Recently a blog was posted on October 9, 2011 by D.K. Withey titled Pay College Athletes? which was a well written blog about the constant argument of should college athletes be paid? The blog stated that out of 332 Division One school athletic programs that only 14 schools had experienced financial gain from their athletics. With that being said, I have to agree with Withey’s conclusion that student athletes should not be paid. Universities can not pay athletes from funds that are not available!

On September 14, 2011, an advocacy group published a report about the fair market value of college athletes and continue to argue that these athletes should be paid. A national college athletes advocacy group presented information stating that Division One football athletes that are bound for a bowl game are worth on an average per player per year $121,000 each. They continue to report that Division One basketball players of the same caliber are worth approximately $265,000 per player per year. The group argues that the players should be sharing the funds like the professional athletes do. They even offered for the funds to be “set aside” and used towards their room, board and other educational expenses while in college and then the remaining funds be available upon graduation. Commercial deals and other promotions were also supported by this advocacy group.

According to some of the data, the football players playing at the bowl level spend an average of 43.3 hours a week during the football season while basketball players spend approximately 39 hours per week. Athletic scholarships are not covering all of the costs for the athletes for them to attend the university in most cases. Many athletes have to subsidize their scholarship money to pay all of their expenses and some of the student athletes do not have the means to pay any additional costs. One football player explained that his room and board included three meals a day but as a football player, he needed to eat five to six meals to replace the calories burned as a player.

I completely agree that student athletes need to have their college costs covered if at all possible. I believe this for a few reasons including the fact that most college athletes do not have the time to work outside their sport nor are they able to make money during the summer months when they are attending training camps, etc. I also believe that since most athletic programs are bringing in some revenues that the athletes college expenses should be covered for the most part.

I do not agree, at all, with the concept of paying amateur student athletes! I believe that being a student athlete is part of the development of the student. I believe colleges would loose credibility if such pay was available to the students. Some schools would be able to pay more then other schools (which already happens with the scholarship money available) but paying the athletes would only create a bigger discrepancy between the schools with money and those without a big budget. The competition would become between a “few” schools instead of the variety that is available now. Also, I strongly believe that the coaches salaries and the athletic director salaries be scrutinized closely at the university level to see where changes can be made to allow for more scholarship money to be available while keeping their salaries at a reasonable level! No to paying college athletes but yes to making sure their reasonable college expenses are covered!