Earning a degree is something that not everyone can do and once one has that, the sky is the limit. .
Moreover, Athletic Director at the University of North Texas, Cinnamon Sheffield has key reasons as to why student-athletes should not be paid. Sheffield states, "The main reason they [students] will be coming to UNT is to earn a degree which they will own for the rest of their lives. ".
Sheffield nailed it when she mentions how the most important reason students attend college is to earn a degree regardless of their athletic ability. That is exactly why student-athletes should not be paid because they are there to earn a degree not earn a paycheck by playing a sport. She also continues by saying, "We remind them that athletics is a privilege, academics are the priority " (Sheffield). This also backs up as to why college athletes should not be paid. Academics is the most important thing while one is at college and if they started to pay athletes their mentality would be changed and they would be more focused on the paycheck they receive from their sport rather than their classes. .
Dr. Steve Chen, a professor in Sport Management at Morehead University and writer of "Should Student-Athletes Get Paid ", feels the same way when it comes to paying college athletes. Chen believes that academics are the main purpose of college. He feels that a college's primary objective is to provide students with a quality education that prepares them to be equipped with the tools to survive in the real world. Paying athletes would take the student away from student-athlete and that would defeat the purpose of a college's main objective. Athletes do not realize the importance of the education they are earning while they play their sport and that is why they should not get paid, it is not a job rather just a sport.
Another reason that college athletes should not be paid is because they are, under NCAA rules, to be considered amateurs.