March madness, the Rose Bowl, and the CFP National Championship are major events in which college athletes strive to compete. Watching college athletics is a passion for millions of people and in recent years, questions have been raised about whether or not college athletes should be paid. Former professional basketball player, author, and entrepreneur Tyson Hartnett argues in his article, Why College Athletes Should be Paid, that college athletes should be compensated by the NCAA for playing a Division I sport. Hartnett reflects on his experience as an athlete at Rowan University and recounts how his roommate was forced to work a part-time job during the off-season to make ends meet. According to Hartnett, being an athlete in college is a full time job because weight room sessions, study halls, class/schoolwork, and practices take up their entire day. Thus, he emphasizes that having to work a part-time job on top of their athletic commitments is very challenging. The average Division I full athletic scholarship is $25,000 per year, which Hartnett reveals only covers basic tuition and housing costs for most students and leaves some of them stretched very thin financially (Hartnett). He compares this scholarship amount to the millions of dollars that top NCAA executives and coaches make per year and states that the NCAA is a billion dollar company because of how much it profits off of the athletes. Hartnett writes that, athletes earn their school hundreds of thousands of dollars, increase enrollment, and if they do well, provide a recruiting piece for generations (Hartnett). Hartnett claims that there is some hypocrisy in the fact that universities are profiting off of their athletic programs but the student athletes are prohibited from accepting endorsements and selling autographs and therefore the athletes should be paid throughout their college career.
Joe Nocera, a prominent sports journalist at the New York Times, agrees with Hartnett on the fact that college athletes should be paid. Noceras article Lets Start Paying College Athletes, provides a descriptive plan on how the NCAA and universities can provide student athletes with income and other benefits. Nocera notes how male football and basketball players are dealing with the excessive commercialism that colleges use to be profitable and how the students are receiving none of the profits. Nocera brings in the perspective of Leigh Steinberg to further explain his position. Steinberg points out that, the dominant attitude among players is that there is no moral or ethical reason not to take money, because the system is ripping them off (Nocera). Steinberg and Nocera argue that there is a large economic discrepancy between players and the top executives or coaches and the athletes deserve better. Noceras presents a five-part plan as a solution. He advocates that universities offer athletes legitimate contracts, develop a players union that provides players with lifetime health insuran...
