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Using this essay below: 1. Describe the range of view points…
Using this essay below:
1. Describe the range of view points presented by the sources in the essay.
2. List the sources that have complete intros and clear summaries. {list by last name or title]. List the sources that are missing something and state what is missing [i.e. Smith is missing intended audience and stance]
3. Identify two places where the writer’s response to the sources shows the traits of inquiry.
4. Let the writer know if the essay misses the mark on any aspect of the assignment — document formatting, content, expression, use fo MLA formatting and style.
essay to use to answer these questions above:
The amount of compensation and recognition that colleges receive from the talent of their student athletes is substantial. In fact, the most outstanding NCAA Division 1 schools revenue is about $8.5 billion in the year of 2020, with only about 7% of those earnings even being given to the athletes that made it according to Tommy Beer, a staff member for Forbes magazine. (2020). College sports receive revenue streams from media rights, sponsorships, merchandise sales, and ticket sales. These athletes contribute to the massive revenue, yet they are still not compensated beyond their scholarships for housing, counseling, tutoring, and other educational benefits. This has led to a contentious debate about whether or not college athletes should be paid. In this essay, I will examine all viewpoints on the issue and argue that college athletes should be compensated for their contributions to the industry.
Firstly, the main point of argument in favor of paying college athletes is that they are not compensated for the revenue they bring in for their schools and are thought to be exploited for their talents. These college athletes dedicate hours of their life for training and games at the expense of their education, social life, mental health, and possible physical injuries. This dedication to their sport generates billions of dollars for the NCAA and its member schools, yet the athletes receive no share of the profits beyond their scholarships. This has been an ongoing issue for years. In fact, according to ESPN staff writer, Dan Murphy, this exact argument was brought to light upon the Supreme Court in 2014 by West Virginia football Player Shawne Alston and was asked to be looked over again by a new Judge, Claudia Wilken, in 2019. Murphy states in “Supreme Court unanimously sides with former college players in dispute with NCAA about compensation” article written in 2021, “Judge Claudia Wilken ruled in the Alston case in 2019, determining that schools should be able to provide their athletes with educational equipment, study abroad programs, internships and even cash rewards in exchange for academic accomplishments.” The NCAA’s attorney believed that this would make these players inherit professional-like salaries and that this decision should be made by NCAA members. This is obviously still an ongoing issue and something that needs to be touched on in all aspects.
Considering the huge controversy on this subject, it is important to become familiar with just how much money these colleges are making off of their athletes. Live broadcasting programs of these sports is just one significant source of revenue within this industry. A peer-reviewed journal found in Human Kinetic Journals titled “Should College Athletes Be Allowed To Be Paid? A Public Opinion Analysis” by Chris Knoester and B. David Ridpath states, “There is now a 14-year $10.8 billion television contract with Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) and Turner Sports for the rights to televise the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Also, a $7.3 billion television contract exists for the College Football Playoff and six associated football Bowl games (Berkowitz, Upton & Brady, 2013; Gore-Mann & Grace, 2020).” This is just revenue for popular sports events like March Madness that is going straight to the NCAA and the colleges participating. The fact that there is absolutely no compensation for the athletes who put in hours upon hours of endurance, pain, training, and time in their daily lives is something that many can not support, including me.
Furthermore, many people believe that paying athletes will defeat the purpose of college sports and even ruin the organization altogether. The main reason people think that paying athletes is not reasonable is because they do not think they deserve the pay of a professional athlete if they are still at college level. This is understandable in certain terms when it comes to comparing college sports to professional sports like NFL, MLB, etc. Many think that this could cause a larger issue regarding the academic side of things. Laine Higgins on “Should College Athletes Be Paid: A Once-Radical Idea Gains Momentum” states in The Wall Street Journal, “These developments have people seriously contemplating what an employment model could actually look like in college sports. Teams might form unions to bargain on working conditions and wages with their coaches or perhaps even split off from academics altogether”(2022). This is an interesting idea that could definitely create an issue in years to come. With an employee salary, especially one that is in relation to how much these colleges make off each game, student-athletes could just focus more on the money rolling in instead of the academic side of things, which could ultimately affect their scholarships and overall education, leaving us watching a very different side of student-athletes in years to come. Moreover, many opposers to this idea of paying college students roots from the ideology that a college’s main job is to offer a fulfilling educational experience for these young adults and that they do not owe anything more than that to them. In a reputable source from Maryville University written in 2022 it states, “Paying college athletes will ‘diminish the spirit of amateurism’ that distinguishes college sports from their professional counterparts. Limiting compensation for playing a sport to the cost of attending school avoids creating a separate class of students who are profiting from their time in school.” All in all, the argument for this side relates more to the ideology and what society accepts as a proper college experience does not fall into the idea of paying these athletes compensation.
In retrospect, I believe this change would be significant and would create fairness in the lives of these college athletes as they are devoting so much of their time and energy to this lifestyle. There has been an excessive amount of banter about this subject, but laws have been made to move in the direction of getting these athletes the compensation they deserve. A peer-reviewed journal by Andrew Zimbalist titled “A Win Win: College Athletics Get Paid for Their Names, Images, and Likenesses and Colleges Maintain the Primacy of Academics” published in 2020 talks about the steps we have taken in recent years to see some sort of change. Zimbalist states, “The bill made it illegal for California’s universities to prohibit college athletes from receiving compensation for use of their Names, Images, and Likenesses (“NILs”).” (2020). Therefore, these athletes would receive money for anything that was profiting from people who were directly buying merchandise from anything that was sold regarding them as an overall player that included their name or face, especially on merchandise or other types of sales regarding that individual player. Although, many athletes took advantage of this in a different way. In an article from Insider called “How College Athletes Are Getting Paid From Brand Sponsorships as NIL Marketing Takes Off” by Dan Whateley and Colin Salaeo it states, “Some athletes in widely followed sports scored deals worth five or six figures. But many of the 460,000-plus student-athletes across the US ended up working with local businesses, like restaurants, or participating in one-off marketing campaigns with bigger brands, receiving free products, gift cards, or smaller cash payments, rather than big pay days, for their NIL promotions.” This was a huge opportunity for athletes that were not receiving any payback from colleges and the NCAA is overall a large turning point that I hope to see progress in future years.
In conclusion, the debate over whether college athletes should be paid continues to be a contentious issue in the world of sports. While some argue that paying college athletes could have negative consequences for the integrity of college sports and the amateur status of student-athletes, others contend that college athletes deserve to be compensated for their contributions to their respective sports programs and the significant revenue they generate for their universities and the NCAA. The viewpoints presented in this exploratory essay illustrate the complexity of this issue and the need for continued dialogue and critical inquiry. Ultimately, the decision of whether or not to pay college athletes will require a careful examination of the potential benefits and drawbacks, as well as a consideration of the ethical and practical implications of such a policy. Regardless of where one stands on this issue, it is clear that the current conversation around paying college athletes is an important one that will shape the future of college sports for years to come.
