The Origin of Paying Athletes Throughout the history of collegiate athletics, keeping one's amateur status is put in jeopardy and wiped away if the athlete is to receive gifts, money, or rewards for their athletic feats. Ever since the NCAA banned together in 1910, the moment an athlete recieves money, free gifts or rewards based on their play, they have been deamed ineligible to play another second under the helm of an official NCAA organization.
Before the age of great technology and outrageous amounts of paparazzi tracking athletes/celebrities every move, people could get away with some of these acts of bribery or under the table payment. Due to the era society has moved into, this dispersion of money to college athletes has almost become impossible and remains under contract, illegal in all NCAA rulebooks. Recently though, there have been several scandals popping up on athletes still receiving benefits that they are not allowed to have. With the NCAA generating over 870 million dollars in revenue (data based on 2012 measurement), people wonder where this money is all going. Most of it goes to agencies such as broadcasters, the big time name on the collleges and then the athletes get their scholarship money. People have been very upset because the athletes who perform and bring in all of this money do not get any money to eat with or live on for their own expense. Over the course of time, coaches and administrators in the NCAA have grown to have lower and lower percentages saying that college athletes should get paid. Most believe this is due to the fact that the coaches are with these athletes all the time and see how well the programs take care of them. However, this has not stopped parents and players from having backlash. Many want to be able to have money to themselves as they have worked very hard in sports and feel deserving of a semi-normal, college life. Still, nothing has changed for the outcome of people getting paid to play college sports and it will continue to be highly debated as the NCAA board has not made many decisions regarding the issue. |
Current Stances on Paying Athletes As most people know, collegiate athletes are not able to make any money from organizations or people in relation to their play. Today, colleges are finding more and more ways around the rules and technicalities of the NCAA regulations. This helps them to avoid very strong sanctions put on them as the world has seen with examples like Ohio State not being able to participate in a bowl game because players got tattoos in exchange for autographs. These were amateurs and must remain that way by not exchanging anything for their play or namesake.
Being able to see into the life of an athlete is an advantge and a disadvantage. Advantage for coaches, scouts and the law, but a disadvantage for the players being trusted. Nowadays, people have began to slowly label athletes as these "jocks" that just go out and engage with the other gender and have it easy. Food plans paid for, nice clothes provided and more lenient grading in the classroom. This has caused many to believe college athletes have enough. However, in another person's view, they are the ones bringing in the money and must be compensated. No matter the person, most can see a good and a bad side to paying athletes. In 2016, there is a sort of stalemate that has caused little forward progress to be made on the issue. The NCAA chairs and leaders are constantly reminded of this issue and have done surveys, interviews and all sorts of research to find an answer. The most recent decision made by 80 chairmen of the NCAA's five most lucrative confrences have voted 79-1 to expand what athletes can receive from an athletic scholarship, adding a lot of value on the scholarship itself. A critical new piece available to athletes is paying for miscellaneous expenses up to a university agreed upon amount and paying for more extensive transportation. While athletes are not officially paid, they have it much better from a financial standpoint than the average college student and are gaining more and more privileges from acquiring and accepting these athletic scholarships. |