this into context, Block compares this scholarship to unpaid internship. This opinion columnist argues that students in unpaid internships get no pay but still undertake such internships for the soft skills. On the contrary, college athletes get financial reward in form of scholarship. This is a form of payment for college athletes and therefore, colleges should not spend any finances paying them.

Finally, paying college athletes would widen the disparity between smaller and larger universities or colleges. This would be exhibited through their athletics teams. In support of this argument, Block argues that larger universities which earn more revenue would have the ability of buying