Paper Example: Should College Football Players Get Paid?

College football is one of the biggest sports that spectators and players enjoy in college. The games generate a lot of revenue channeled from different lucrative sponsorship deals, television deals, and jersey sales. College football players should be entitled to a paycheck because they are exposed to many physical hardships as they engage in the competition. This paper will highlight why they should and should not be paying college football players.

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First, paying college football players will help the student to be able to be responsible for financial decision-making (Keolanui 2). The college football player will be able to learn how to use their income and thus attain financial responsibility. By earning a paycheck, they can uphold the value of money as they can make decisions based on their source of income. It would be a great experience for the students who are college football players. That is because they will learn how to spend their money within a given budget. The money they will earn will empower them to develop the skill of saving money and spending appropriately.

Interestingly, if the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N.C.A.A) is generating a lot of revenue, why should college football players not be paid? The association can generate revenue from lucrative sponsorships, merchandising, lucrative television deals, and ticket sales (Bokat-Lindell 4). It will be unjust for the college players to play the games for fun as they can be entitled to receive a share of the revenue from the lucrative deals and ticket sales. It is also illogical for a business enterprise to generate profit and not to pay their employees. Most of these students might end up being signed up with big clubs and give them significant financial contract, yet they were not prepared by their colleges to handle such situations. Thus, giving them a monetary stipend will educate them on the value of their talent and learn how to use their financial income to meet their costs and make good financial decisions.

Most of these students do not have the time to look for employment. Thus, during the season of the games, college football players will focus on the competition. This implies that during the off-season, they will concentrate on training as they prepare for the coming season. Consequently, during the same period, the college players will focus on studying and catching up with their coursemates. Therefore, looking for a job will be hard and tedious alongside balancing all the activities at the same time. It will be rational if they were paid during the season to enable the manage their finances appropriately.

On the other hand, earning a lot of money while still in college may be damaging to the football players. This is because it may distract them from focusing on the main objective of going to college (White 3). On the flip side, paying the students will groom them in terms of financial freedom. In some instances, it may negatively impact the students to make wrong financial decisions, such as reduced investment and spending money lavishly. This may later on lead them to bankruptcy at the time of their retirement due to inadequate financial education that would prepare them in terms of making a well-informed business decision. The aim of going to college is to acquire skills that would be useful in real-life situations. College football players are no different from interns who work in financial institutions, medical institutions, and law firms. Since these interns are not entitled to a paycheck, the same may apply to college football players.

Introducing the payment system to college football players will be disadvantageous to those institutions that do not have the financial muscle to aptly compensate their best players. This will be disadvantageous to college institutions that seem to be less capable of nurturing their players. However, this may affect the beauty of the game as it will create inequitably both in the sports and amongst the players. More affluent colleges will be able to swiftly influence the games to pull the best talent in their team. Therefore, college football players should not be entitled to a paycheck in a bid to promote fairness in the game.

If salaries were to substitute scholarships, the difference would be marginal. It will be fair to opt for a scholarship as it comes as a full package whereby it will cater for books, tuition, and a residing room (Keolanui 5). A more equitable example is that an average college football player may earn a hundred-thousand-dollar salary and be subjected to both federal and state taxes. The average scholarship that a college football player will be provided will cost close to sixty thousand dollars, which will not be taxed. When choosing salary as a source of income, the amount that the student will remain with after taxation will be almost the same as the value of the scholarship. Hence, it is better to opt for the scholarship option as compared to earning a salary.

In my view, college football players should be paid to be able to learn specific life skill values such as financial responsibility, the amount of money, and how to stick to their budgets. On the other hand, it has its challenges as it may influence college football players to forget the primary purpose of going to college. It may also influence them to make wrong financial decisions that may affect them later in life. As discussed herein, this paper has highlighted the reasons why college football players should be paid and also the challenges that may arise later.

Works Cited

Bokat-Lindell, Spencer. "Should College Athletes Be Allowed to Get Paid?" The New York Times 1 October 2019: 1-9. Print. 16 July 2020.

Keolanui, Craig. "Top 10 Reasons College Football Players Should Get Paid." TheSportster 26 October 2014: 1-10. Web. 16 July 2020. <https://www.thesportster.com/football/top-10-reasons-college-football-players-should-get-paid/>.

White, John. "College Football Players Should Get Paid Starting Now." Bleacher Report 19 August 2011: 1-8. Web. 16 July 2020. <https://bleacherreport.com/articles/810551-college-football-players-should-be-paid-starting-now>.