The “National Collegiate Athletic Association” (NCAA) is an organization that manages, regulates and controls athletes of about nineteen hundred institutions in Canada and the United States. The organization operates on non-profit terms and organizes athletic program of various universities and colleges. NCAA is also responsible with the task of setting rules and guidelines to be followed during practice sessions and championships by the college athletes. According to the NCAA rules colleges and universities, can offer scholarships to student athletes in exchange of their services to participate in sporting activities. The scholarships mainly offered by the institution cover accommodation, tuition and books expenses (Guarino, 2014). However, various disputes have ensued in the recent years between former and current college athletes over the profits made by the organization from sporting programs and scholarship awards at the expense of the student athletes. According to the college athletes, the NCAA and various institutions makes huge sums of money from athletic programs. The main concern among the college Athletic is that the student athletics benefit only from the scholarship awarded to them in terms of compensation for their participation in sporting activities. In addition, the organization limits the athletes from receiving additional compensation by obtaining outside employment or cashing on their image and reputation. For instance, the athletes are discouraged from making profits using their reputation and image by selling autographs and participating in media interviews. Thus, the only compensation available to the college athletes is scholarship awards. Various individuals argue that the college athletes should be allowed to join a union to enable them bargain on their compensation rights (Mahler, 2014). The individuals argue that since the college athletes participate in the sports on a contract basis they should be allowed to negotiate for their payments because scholarships are not sufficient compensations for the athletes.
In the recent years, various lawsuits have been filed as an attempt to end the exploitation of the student athletes by NCAA, as well as the colleges. The first lawsuit filed advocates for the ending of scholarships only to the athletes in order to allow the athletes to benefit from other programs and earn profits on the fame and image. Similarly, the other lawsuit filed challenged the illegibility of the colleges and the organization to enter massive deals with the media “without any of the revenues going to the players”. The student athletes are not allowed to share and enjoy the revenue that they have helped in realizing since NCAA controls all the revenue realized in the sporting activities and sale of telecasting rights to the media (Meggyesy, 2014). The students should be given an opportunity to share the profits generated through college sports since they are the major contributors in the events. The athletes argue that the scholarship programs are not beneficial to some of the athletes. For instance, some of the college athletes have fourth grade education and thus cannot benefit from the program by earning a university degree. In addition, for the athletes to benefit from the sports they engage in, former and current athletes should be selected among the boards of directors so that they can air the grievance of the college athletes and ensure fair compensation. In addition, some of the experts in sports management believe that the colleges could turn the “sporting programs semiautonomous models that are self supporting like the university medical systems”.
For many years collegiate athlete have been unfairly compensated for their participation and performance in various tournaments. The athletes have been exploited since they are not allowed to participate in outside competitions, and they are also barred from cashing on their fame by selling autographs and participating in media interviews. The NCAA an organization that is responsible for the control of scholarships and health care allows for scholarships as that only compensation to the athletes (Murphy, 2014). However, former and immediate athletes have filed lawsuits to curb the exploitation of the collegiate athletes by the colleges and NCAA.
The main reason for the lawsuits is to advocate for fair compensation of the collegiate athletes through payments and being allowed to use their fame and reputation to make profits. Thus, paying the athletes will ensure that the collegiate athletes earn fair returns from their hard work. The athletes should be considered as college employees who deserve a pay since they spend most of their time in sporting activities as compared to the time they spend in academic activities. There are various methods of paying the athletes; first is that the athletes can be paid on a monthly basis using the money realized through hew sale of entrance tickets to the competitions. Secondly, the athletes may be paid for their participation in various events using the money realized from the sale of broadcasting rights to television stations and generous contributions from alumni students. Lastly, the athletes should be allowed to make money by the use of their fame and image (Murphy, 2014). In addition, the students should be allowed to make extra cash by participating in outside competitions that guarantee payments to the athletes.
Compensating the athletes will ensure that they benefit from their practice sessions and participating in the competitions. Scholarships programs have no benefits to some of the collegiate athletes who participate in the competitions since they have been fifth to seventh grade education. Thus attending the classes would not earn the university degrees that can benefit them in the future.
One of the effects of compensating the athletes is that the payments will lure more athletes to participate in the sporting activities. The increased participation of the athletes offers great benefits to the organization and the colleges since the tournaments shall be more competitive attracting more fans to watch the tournaments. The effect of larger numbers of fans shall increase the amount of money collected through the sale of tickets. In addition, the returns realized through the sale of broadcasting rights to the media shall be higher since many people shall be interested in watching the tournaments. Thus, the television stations shall be willing to pay extra money for the telecasts due to the prestige of the tournaments hence increasing the profits made by the organization as well as the universities.
The compensation of college athletes shall also increase the income of the athletes leading to better lifestyles among the collegiate athletes. For instance, the amount of money earned shall enable the athletes adequately to sustain themselves in school by meeting all their needs. In addition, the payments will also benefit the athlete’s families due to the huge profits realized from their fame. The quality of the games shall be improved since the compensations will motivate the participants to practice harder in order to improve on their skills. The increased revenue realized by the institutions shall improve on the health benefits, and academic support offered to the athletes by the colleges. In addition, the athletes shall improve on their skills in order to boost their image; this has various benefits to the tournaments due to the improved quality of the games.
The other effect of the compensations is that the programs shall turn into semiautonomous enterprises where the athletes gain professional status. The athletes shall participate in the tournaments as professionals who engage in sports to earn payment. The autonomy of the athletes shall reduce corruption such as “under-the-table payments for signing the player”. The athlete’s autonomy shall also enable them to participate in other competitions such as national tournaments that will enable them improve on their skills.
Compensation of the college athletes shall also lead to payments since the athletes shall involve their agents in negotiating for the appropriate wages. Additionally, compensation of the college athletes could be disadvantageous to the weaker athletes since the compensation shall be allocated based on the athlete's performance. Thus, most of the colleges may select only the well performing athletes in order to boost their performance in the tournaments so as to boost their revenue. Hence, some of the weaker athletes who would have benefited from the scholarships to earn university degrees shall miss the chance since universities shall be reluctant to enroll them into the institutions.
In addition, the compensations shall enable the athletes to earn themselves extra money to spend and afford return tickets to their families over the holidays. For instance, some of the college athletes come from poor backgrounds and cannot afford plane tickets to visit their families since the scholarships do not cover for their plane tickets and other expenses. The compensations will improve the chances of the players to be involved in professional sports due to their active involvement in sports and perfection of their skills (Mahler, 2014).
However, the compensations may affect the academic performance of the athletes because they will focus on sports at the expense of class work. Thus, lack of concentration in class work may lower the athletes GPA making it difficult for them to get jobs after completing their studies due to poor academic performance. Additionally, paying the students shall affect the relationships between then athletes and other students since they will feel that they are in school for commercial purposes and not educational purposes (Mahler, 2014). The compensations shall increase pressure to improve on their sports performance hence affecting their academic performance.
Compensation of the college athletes will encourage the athletes to stay in colleges and complete their studies. The financial struggles by the students shall be eliminated enabling them to focus on their studies and avoid temptations to quit their studies and join professional sports due to the financial benefits of the professional sports.
The compensation of the athletes shall encourage students to practice harder to improve on their skills. In addition, compensating the athletes shall encourage the athletes to remain in school and complete their university education since they will be able to meet their financial need. The crude wastage rate in the colleges shall be reduced since many students terminate their studies to join professional sports due to the financial benefits. Thus, institutions should embrace the compensation
Works Cited
Guarino, M. "NCAA and college sports: It is time to pay athletes to play?" Alaska Dispatch. N.p., 18 May 2014. Web. 22 May 2014.
Mahler, Jonathan. "College Athletes Should Be Paid Exactly This Much." Businessweek.Com (2014): 1. Business Source Elite.Web. 2 May 2014.
Meggyesy, David. "Athletes In Big-Time College Sport." Society 37.3 (2000): 24-28. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 May 2014.
Murphy, Steve, and Jonathan Pace. "A Plan For Compensating Student-Athletes." Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal 1 (1994): 167. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 May 2014.
