Pay college athletes for job they do

According to SportingNews.com, 86 percent of college athletes are living below the poverty line. This is a surprising statistic since many college athletes receive full scholarships. Although full scholarships cover room and board, books and tuition, many student athletes are still left in a hollow of debt. Yet, paying student athletes has been a controversial issue since the early 1900’s. Although student athletes put in countless hours of work into practice and games, some people feel that discounted or free tuition and board is compensation enough; meanwhile, others feel that they should be given spending and living money for personal expenses. On the matter of this topic I feel as if, yes, student athletes do deserve to be paid a stipend in addition to their scholarship for all their hard work and effort.

First, student athletes spend incalculable hours practicing and working out, which takes time away from them getting a job and earning money. I recently read an article on Buisnessinsider.com that stated that collegiate athletes spend up to 40 hours a week practicing. Most people with a salary spend that much time working every week! Now imagine being a college athlete putting in all this time and effort toward school and sports and having no money; you would really wish that the sport you are practically devoting your life to would give you a little bit of money to spend. Receiving a full scholarship does not always cover all of your college expenses.

Next, consider this statistic, found on NCAA.com: “Every year the NCAA awards $2.7 billion dollars to Division I and II schools toward athletic scholarships.” Although many students will receive full athletic scholarships they still have no extra spending money. Multiple players who receive full athletic scholarships come from impoverished families. Families like this could not afford to send spending money to their students. None of that $2.7 billion goes toward students eating out or getting students new clothes or supplies. Multiple people say “why don't they just quit and get a job?” But in reality sports are what these kids want to have a profession in or are the only reason they got into college. Giving student athletes a little bit of an incentive in the form of a little bit of money would motivate them to work harder and relieve stress off of them and their families.

Also, in a study conducted by the NCAA of “195,000 students including student athletes, over 30 percent of them stated they were stressed in some way.” These problems included academics, athletics, family issues, finances and other factors. The worst thing for a family is for their child who could possibly be thousands of miles away to be dealing with a mental breakdown due to all of the stress of being involved in so many activities. The stress of not being able to afford decent clothing or going out to dinner with a group of friends or even being able to afford a car to get from one’s apartment to the practice field is an eliminable stress. Giving collegiate athletes some money along with their scholarships, furthermore, would make them feel more independent as well as less stressed. This would take stress off not just the athlete, but the families of these players because they would not have to worry about sending money away for their student.

However, I can also see the opposing sides view on this topic. Many parents, teachers,and even some students believe that a scholarship is enough. They say that college is the time where kids learn life lessons such as decision making and time management. This is also a time some believe that kids would make more reasonable decisions toward their career path. I still believe collegiate athletes should be paid and they should chase their dreams no matter what someone says.

Finally, as the price of attending college rises every year even those student athletes who receive full scholarships are still put in some financial burdens. By giving them a little bit of money to help them out would make a world's difference to them. I am not saying that colleges need to hand out multi-million dollar contracts to student athletes; what I'm saying is that a little incentive would go a long way in helping out that player. Collegiate athletes are the same as you and me by just trying to make it through to get to something bigger. Soon, hopefully, all college players will be paid; let's just hope they catch it.