Should college athletes be paid?

AuthorNocera, Joe
PositionDebate

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's college basketball tournament is known as March Madness. That's because the annual playoffs, which more than 20 million people watch on TV, is one of the most popular sporting events in the country.

But March Madness is also big business. TV networks pay the NCAA hundreds of millions of dollars per year for the rights to air the games, and advertisers can pay up to $1.5 million for a 30-second TV ad that runs during the tournament.

Considering how much money the players generate for the NCAA and their schools, should college athletes be paid? Here, two experts weigh in.

YES The college sports establishment likes to call the athletes who play varsity sports at universities "student athletes." A far more accurate term would be "athlete students." Putting the word "athlete" first would at least let everybody know what the priorities are.

This is especially true for football and men's basketball players. Why? Because unlike every other student who has been accepted into the universities they play for, the football and basketball players are there to generate revenue for the school. Without that athletic ability, many of them wouldn't have been admitted.

My belief that football and men's basketball players should be paid is based almost entirely on economics. College football and basketball are multibillion-dollar businesses. They have billion-dollar TV deals and corporate team sponsors. The coaches for these teams earn millions. Even the assistant coaches make hundreds of thousands. Schools have money for fancy training facilities, charter jets to away games, and state-of-the-art arenas. Yet the labor force--and that's what the players are-gets nothing. Name another industry where labor gets nothing. You can't.

The NCAA and the college sports establishment argue that the players are "students first" and that amateurism is the essence of college sports. Yet players have to choose classes that don't interfere with practice. Indeed, they often don't really get much of an education because the team comes first, they put in 50 hours a week on their sport, and their coach is effectively their boss, with the ability to cut them from the team, just like a pro coach.

The truth is that fans wouldn't care if players were paid. But the college sports establishment uses the self-serving argument about amateurism because, frankly, it has helped them get very rich.

--JOE NOCERA Author, Indentured: The...

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