College Athletes Should Be Financially Compensated

College athletes should be paid to play for many reasons. First of all, college athletes aren’t allowed to work. How are they going to pay for all the necessary expenses if they come from poor families? This also leads to players accepting illegal money, cars, clothes, etc. College athletes bring in millions of dollars through merchandise and games. Most of the athletes that have the opportunity to leave school and turn professional do so because college athletes live in near poverty.

Since college athletes are not allowed to work, even if they have the extra time to do so, they have to sacrifice meals, new clothes, and other necessary items in order to save money for the future. Some of the players who receive no money from their families accept illegal offers in order to buy necessary items. Most college athletes don’t turn professional, so the athletes won’t have any working experience when they get into the real world. This would give the non-athletes an advantage in the working world over the athletes.

College athletes bring in millions of dollars to their schools. For example, the University of Miami received about 8 million dollars for the Miami Hurricanes playing in the Nokia Sugar Bowl. The apparel also brings in a lot of money by selling hats, footballs, and jerseys. Also the Orange Bowl holds over 60,000 people and they sell tickets at an average of 20 dollars each. The players should receive some of this money because without them the schools wouldn’t receive all the popularity and money.

College athletes live in near poverty because the money they receive isn’t enough to pay for all of the miscellaneous expenses and necessities. The few athletes that graduate from college, that could turn professional before their senior year, stay because their parents support them by sending money. If college athletes are eligible to be paid, there would be more athletes graduating. Paying athletes would be good for everyone and players would go for an education instead of only concentrating on sports.

If colleges don’t pay the athletes the professional leagues should. Professional leagues such as the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB use colleges as minor leagues. Most of the players in these leagues come from universities across the U.S.A. Since the professional leagues get the athletes from the universities, they should pay them the same way they pay minor league players. College athletes should receive money for all of their needs, or if they can’t do this the athletes should be given the opportunity to work, which will help them learn about working in the real world.

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