Paid To Play

            
             The call for the National Collegiate Athletic Association to allow universities to pay its scholarship athletes is at an all-time high. Experts, athletes and supporters across the nation are pleading with the NCAA to give these athletes that work everyday to excel for their schools some sort of remuneration. Student-athletes (SAs) on scholarship should be paid because NCAA regulations do not allow them to work, the respective schools" athletic departments and conferences generate large profits off their athletic abilities and efforts, and pay would lessen financial pressures on SAs that lead them to violate NCAA rules and leave school early to enter professional drafts.
             College scholarship athletes are held to a stringent code of NCAA rules that budget their time and hinder their ability to acquire and keep a paying job. Student-athletes work hard, and much of their time is absorbed by their studies and their sport. It must be difficult to lead a regular college life when one can't hold a job, are traveling to away games, and play sports all the time. The fact is that there are only so many hours in a day, and between classes and practices and conditioning, there is no time to work even the most flexible part-time schedule. Many proponents of paying college athletes believe this causes many student-athletes to miss out on the college experience. That is, these students are unable to afford the everyday expenses that a regular college student may subsidize with a paying job. .
             Supporters of the initiative have long insisted that since universities and the NCAA are making billions of dollars off student athletics every year the work-horses of the industry should be rewarded. Since fans, boosters and students are paying to see the players perform, the players should in turn receive some sort of payment for their services. Individual schools, especially the larger ones in powerhouse conferences, reap huge profits from licensing and merchandising alone, and even schools with mildly successful programs or interesting athletic nicknames make money by licensing the school's logo and its well-known players' numbers.