Should college athletes be paid to play?
There are many colleges today that pay hefty wages to their athletes. Some colleges even match the salaries paid by professional league clubs as if these athletes have signed major league contracts already. Some universities recruit athletes by offering talented young people gifts such as scholarships, money, cars, jewelry, houses and in some cases provide for their family members too. In the real sense, college athletes should not receive any form of payments for representing the institution in a sports event. This is mainly because these are students who should be focusing solely on their academic progress. In college, students take part in sport as an extra co-curricular activity, talent or just a hobby. Therefore, until they are full professionals, college athletes should not receive any payments in return for their talent or game skills.
On the bright side, paying college students to play motivates them to pursue and exploit their talents fully. If a student is good enough to represent their college, it is possible that they can become professional athletes. Therefore, paying them to play gives them a taste of how professional athletes act and live. By the time they turn professional, they would be fully aware of how professional athletes conduct themselves.
However, the negative effects of paying college athletes are so severe that they cancel out the good. In most cases, college students who get paid for playing end up dropping out of college. Early exposure to payments affects how they handle their finances in the future. Therefore, college students are not supposed to be paid for representing their institutions until they become professional athletes.
Griffin, G. (2007). Should College Athletes be Paid? New York: Gale.
Smith, R. A. (2010). Pay for Play: A History of Big-Time College Athletic Reform. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Woods, R. (2011). Social Issues in Sport (2, illustrated ed.). New York: Human Kinetics.
