Paying Division One Athletes

Pay to Play: Should Division One College Athletes be Paid?

Every year, Division One college athletes put everything they have on the line during practice every day and make hundreds of millions of dollars for their schools and the NCAA. These athletes aren't just playing for the love of the game anymore once they reach the Division One level; it turns into more of a job than an activity. The players spend hours every single day dedicating almost all of their time to the sport they play.

These athletes work just as long and much harder than your average person working a nine-to-five job, so why don't the athletes get paid for their commitments to their teams? Last year, the NCAA made $871.6 million dollars from Division One sports. The average Division One men's football team brings in $15.8 million dollars to their school each year. The amount of money that these sports make for their school is so high; the players should get some kind of reward for all they do for their schools.

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The old rules that say college athletes can't be paid in any way needs to change. Division One college athletes deserve to be paid for all they do for the NCAA and their schools. Growing up, every athlete dreams of playing in that national championship game for their dream school and scoring the winning touchdown or overtime goal. As a child, you don't realize the commitment it takes to be part of a Division One athletic team. Coming from a big lacrosse and football town, my friends and I have gone through the Division One recruiting process and know how hard it is to play a Division One sport.

Many of my former teammates play Division One lacrosse, and after talking to them, I realized really how tough it is to play a Division One sport. When asked about how lacrosse at Sacred Heart University was going, Freshman Spencer Hackett said, "I've grown up with lacrosse, and I love the sport very much, but Division One is so much more than I thought it would be. Every day I have two practices that last at least two hours, then after that, I have mandatory lift and film sessions." Spencer dedicates at least six hours every day for his team, and they're one of the lowest-ranked teams in Division One. I can only imagine the commitment it takes to play on a high-ranked team. In my personal experience of going through the Division One recruiting process, I saw how much blood, sweat, and tears go into being a Division One athlete. On my overnight visit at the University of Massachusetts, which is a top 20 team, most of my day was watching the team practice, lift, or watch film.

It seemed like everything they did revolved around lacrosse, and to me, that’s not what college is about. These Division I athletes have such little time to socialize and make friends outside of their sports. Everything they do revolves around their sports. The fact that athletes willingly dedicate so much time to their sports is a huge reason why they should be paid. Division I athletics, especially sports such as football and basketball, are extremely profitable for the NCAA and for their schools. According to NCAA.org, the NCAA’s revenue for the 2011-2012 athletic seasons was $871 million dollars. The NCAA makes an extremely large amount of money from Division I athletics, with most of the money coming from television contracts and championships such as March Madness. Schools such as Texas make hundreds of millions of dollars because of their excellence in many sports. Last year, their football team profited $68,830,484. A lot of the money schools make, such as Texas, is from selling merchandise. Big-name schools sell tons of merchandise to the public. Selling products such as jerseys should be illegal if the players don’t get paid.

Why could they sell jerseys with players' numbers on them, but that player doesn’t get compensated for using their number on the jersey? Robert and Amy McCormick of Michigan State University have added a new dimension to the long debate over paying athletes by arguing they are "employees" under federal labor laws and entitled to form unions and negotiate wages, hours, and working conditions. Robert McCormick was the former attorney for the National Labor Relations Board, and if he is saying that these players are employees, it’s about time that the NCAA recognizes them as employees as well.

A common argument against paying college athletes is that they won’t compete as hard because it won’t be the same as when they weren’t getting paid, but that argument has absolutely nothing to do with paying players. If anything, paying the players would make them work harder so that they could make more money! I believe that the best way to go about paying these players would be contracts, just like professional athletes and like any other employee in the United States.

These contracts would state that the players would be paid an amount depending on their contribution to the team, and that students would need to finish their schooling so that they have a backup plan. That is why you're supposed to go to college in the first place, isn't it? So that you can get a good education! To do this, the NCAA would need the support of professional sports teams and not draft players who haven't graduated from college yet. Another argument why players shouldn't be paid to play is that they are student-athletes, and there is a reason the word "student" comes before "athlete."

Realistically, these young men and women aren't student-athletes at all. Many of the players on Division I teams would never have gotten into college if it weren't for sports. Also, if they are student-athletes, then where do they find the time to do their schoolwork when they have practice, film, lifting, running, etc. all day? The only reason many athletes go to college is so that they can get looks from the pros. If they are student-athletes, then why do many of them leave college after a year or two to play professional sports?

It's because college is just a stepping-stone to them; they don't care about the school aspect. When it comes to Division I athletes, they are athletes first and students second. The players know it, the coaches know it, the fans know it; the only people who don't know it are the people who make up the NCAA. In conclusion, times have changed, and it's time to pay Division I athletes for their commitment and the money they bring in for the schools and the NCAA. With college athletics competition being so tough and competitive now, players have to dedicate so much more time to their sports than in the past.

ob for the players that consists of hours of practice every day, and throwing your social life out for your sports. College athletics make hundreds of millions of dollars for the NCAA and tens of millions of dollars for the schools. So, why is it that these players don’t get compensated for their commitment and contribution to the schools and the NCAA? I personally believe that it is ridiculous that players don’t get paid anymore.

One of my best friends, Dylan Baumgardner, a lacrosse player at Quinnipiac University, said it perfectly when asked if he still loved playing lacrosse: “I don’t play lacrosse anymore. I go to class, then I go to work all day, then I go to sleep.” Joe Nocera of the New York Times came up with a plan for college athletics that would make college athletics work like professional sports, with signing bonuses, salary caps, insurance, player unions, and it would even offer additional scholarships to players who want to further their education. This plan went into consideration in 2014.

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