The point of college is to obtain the skills necessary to qualify for a potential career. A future doctor must attend medical school. A future lawyer must attend law school. A future engineer must attend trade school. A future profession who seeks to work with young daycare children must be certified with the proper credentials. And a future professional basketball player must attend one year of college.
There has been recent chatter of whether college athletes should be paid. The NCAA is a billion-dollar organization with rules in place to keep top boosters and sponsors happy while exploiting the athlete. The argument is that they are given a full scholarship to attend the college with room and board taken care of, and that should be enough. Another argument is that college athletics will lose some form integrity if players are compensated and the players should recognize that it's a privilege to play.
All things consider, the people making the arguments never talk about how much money is made. In a recent study done by Money Nation, a report shows that the “NCAA make 1 billion dollars and college athletics makes 12 billion dollars annually” (Gerencer, 1). The coaches also take home a handsome paycheck averaging over $1 million. In college football, the top five coaches make $5 million with 5-time national champion Nick Saban making $11 million annual. In college basketball, the top five coaches make an average of $3 million with 5-time national champ Mike Krzyzewski making over $8 million.
In these two cases, Coach K and Nick Saban have rightfully earned their salaries for their continued dominance of the sport. What about the other coaches? Why are coaches awarded millions of dollars to coach? People don’t tune in to see the coach of (insert University) walk up and down the sideline barking out plays. We tune in for electric passes and thunderous slam dunks.
We want the quick jukes and hard tackling. We want the game-winning touchdown ran in by Vince Young (Texas) in the 2006 Rose Bowl. We want Marcus Paige (UNC) electric game-tying 3-pointer only to be followed up by Chris Jenkins (Villanova) game-winning shot in the 2016 CBB championship game. We want to see Deshaun Watson (Clemson) lose to Alabama only to return the following year to beat them in a classic shooting between two firepower offenses. We want Greyson Allen (Duke), Anthony Davis (Kentucky), Kemba Walker (UCONN), and Tyler Hansbrough (UNC) lead their teams to victory while surviving the turbulent and unpredictable march madness bracket.
The main reason people tune into the watch college sports is the athletes, yet they cant be compensated in any way? Players can’t use their celebrity or likeness but the NCAA can continue to make deals with networks to reap billions annually?
We really need to talk about a way for players to make money while in college.
