College athletics has evolved from just an extracurricular activity to a full fledge commercial business. Student-athletes are rewarded athletic scholarships that only include academic subsidies such as tuition, room and board, fees, and books (Goplerud, 1997). To some, the reward of a free or discounted college education is not good enough. The athletes deserve additional pay for their hard work. College athletics bring in millions of dollars and the athletes are not given any of it. Research shows that college athletes are used, abused, and then thrown out, while the school and NCAA make millions on television money, gate receipts, and merchandise sales (Goplerud, 1997). There have been numerous debates over sharing the revenue with student-athletes because of the legal policies it demands (Goplerud, 1997). Studies have been done on potential alternatives such as monthly stipends and trust funds as a form of payment for the athlete's hard work. Due to the commercialization of college athletics, many studies have proposed a need for legislation from the NCAA regarding paying college athletes.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was founded in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt to devise formal game rules, promote safety, and give college athletics some degree of public respectability (Potuto, 2014). College sports flourished after WWII and the level of competition increased. The schools realized they could create additional revenue from charging admittance fees to spectators and fans that came to the games. Then they saw that the better talent the team had, the more fans the school would attract, and those attendance numbers meant more money. Colleges had to compete with one another by bringing in the most talented players. So this led to the idea of paying "scholarships" to their student-athletes as a way to recruit premier talent (Potuto, 2014). The scholarship serves as a reward for the hardest working athletes who choose to compete at the collegiate level. College athletics has evolved greatly over the last 100 years.
Today, the NCAA is a private, voluntary association that governs over 800 colleges and universities (Goplerud, 1997). The industry brings in about 11 billion dollars of revenue the college sports (Potuto, 2014). The athletes on the other hand only receive financial payment in the form of an athletic scholarship. Over the years this commercialization of college sports has become a part of a "sports entertainment enterprise" (Miller, 2011). The NCAA has had to evolve with these new market driven ideals. Paying college athletes' additional money is one idea that has been recirculating for years now.
College athletes are required to attend all practices and workouts in their sport. Practices are physically demanding and balancing academics is a challenge when the body is continuously exhausted. Student-athletes adhere to every rule and request from their coaches, all day, every day. In this way,...
