As a current Student-Athlete I can honestly say I do not believe athletes should be compensated. My reason for this thought is that athletes get paid through scholarships if they earn them and also through respect after we have fulfilled our contracts. The percentage of student-athletes receiving job offers right out of college is much higher than the average student. However, recent studies have shown that male student-athletes are putting more emphasis on their sports than on their education. This is causing the respect aspect of playing college athletics to be falling tremendously.
The documentary talked about both sides of the idea of athlete compensation. They showed two examples of student athletes deserving and non-deserving of such benefits. One example was of a football player named Devon Ramsey. He played for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He had submitted an English paper that he wrote to a tutor who worked at the Academic Help Center for athletes. The tutor made some slight punctuation corrections and added one concluding paragraph. A professor thought this paper to be an example of plagiarism and submitted the case to the NCAA. Without even a fair trial and any evidence, the NCAA board ruled Devon under Academic Dishonesty and permanently dismissed from all collegiate athletics. This was a poor judgment made by the NCAA because when you look at the fine print, Devon was one of the only players on the UNC-CH football team who had broken an NCAA rule. The reason I say this is because Devon actually enrolled in regular classes under the business department of the University. His teammates were enrolled in what is known as the Special Electives program that consist mostly of "paper classes". These classes are worth 3 full credits and are made especially for student-athletes. There is no work due during the semester except for one paper at the end on a subject of the students choosing.