College Athletes

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the hypocrisy of a system that prohibits student athletes, many of whom devote more than a full-time workweek to their sport outside of classes, from being compensated for their efforts outside of free school-related items like tuition and books. According to the paper, the college system has become inundated with corruption regarding payments and perks offered to players, more and more athletes are electing to skip college or at least a year of it altogether in favor of going professional, and demands on athletes are becoming more and more time-consuming and stringent.

From the Paper:

"One critic of the current system has even suggested that paying athletes is a basic human rights issue of underpaid (rather, unpaid) workers and said that even if students' pay is put into a trust fund for after graduation, at least the athletes will have been reimbursed for their efforts (Kirkpatrick 1995). Students who participate in work-study programs at their universities naturally expect to be, and are, reimbursed for their efforts at the school. In a similar manner, student-athletes perform a valuable service for the university and should be compensated accordingly. Many opponents of this policy noted that most college athletics programs do not turn a profit; granted, women's tennis may not be a significant spectator sport at many colleges, but that does not mean that the national champion football team did not bring in upwards of $100 million in merchandise, television rights, and ticket sales."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bruinius, Harry. "College Players Still Amateurs...but Barely," Christian Science Monitor, 4/3/00, 92:91.
• Gregory, Sean and Fulton, Greg. "Getting Benched," Time 3/14/05. 165:11.
• Kirkpatrick, Curry. "The Hoops are made of Gold," Newsweeki 04/03/95, 125:14.
• "Money Pours In," Associated Press 5/21/03 printed at Sports Illustrated online; available at http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/basketball/news/2003/05/21/lebron_upperdeck_ap
• "Tennis coaches: Some foreign players are pros," USA Today 5/13/03. Section: sports, p. 13C.

More papers on College Athletes:

• Analytical Essay # 60904 : "College Athletes"
• Argumentative Essay # 98515 : "Paying College Athletes"
• Argumentative Essay # 72894 : "Professional Sports For College Athletes"
• Essay # 64048 : "Paying College Athletes"

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