"The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) supports nearly 1200 member schools and organizations. This organization makes millions of dollars from gate receipts of games and television revenue" (Jones). The college athlete does not receive any of the money earned from such sales. College athletes also create revenue for the coaches. "The average salary for a coach in a Division I school is over a million dollars. The Head Coach for the University of Kentucky is reported to earn over two million dollars a year" (Whitlock). What about schools that profit from outside entities such as television networks? "Notre Dame is paid fifty million dollars a year for broadcasting rights to their football games by CBS according to an ESPN reporter"(Whitlock). It seems everyone is being paid except to athlete. Even when companies like Nike and Reebok contract to coaches directly a large sum of money for letting their players wear their brand of shoes, why not cut the athlete a slice of that pie, after-all the school takes a slice? .
Not only does the athlete deserve to be paid because everyone else is being paid but he trains six days a week, sometimes for more than three to four hours on the field, maybe two hours in the gym and then there is the time needed to study the plays. The athlete still has to comply with the academic standards set by the NCAA and the schools. So right off the field he runs to classes or to the library to focus on his academic studies. You might argue that the reward to the athlete for playing the game is his scholarship for an education. "The average cost for an undergraduate with tuition, room and board at a Division I school like University of Michigan is about $50,000.00 for an undergrad degree"(Custard 628). You don't have to be a math major to figure that $50,000.00, the value of the athlete's scholarship is a tiny, tiny fraction of what the school clears off of his blood, sweat and tears.
