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The argumentative essay is one of the most frequently assigned types of essays in both high school and college writing-based courses. Instructors often ask students to write argumentative essays over topics that have “real-world relevance.” The question, “Should college athletes be paid?” is one of these real-world relevant topics that can make a great essay subject! 

In this article, we’ll give you all the tools you need to write a solid essay arguing why college athletes should be paid and why college athletes should not be paid. We'll provide:

• An explanation of the NCAA and what role it plays in the lives of student athletes
• A summary of the pro side of the argument that's in favor of college athletes being paid
• A summary of the con side of the argument that believes college athletes shouldn't be paid
• Five tips that will help you write an argumentative essay that answers the question "Should college athletes be paid?" 

The NCAA is the organization that oversees and regulates collegiate athletics. 

What Is the NCAA? 

In order to understand the context surrounding the question, “Should student athletes be paid?”, you have to understand what the NCAA is and how it relates to student-athletes. 

NCAA stands for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (but people usually just call it the “N-C-double-A”). The NCAA is a nonprofit organization that serves as the national governing body for collegiate athletics. 

The NCAA specifically regulates collegiate student athletes at the organization’s 1,098 “member schools.” Student-athletes at these member schools are required to follow the rules set by the NCAA for their academic performance and progress while in college and playing sports. Additionally, the NCAA sets the rules for each of their recognized sports to ensure everyone is playing by the same rules. ( They also change these rules occasionally, which can be pretty controversial! ) 

The NCAA website states that the organization is “dedicated to the well-being and lifelong success of college athletes” and prioritizes their well-being in academics, on the field, and in life beyond college sports. That means the NCAA sets some pretty strict guidelines about what their athletes can and can't do. And of course, right now, college athletes can't be paid for playing their sport. 

As it stands, NCAA athletes are allowed to receive scholarships that cover their college tuition and related school expenses. But historically, they haven't been allowed to receive additional compensation. That meant athletes couldn't receive direct payment for their participation in sports in any form, including endorsement deals, product sponsorships, or gifts.  

Athletes who violated the NCAA’s rules about compensation could be suspended from participating in college sports or kicked out of their athletic program altogether. 

The Problem: Should College Athletes Be Paid? 

You know now that one of the most well-known functions of the NCAA is regulating and limiting the compensation that student-athletes are able to receive. While many people might not question this policy, the question of why college athletes should be paid or shouldn't be paid has actually been a hot-button topic for several years.

The fact that people keep asking the question, “Should student athletes be paid?” indicates that there’s some heat out there surrounding this topic. The issue is frequently debated on sports talk shows , in the news media , and on social media . Most recently, the topic re-emerged in public discourse in the U.S. because of legislation that was passed by the state of California in 2019.

In September 2019, California governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that allowed college athletes in California to strike endorsement deals. An endorsement deal allows athletes to be paid for endorsing a product, like wearing a specific brand of shoes or appearing in an advertisement for a product.

In other words, endorsement deals allow athletes to receive compensation from companies and organizations because of their athletic talent. That means Governor Newsom’s bill explicitly contradicts the NCAA’s rules and regulations for financial compensation for student-athletes at member schools.

But why would Governor Newsom go against the NCAA? Here’s why: the California governor believes that it's unethical for the NCAA to make money based on the unpaid labor of its athletes . And the NCAA definitely makes money: each year, the NCAA upwards of a billion dollars in revenue as a result of its student-athlete talent, but the organization bans those same athletes from earning any money for their talent themselves. With the new California law, athletes would be able to book sponsorships and use agents to earn money, if they choose to do so. 

The NCAA’s initial response to California’s new law was to push back hard. But after more states introduced similar legislation , the NCAA changed its tune. In October 2019, the NCAA pledged to pass new regulations when the board voted unanimously to allow student athletes to receive compensation for use of their name, image, and likeness. 

Simply put: student athletes can now get paid through endorsement deals. 

In the midst of new state legislation and the NCAA’s response, the ongoing debate about paying college athletes has returned to the spotlight. Everyone from politicians, to sports analysts, to college students are arguing about it. There are strong opinions on both sides of the issue, so we’ll look at how some of those opinions can serve as key points in an argumentative essay.

Let's take a look at the arguments in favor of paying student athletes!

The Pros: Why College Athletes Should B e Paid

Since the argument about whether college athletes should be paid has gotten a lot of public attention, there are some lines of reasoning that are frequently called upon to support the claim that college athletes should be paid. 

In this section, we'll look at the three biggest arguments in favor of why college athletes should be paid. We'll also give you some ideas on how you can support these arguments in an argumentative essay.

Argument 1: The Talent Should Receive Some of the Profits

This argument on why college athletes should be paid is probably the one people cite the most. It’s also the easiest one to support with facts and evidence. 

Essentially, this argument states that the NCAA makes millions of dollars because people pay to watch college athletes compete, and it isn’t fair that the athletes don't get a share of the profits

Without the student athletes, the NCAA wouldn’t earn over a billion dollars in annual revenue , and college and university athletic programs wouldn’t receive hundreds of thousands of dollars from the NCAA each year. In fact, without student athletes, the NCAA wouldn’t exist at all. 

Because student athletes are the ones who generate all this revenue, people in favor of paying college athletes argue they deserve to receive some of it back. Otherwise, t he NCAA and other organizations (like media companies, colleges, and universities) are exploiting a bunch of talented young people for their own financial gain.

To support this argument in favor of paying college athletes, you should include specific data and revenue numbers that show how much money the NCAA makes (and what portion of that actually goes to student athletes). For example, they might point out the fact that the schools that make the most money in college sports only spend around 10% of their tens of millions in athletics revenue on scholarships for student-athletes. Analyzing the spending practices of the NCAA and its member institutions could serve as strong evidence to support this argument in a “why college athletes should be paid” essay. 

I've you've ever been a college athlete, then you know how hard you have to train in order to compete. It can feel like a part-time job...which is why some people believe athletes should be paid for their work!

Argument 2: College Athletes Don’t Have Time to Work Other Jobs

People sometimes casually refer to being a student-athlete as a “full-time job.” For many student athletes, this is literally true. The demands on a student-athlete’s time are intense. Their days are often scheduled down to the minute, from early in the morning until late at night. 

One thing there typically isn’t time for in a student-athlete’s schedule? Working an actual job. 

Sports programs can imply that student-athletes should treat their sport like a full-time job as well. This can be problematic for many student-athletes, who may not have any financial resources to cover their education. (Not all NCAA athletes receive full, or even partial, scholarships!) While it may not be expressly forbidden for student-athletes to get a part-time job, the pressure to go all-in for your team while still maintaining your eligibility can be tremendous. 

In addition to being a financial burden, the inability to work a real job as a student-athlete can have consequences for their professional future. Other college students get internships or other career-specific experience during college—opportunities that student-athletes rarely have time for. When they graduate, proponents of this stance argue, student-athletes are under-experienced and may face challenges with starting a career outside of the sports world.

Because of these factors, some argue that if people are going to refer to being a student-athlete as a “full-time job,” then student-athletes should be paid for doing that job.  

To support an argument of this nature, you can offer real-life examples of a student-athlete’s daily or weekly schedule to show that student-athletes have to treat their sport as a full-time job. For instance, this Twitter thread includes a range of responses from real student-athletes to an NCAA video portraying a rose-colored interpretation of a day in the life of a student-athlete. 

Presenting the Twitter thread as one form of evidence in an essay would provide effective support for the claim that college athletes should be paid as if their sport is a “full-time job.” You might also take this stance in order to claim that if student-athletes aren’t getting paid, we must adjust our demands on their time and behavior.

Argument 3: Only Some Student Athletes Should Be Paid

This take on the question, “Should student athletes be paid?” sits in the middle ground between the more extreme stances on the issue. There are those who argue that only the student athletes who are big money-makers for their university and the NCAA should be paid.  

The reasoning behind this argument? That’s just how capitalism works. There are always going to be student-athletes who are more talented and who have more media-magnetizing personalities. They’re the ones who are going to be the face of athletic programs, who lead their teams to playoffs and conference victories, and who are approached for endorsement opportunities. 

Additionally, some sports don't make money for their schools. Many of these sports fall under Title IX, which states that no one can be excluded from participation in a federally-funded program (including sports) because of their gender or sex. Unfortunately, many of these programs aren't popular with the public , which means they don't make the same revenue as high-dollar sports like football or basketball . 

In this line of thinking, since there isn’t realistically enough revenue to pay every single college athlete in every single sport, the ones who generate the most revenue are the only ones who should get a piece of the pie. 

To prove this point, you can look at revenue numbers as well. For instance, the womens' basketball team at the University of Louisville lost $3.8 million dollars in revenue during the 2017-2018 season. In fact, the team generated less money than they pay for their coaching staff. In instances like these, you might argue that it makes less sense to pay athletes than it might in other situations (like for University of Alabama football, which rakes in over $110 million dollars a year .) 

There are many people who think it's a bad idea to pay college athletes, too. Let's take a look at the opposing arguments. 

The Cons: Why College Athletes Shouldn't Be Paid

People also have some pretty strong opinions about why college athletes shouldn't be paid. These arguments can make for a pretty compelling essay, too! 

In this section, we'll look at the three biggest arguments against paying college athletes. We'll also talk about how you can support each of these claims in an essay. 

Argument 1: College Athletes Already Get Paid

On this side of the fence, the most common reason given for why college athletes should not be paid is that they already get paid: they receive free tuition and, in some cases, additional funding to cover their room, board, and miscellaneous educational expenses. 

Proponents of this argument state that free tuition and covered educational expenses is compensation enough for student-athletes. While this money may not go straight into a college athlete's pocket, it's still a valuable resource . Considering most students graduate with nearly $30,000 in student loan debt , an athletic scholarship can have a huge impact when it comes to making college affordable . 

Evidence for this argument might look at the financial support that student-athletes receive for their education, and compare those numbers to the financial support that non-athlete students receive for their schooling. You can also cite data that shows the real value of a college tuition at certain schools. For example, student athletes on scholarship at Duke may be "earning" over $200,000 over the course of their collegiate careers. 

This argument works to highlight the ways in which student-athletes are compensated in financial and in non-financial ways during college , essentially arguing that the special treatment they often receive during college combined with their tuition-free ride is all the compensation they have earned.

Some people who are against paying athletes believe that compensating athletes will lead to amateur athletes being treated like professionals. Many believe this is unfair and will lead to more exploitation, not less. 

Argument 2: Paying College Athletes Would Side-Step the Real Problem

Another argument against paying student athletes is that college sports are not professional sports , and treating student athletes like professionals exploits them and takes away the spirit of amateurism from college sports . 

This stance may sound idealistic, but those who take this line of reasoning typically do so with the goal of protecting both student-athletes and the tradition of “amateurism” in college sports. This argument is built on the idea that the current system of college sports is problematic and needs to change, but that paying student-athletes is not the right solution. 

Instead, this argument would claim that there is an even better way to fix the corrupt system of NCAA sports than just giving student-athletes a paycheck. To support such an argument, you might turn to the same evidence that’s cited in this NPR interview : the European model of supporting a true minor league system for most sports is effective, so the U.S. should implement a similar model. 

In short: creating a minor league can ensure athletes who want a career in their sport get paid, while not putting the burden of paying all collegiate athletes on a university. 

Creating and supporting a true professional minor league would allow the students who want to make money playing sports to do so. Universities could then confidently put earned revenue from sports back into the university, and student-athletes wouldn’t view their college sports as the best and only path to a career as a professional athlete. Those interested in playing professionally would be able to pursue this dream through the minor leagues instead, and student athletes could just be student athletes. 

The goal of this argument is to sort of achieve a “best of both worlds” solution: with the development and support of a true minor league system, student-athletes would be able to focus on the foremost goal of getting an education, and those who want to get paid for their sport can do so through the minor league. Through this model, student-athletes’ pursuit of their education is protected, and college sports aren’t bogged down in ethical issues and logistical hang-ups. 

Argument 3: It Would Be a Logistical Nightmare

This argument against paying student athletes takes a stance on the basis of logistics. Essentially, this argument states that while the current system is flawed, paying student athletes is just going to make the system worse. So until someone can prove that paying collegiate athletes will fix the system, it's better to maintain the status quo. 

Formulating an argument around this perspective basically involves presenting the different proposals for how to go about paying college athletes, then poking holes in each proposed approach. Such an argument would probably culminate in stating that the challenges to implementing pay for college athletes are reason enough to abandon the idea altogether. 

Here's what we mean. One popular proposed approach to paying college athletes is the notion of “pay-for-play.” In this scenario, all college athletes would receive the same weekly stipend to play their sport . 

In this type of argument, you might explain the pay-for-play solution, then pose some questions toward the approach that expose its weaknesses, such as: Where would the money to pay athletes come from? How could you pay athletes who play certain sports, but not others? How would you avoid Title IX violations? Because there are no easy answers to these questions, you could argue that paying college athletes would just create more problems for the world of college sports to deal with.

Posing these difficult questions may persuade a reader that attempting to pay college athletes would cause too many issues and lead them to agree with the stance that college athletes should not be paid. 

5 Tips for Writing About Paying College Athletes

If you’re assigned the prompt “Should college athletes be paid," don't panic. There are several steps you can take to write an amazing argumentative essay about the topic! We've broken our advice into five helpful tips that you can use to persuade your readers (and ace your assignment).

Tip 1: Plan Out a Logical Structure for Your Essay

In order to write a logical, well-organized argumentative essay, one of the first things you need to do is plan out a structure for your argument. Using a bare-bones argumentative outline for a “why college athletes should be paid” essay is a good place to start. 

Check out our example of an argumentative essay outline for this topic below: 

• The thesis statement must communicate the topic of the essay: Whether college athletes should be paid, and 
• Convey a position on that topic: That college athletes should/ should not be paid, and 
• State a couple of defendable, supportable reasons why college athletes should be paid (or vice versa).
• Support Point #1 with evidence
• Explain/interpret the evidence with your own, original commentary 
• Support Point #2 with evidence
• Explain/interpret the evidence with your own, original commentary
• Support Point #3 with evidence
• New body paragraph addressing opposing viewpoints
• Concluding paragraph

This outline does a few things right. First, it makes sure you have a strong thesis statement. Second, it helps you break your argument down into main points (that support your thesis, of course). Lastly, it reminds you that you need to both include evidence and explain your evidence for each of your argumentative points. 

While you can go off-book once you start drafting if you feel like you need to, having an outline to start with can help you visualize how many argumentative points you have, how much evidence you need, and where you should insert your own commentary throughout your essay. 

Remember: the best argumentative essays are organized ones! 

Tip 2: Create a Strong Thesis 

T he most important part of the introduction to an argumentative essay claiming that college athletes should/should not be paid is the thesis statement. You can think of a thesis like a backbone: your thesis ties all of your essay parts together so your paper can stand on its own two feet! 

So what does a good thesis look like? A solid thesis statement in this type of argumentative essay will convey your stance on the topic (“Should college athletes be paid?”) and present one or more supportable reasons why you’re making this argument. 

With these goals in mind, here’s an example of a thesis statement that includes clear reasons that support the stance that college athletes should be paid: 

Because the names, image, and talents of college athletes are used for massive financial gain, college athletes should be able to benefit from their athletic career in the same way that their universities do by getting endorsements. 

Here's a thesis statement that takes the opposite stance--that college athletes shouldn’t be paid --and includes a reason supporting that stance: 

In order to keep college athletics from becoming over-professionalized, compensation for college athletes should be restricted to covering college tuition and related educational expenses.

Both of these sample thesis statements make it clear that your essay is going to be dedicated to making an argument: either that college athletes should be paid, or that college athletes shouldn’t be paid. They both convey some reasons why you’re making this argument that can also be supported with evidence. 

Your thesis statement gives your argumentative essay direction . Instead of ranting about why college athletes should/shouldn’t be paid in the remainder of your essay, you’ll find sources that help you explain the specific claim you made in your thesis statement. And a well-organized, adequately supported argument is the kind that readers will find persuasive!

Tip 3: Find Credible Sources That Support Your Thesis

In an argumentative essay, your commentary on the issue you’re arguing about is obviously going to be the most fun part to write. But great essays will cite outside sources and other facts to help substantiate their argumentative points. That's going to involve—you guessed it!—research. 

For this particular topic, the issue of whether student athletes should be paid has been widely discussed in the news media (think The New York Times , NPR , or ESPN ). 

For example, this data reported by the NCAA shows a breakdown of the gender and racial demographics of member-school administration, coaching staff, and student athletes. These are hard numbers that you could interpret and pair with the well-reasoned arguments of news media writers to support a particular point you’re making in your argument. 

Though this may seem like a topic that wouldn’t generate much scholarly research, it’s worth a shot to check your library database for peer-reviewed studies of student athletes’ experiences in college to see if anything related to paying student athletes pops up. Scholarly research is the holy grail of evidence, so try to find relevant articles if you can. 

Ultimately, if you can incorporate a mix of mainstream sources, quantitative or statistical evidence, and scholarly, peer-reviewed sources, you’ll be on-track to building an excellent argument in response to the question, “Should student athletes be paid?”

Having multiple argumentative points in your essay helps you support your thesis.

Tip 4: Develop and Support Multiple Points

We’ve reviewed how to write an intro and thesis statement addressing the issue of paying college athletes, so let’s talk next about the meat and potatoes of your argumentative essay: the body paragraphs. 

The body paragraphs that are sandwiched between your intro paragraph and concluding paragraph are where you build and explain your argument. Generally speaking, each body paragraph should do the following: 

• Start with a topic sentence that presents a point that supports your stance and that can be debated, 
• Present summaries, paraphrases, or quotes from credible sources--evidence, in other words--that supports the point stated in the topic sentence, and
• Explain and interpret the evidence presented with your own, original commentary. 

In an argumentative essay on why college athletes should be paid, for example, a body paragraph might look like this: 

Thesis Statement : College athletes should not be paid because it would be a logistical nightmare for colleges and universities and ultimately cause negative consequences for college sports. 

Body Paragraph #1: While the notion of paying college athletes is nice in theory, a major consequence of doing so would be the financial burden this decision would place on individual college sports programs. A recent study cited by the NCAA showed that only about 20 college athletic programs consistently operate in the black at the present time. If the NCAA allows student-athletes at all colleges and universities to be paid, the majority of athletic programs would not even have the funds to afford salaries for their players anyway. This would mean that the select few athletic programs that can afford to pay their athletes’ salaries would easily recruit the most talented players and, thus, have the tools to put together teams that destroy their competition. Though individual athletes would benefit from the NCAA allowing compensation for student-athletes, most athletic programs would suffer, and so would the spirit of healthy competition that college sports are known for. 

If you read the example body paragraph above closely, you’ll notice that there’s a topic sentence that supports the claim made in the thesis statement. There’s also evidence given to support the claim made in the topic sentence--a recent study by the NCAA. Following the evidence, the writer interprets the evidence for the reader to show how it supports their opinion. 

Following this topic sentence/evidence/explanation structure will help you construct a well-supported and developed argument that shows your readers that you’ve done your research and given your stance a lot of thought. And that's a key step in making sure you get an excellent grade on your essay! 

Tip 5: Keep the Reader Thinking

The best argumentative essay conclusions reinterpret your thesis statement based on the evidence and explanations you provided throughout your essay. You would also make it clear why the argument about paying college athletes even matters in the first place. 

There are several different approaches you can take to recap your argument and get your reader thinking in your conclusion paragraph. In addition to restating your topic and why it’s important, other effective ways to approach an argumentative essay conclusion could include one or more of the following: 

While you don’t want to get too wordy in your conclusion or present new claims that you didn’t bring up in the body of your essay, you can write an effective conclusion and make all of the moves suggested in the bulleted list above. 

Here’s an example conclusion for an argumentative essay on paying college athletes using approaches we just talked about:

Though it’s true that scholarships and financial aid are a form of compensation for college athletes, it’s also true that the current system of college sports places a lot of pressure on college athletes to behave like professional athletes in every way except getting paid. Future research should turn its attention to the various inequities within college sports and look at the long-term economic outcomes of these athletes. While college athletes aren't paid right now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a paycheck is the best solution to the problem. To avoid the possibility of making the college athletics system even worse, people must consider the ramifications of paying college students and ensure that paying athletes doesn't create more harm than good.

This conclusion restates the argument of the essay (that college athletes shouldn't be paid and why), then uses the "Future Research" tactic to make the reader think more deeply about the topic. 

If your conclusion sums up your thesis and keeps the reader thinking, you’ll make sure that your essay sticks in your readers' minds.

Should College Athletes Be Paid: Next Steps 

Writing an argumentative essay can seem tough, but with a little expert guidance, you'll be well on your way to turning in a great paper . Our complete, expert guide to argumentative essays can give you the extra boost you need to ace your assignment!

Perhaps college athletics isn't your cup of tea. That's okay: there are tons of topics you can write about in an argumentative paper. We've compiled 113 amazing argumentative essay topics so that you're practically guaranteed to find an idea that resonates with you.

If you're not a super confident essay writer, it can be helpful to look at examples of what others have written. Our experts have broken down three real-life argumentative essays to show you what you should and shouldn't do in your own writing.

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Home / Blog

Should College Athletes Be Paid? Reasons Why or Why Not

January 3, 2022 

Tables of Contents

Why are college athletes not getting paid by their schools?

How do student athlete scholarships work, what are the pros and cons of compensation for college athletes, keeping education at the center of college sports.

Since its inception in 1906, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has governed intercollegiate sports and enforced a rule prohibiting college athletes to be paid. Football, basketball, and a handful of other college sports began to generate tremendous revenue for many schools in the mid-20th century, yet the NCAA continued to prohibit payments to athletes. The NCAA justified the restriction by claiming it was necessary to  protect amateurism  and distinguish “student athletes” from professionals.

The question of whether college athletes should be paid was answered in part by the Supreme Court’s June 21, 2021, ruling in  National Collegiate Athletic Association v. Alston, et. al.  The decision affirmed a lower court’s ruling that blocked the NCAA from enforcing its rules restricting the compensation that college athletes may receive.

• As a result of the NCAA v. Alston ruling, college athletes now have the right to profit from their  name, image, and likeness  (NIL) while retaining the right to participate in their sport at the college level. (The prohibition against schools paying athletes directly remains in effect.)
• Several states have passed laws  that allow such compensation. Colleges and universities in those states must abide by these new laws when devising and implementing their own policies toward NIL compensation for college athletes.

Participating in sports benefits students in many ways: It helps them focus, provides motivation, builds resilience, and develops other skills that serve students in their careers and in their lives. The vast majority of college athletes will never become professional athletes and are happy to receive a full or partial scholarship that covers tuition and education expenses as their only compensation for playing sports.

Athletes playing Division I football, basketball, baseball, and other sports generate revenue for their schools and for third parties such as video game manufacturers and media companies. Many of these athletes believe it’s unfair for schools and businesses to profit from their hard work and talent without sharing the profits with them. They also point out that playing sports entails physical risk in addition to a considerable investment in time and effort.

This guide considers the reasons for and against paying college athletes, and the implications of recent court rulings and legislation on college athletes, their schools, their sports, and the role of the NCAA in the modern sports environment.

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The reasons why college athletes aren’t paid go back to the first organized sports competitions between colleges and universities in the late 19th century. Amateurism in college sports reflects the “ aristocratic amateurism ” of sports played in Europe at the time, even though most of the athletes at U.S. colleges had working-class backgrounds.

By the early 20th century, college football had gained a reputation for rowdiness and violence, much of which was attributed to the teams’ use of professional athletes. This led to the creation of the NCAA, which prohibited professionalism in college sports and enforced rules restricting compensation for college athletes. The rules are intended to preserve the amateurism of student participants. The NCAA justified the rules on two grounds:

• Fans would lose interest in the games if the players were professional athletes.
• Limiting compensation to capped scholarships ensures that college athletes remain part of the college community.

NCAA rules also prohibited college athletes from receiving payment to “ advertise, recommend, or promote ” any commercial product or service. Athletes were barred from participating in sports if they signed a contract to be represented by an agent as well. As a result of the NIL court decision, the NCAA will no longer enforce its rule relating to compensation for NIL activities and will allow athletes to sign contracts with agents.

Major college sports now generate billions in revenue for their schools each year

For decades, colleges and universities have operated under the assumption that  scholarships are sufficient compensation  for college athletes. Nearly all college sports cost more for the schools to operate than they generate in revenue for the institution, and scholarships are all that participants expect.

But while most sports don’t generate revenue, a handful, notably football and men’s and women’s basketball, stand out as significant exceptions to the rule:

• Many schools that field teams in the NCAA’s Division I football tier  regularly earn tens of millions of dollars  each year from the sport.
• The NCAA tournaments for men’s and women’s Division I basketball championships  generated more than $1 billion in 2019 .

Many major colleges and universities generate a considerable amount of money from their athletic teams:

• The Power Five college sports conferences — the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, and Southeastern Conference (SEC) —  generated more than $2.9 billion  in revenue from sports in fiscal 2020, according to federal tax records reported by  USA Today .
• This figure represents an increase of $11 million from 2019, a total that was reduced because of restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In the six years prior to 2020, the conferences recorded collective annual revenue increases averaging about $252 million.

What are name, image, likeness agreements for student athletes?

In recent years some college athletes at schools that field teams in the NCAA’s highest divisions have protested the restrictions placed on their ability to be compensated for third parties’ use of their name, image, and likeness. During the 2021 NCAA Division I basketball tournament known familiarly as March Madness, several players wore shirts bearing the hashtag “ #NotNCAAProperty ” to call attention to their objections.

Following the decision in NCAA v. Alston, the NCAA  enacted a temporary policy  allowing college athletes to enter into NIL agreements and other endorsements. The interim policy will be in place until federal legislation is enacted or new NCAA rules are created governing NIL contracts for college athletes.

• Student athletes are now able to sign endorsement deals, profit from their use of social media, and receive compensation for personal appearances and signing autographs.
• If they attend a school located in a state that has enacted NIL legislation, they are subject to any restrictions present in those state laws. As of mid-August 2021,  40 states had enacted laws  governing NIL contracts for college athletes.
• If their school is in a state without such a law, the college or university will determine its own NIL policies, although the NCAA prohibits pay-for-play and improper recruiting inducements.
• Student athletes are allowed to sign with sports agents and enter into agreements with school boosters so long as the deals abide by state laws and school policies.

Within weeks of the NCAA policy change, premier college athletes began signing NIL agreements with the potential to  earn them hundreds of thousands of dollars .

• Bryce Young, a sophomore quarterback for the University of Alabama, has nearly $1 million in endorsement deals.
• Quarterback Quinn Ewers decided to skip his last year of high school and enroll early at Ohio State University so he could make money from endorsements.
• A booster for the University of Miami pledged to pay each member of the school’s football team $500 for endorsing his business.

How will the change affect college athletes and their schools?

The  repercussions of court decisions and state laws  that allow college athletes to sign NIL agreements continue to be felt at campuses across the country, even though schools and athletes have received little guidance on how to manage the process.

• The top high school athletes in football, basketball, and other revenue-generating college sports will consider their potential for endorsement earnings while being recruited by various schools.
• The first NIL agreements highlight the disparity between what elite college athletes can expect to earn and what other athletes may realize. On one NIL platform, the average amount earned by Division I athletes was $471, yet one athlete made $210,000 in July alone.
• Most NIL deals at present are for small amounts, typically about $100 in free apparel, in exchange for endorsing a product on social media.

The presidents and other leaders of colleges and universities that field Division I sports have not yet responded to the changes in college athlete compensation other than to reiterate that they do not operate for-profit sports franchises. However, the NCAA requires that  Division I sports programs  be self-supporting, in contrast to sports programs at Division II and III institutions, which receive funding directly from their schools.

Many members of the Power 5 sports conferences have reported shortfalls in their operations, leading analysts to anticipate  major structural reforms  in the governing of college sports in the near future. The recent changes have also caused some people to believe the  NCAA is no longer relevant  or necessary.

How do highly competitive athletic scholarships work? According to the NCAA and Next College Student Athlete: $3.6 billion+ in athletic scholarships are awarded annually, and 180,000+ student athletes receive scholarships every year. Additionally, about 2% of athletes win a sports scholarship; college coaches award scholarships based on athletic ability; full scholarships are given for the top six college sports categories; and athletic scholarships are renewable each year.

The primary financial compensation student athletes receive is a scholarship that pays all or part of their tuition and other college-related expenses. Other forms of financial assistance available to student athletes include  grants, loans, and merit aid .

• Grants  are also called “gift aid,” because students are not expected to pay them back (with some exceptions, such as failing to complete the course of study for which the grant was awarded). Grants are awarded based on a student’s financial need. The  four types of grants  awarded by the U.S. Department of Education are  Federal Pell Grants ,  Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants ,  Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grants , and  Teacher Education Assistance for College or Higher Education (TEACH) Grants .
• Loans  are available to cover education expenses from government agencies and private banks. Students must pay the loans back over a specified period after graduating from or leaving school, including interest charges. EducationData.org estimates that as of 2020, the  average amount of school-related debt  owed by college graduates was $37,693.
• Merit aid  is awarded based on the student’s academic, athletic, artistic, and other achievements.  Athletic scholarships  are a form of merit aid that typically cover one academic year at a time and are renewable each year, although some are awarded for up to four years.

Full athletic scholarships vs. partial scholarships

When most people think of a student athlete scholarship, they have in mind a  full-ride scholarship  that covers nearly all college-related expenses. However, most student athletes receive partial scholarships that may pay tuition but not college fees and living expenses, for example.

A student athlete scholarship is a nonguaranteed financial agreement between the school and the student. The NCAA refers to full-ride scholarships awarded to student athletes entering certain Division I sports programs as  head count scholarships  because they are awarded per athlete. Conversely, equivalency sports divide scholarships among multiple athletes, some of whom may receive a full scholarship and some a partial scholarship. Equivalency awards are divided among a team’s athletes at the discretion of the coaches, as long as they do not exceed the allowed scholarships for their sport.

These Division I sports distribute scholarships per head count:

• Men’s football
• Men’s basketball
• Women’s basketball
• Women’s volleyball
• Women’s gymnastics
• Women’s tennis

These are among the Division I equivalency sports for men:

• Track and field
• Cross-country

These are the Division I equivalency sports for women:

• Field hockey

All Division II and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) sports programs distribute scholarships on an equivalency basis. Division III sports programs do not award sports scholarships, although other forms of financial aid are available to student athletes at these schools.

How college athletic scholarships are awarded

In most cases, the coaching staff of a team determines which students will receive scholarships after spending time scouting and recruiting. The NCAA imposes  strict rules for recruiting student athletes  and provides a guide to help students  determine their eligibility  to play college sports.

Once a student has received a scholarship offer from a college or university, the person may sign a national letter of intent (NLI), which is a voluntary, legally binding contract between an athlete and the school committing the student to enroll and play the designated sport for that school only. The school agrees to provide financial aid for one academic year as long as the student is admitted and eligible to receive the aid.

After the student signs an NLI, other schools are prohibited from recruiting them. Students who have signed an NLI may ask the school to release them from the commitment; if a student attends a school other than the one with which they have an NLI agreement, they lose one full year of eligibility and must complete a full academic year at the new school before they can compete in their sport.

Very few student athletes are awarded a full scholarship, and even a “full” scholarship may not pay for all of a student’s college and living expenses. The  average Division I sports scholarship  in the 2019-20 fiscal year was about $18,000, according to figures compiled by ScholarshipStats.com, although some private universities had average scholarship awards that were more than twice that amount. However, EducationData.org estimates that the  average cost of one year of college  in the U.S. is $35,720. They estimate the following costs by type of school.

• The average annual cost for an in-state student attending a public four-year college or university is $25,615.
• Average in-state tuition for one year is $9,580, and out-of-state tuition costs an average of $27,437.
• The average cost at a private university is $53,949 per academic year, about $37,200 of which is tuition and fees.

Student athlete scholarship resources

• College Finance, “Full-Ride vs. Partial-Ride Athletic Scholarships”  — The college expenses covered by full athletic scholarships, how to qualify for partial athletic scholarships, and alternatives to scholarships for paying college expenses
• Student First Educational Consulting, “Athletic Scholarship Issues for 2021-2022 and Beyond”  — A discussion of the decline in the number of college athletic scholarships as schools drop athletic programs, and changes to the rules for college athletes transferring to new schools

According to College Strategic, Fansided, and Future of Working, reasons why paying college athletes is fair include: 1. Playing sports resembles a full-time job. 2. Sports take time away from studies. 3. Sports generate corporate profits. 4. Pay minimizes athlete corruption. 5. Pay provides spending money. 6. Playing sports creates injury risk. 7. Sports elevate school brands. 8. Pay motivates performance. 9. Scholarships reduce poverty.

There are many reasons why student athletes should be paid, but there are also valid reasons why student athletes should not be paid in certain circumstances. The lifting of NCAA restrictions on NIL agreements for college athletes has altered the landscape of major college sports but will likely have little or no impact on the majority of student athletes, who will continue to compete as true amateurs.

Reasons why student athletes should be paid

The argument raised most often in favor of allowing college athletes to receive compensation is that  colleges and universities profit  from the sports they play but do not share the proceeds with the athletes who are the ultimate source of that profit.

• In 2017 (the most recent year for which figures are available), the NCAA recorded $1.07 billion in revenue. The organization’s president earned $2.7 million in 2018, and nine other NCAA executives had salaries greater than $500,000 that year.
• Elite college coaches earn millions of dollars a year in salary, topped by University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban’s $9.3 million annual salary.
• Many of the athletes at leading football and basketball programs are from low-income families, and the majority will not become professional athletes.
• College athletes take great physical risks to play their sports and put their future earning potential at risk. In school they may be directed toward nonchallenging courses, which denies them the education their fellow students receive.

Reasons why student athletes should not be paid

Opponents to paying college athletes rebut these arguments by pointing to the primary role of colleges and universities: to provide students with a rewarding educational experience that prepares them for their professional careers. These are among the reasons they give for not paying student athletes.

• Scholarships are the fairest form of compensation for student athletes considering the financial strain that college athletic departments are under. Most schools in Division I, II, and III spend more money on athletics than they receive in revenue from the sports.
• College athletes who receive scholarships are presented with an opportunity to earn a valuable education that will increase their earning power throughout their career outside of sports. A Gallup survey of NCAA athletes found that  70% graduate in four years or fewer , compared to 65% of all undergraduate students.
• 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.

According to Best Colleges, Salarship, and CollegeVine, reasons why paying college athletes is less than ideal include: 1. Money may harm students. 2. Pay diminishes love of the game. 3. Pay deemphasizes academic purpose. 4. Secondary sports struggle. 5. Rich schools monopolize talent. 6. The financial benefit is marginal. 7. Setting salaries can be messy. 8. Academic requirements are substandard. 9. Other program budgets are reduced.

How do college athlete endorsements work?

Soon after the Supreme Court released its decision in NCAA v. Alston, the NCAA issued  guidelines for schools  that allow college athletes to make money from product endorsements, social media accounts, autographs, and other uses of their name, image, or likeness. This counters the NCAA’s longstanding opposition to student athletes profiting from endorsements. At present, implementation of the guidelines varies from school to school and state to state, which means athletes at some institutions may benefit more from NIL agreements than those attending other schools.

Several  NIL consultancy firms  are actively soliciting endorsements from college athletes in the aftermath of the rule change.

• Highly touted 19-year-old basketball recruit Hercy Miller, who joined the Tennessee State University basketball team in 2021, signed a $2 million endorsement deal with Web Apps America.
• University of Michigan quarterback Cade McNamara has entered into an endorsement deal with cryptocurrency company More Management that will  pay him in cryptocurrency .
• Twin sisters Haley and Hanna Cavinder of the Fresno State University basketball team have  marketing agreements  to promote Boost Mobile and Six Star Pro Nutrition to the 3.3 million followers of their TikTok account.
• Gable Steveson, a wrestler for the University of Minnesota, entered into an endorsement deal with the delivery service Gopuff; Steveson has 245,000 followers on Instagram and 30,000 on Twitter.

Despite the rush of high-profile college athletes signing endorsement deals, some educators and analysts express concern about the  impact of the endorsements  on schools, athletes, and college sports.

• Schools with more favorable endorsement rules may entice student athletes away from the schools they are currently attending.
• Likewise, states that have enacted endorsement laws that provide more earning potential for college athletes may see more top recruits choosing to attend schools in those states.
• The time college athletes spend meeting the requirements of their endorsement contracts could detract from study and practice time. This can have an adverse effect on their education and athletic careers — if they are unable to maintain grade requirements, for example, they may be disqualified from playing.
• If a college athlete’s performance in the sport declines, they may be less likely to attract and retain endorsement deals. While the NCAA has banned NIL agreements based on the athlete meeting specific performance criteria, the group acknowledges that a student’s athletic performance  may enhance their NIL value .
• Because of complicated contracts and tax laws, student athletes will have to rely on agents, advisers, and managers, which may leave them vulnerable to exploitation.

From the onset of intercollegiate sports, students have benefited from their participation by learning dedication to their sport, building relationships, and being part of a team. Sports allow students to acquire many important values, such as fair competition and physical and mental health. Education should remain at the forefront of all aspects of college, including sports, whether or not collegiate athletes are paid.

Infographic Source

Best Colleges, “Should College Athletes Be Paid?”

College Strategic, “Why College Athletes Should Be Paid”

CollegeVine, “Should College Athletes Be Paid? Pros and Cons”

Fansided, “64 Reasons College Athletes Need to Be Paid”

Future of Working, “17 Advantages and Disadvantages of Paying College Athletes”

NCAA, “Scholarships”

Next College Student Athlete, “What Are the Different Types of Offers I Could Get?”

Salarship, “Should College Athletes Be Paid: Pros and Cons”

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Should College Athletes Be Paid? Essay Examples & Guide

• 👍 Advantages
• 👎 Disadvantages
• 💡 Essay Topics
• 📑 Outlining Your Paper
• 💸 Essay Example #1
• 🙅 Essay Example #2

🔗 References

There are a lot of benefits of doing sports in college, for everyone except the athletes themselves. Surely, your sports achievements can get you recognition and respect. But the issue here is not being paid at all.

You see, sport is arduous labor. And any labor, according to common sense, must be rewarded with a salary. On the other hand, doing sports for the sake of sports can also be justified. There is no clear answer for “Should college athletes be paid?”. Writing an essay, though, can help you find it.

⚖️ Should College Athletes Be Paid: Pros and Cons

This matter is very recent. Therefore, there is a lot of space for discussion here. Some may say that athletes are paid. They actually get scholarships for their work.

Others may argue that only 1% of all the sportspeople get the full amount of money. Both statements are true, and the correct answer doesn’t really exist. To help you form your own opinion on the topic, here are some pros and cons:

• It would be fair to pay sportspeople for their hard work.
• The sport takes a lot of time from studies, and it must be compensated.
• The health risk is very high, and the reward for it is a must.
• The sport would become an excellent alternative for a work-study job.
• Many athletes’ families require monetary support, which athlete payments can give.
• A lot more people would be attracted to doing sports.
• The athletes already enjoy enough compensations.
• The amount of actual future sports pros is depressing.
• It can undermine the overall studying experience.
• Most of the sports programs cannot afford salaries.
• It would create room for inequity.
• Mixing studying and sports would become even more difficult due to increased demand.
• The concept of playing for the love of sports would cease to exist.

We will look into them deeper in the next section.

👍 Paying College Athletes: Advantages

• It is simply fair to pay athletes for their endeavors. A single sportsperson can generate millions of dollars for their college. It would be only fair if the stars themselves got at least some of this money.
• It is a great way to compensate for taking away from studies. Sport is a time-consuming activity. And time is a valuable thing when you are a student. Let’s not forget that college athletes also need time to study. Or at least compensation for the time they put into the sport.
• The money would at least partially make up for possible injuries. While health is priceless, risking it must be rewarded properly. And that’s exactly what college athletes do. They put their well-being on the line for their universities. Unfortunately, universities don’t seem to give the favor back.
• It would be a great way to substitute work. An average athlete puts 40 hours a week into doing sports for his college. You can easily compare this amount of time to a generic work-study job. The only difference is the latter brings you money, and the former does not.
• It’s a great way to motivate athletes to continue their sports careers. After graduation, the majority of college athletes will stop playing for their team. They are far more likely to simply find a job and get a steady income. Paying them would make a choice between sports and career not that obvious.
• It would support a lot of students’ families. While college sportspeople bath in success, their families often suffer financially. Sustaining a starting athlete can be really costly at times. That’s where a salary would be a saving grace for struggling families.
• It is a great motivation for more students to pursue a sports career. The possibility of making money will attract more people into playing for a sports team. And that brings a better chance to find young talent.

👎 Paying College Athletes: Disadvantages

• The athletes already have their compensations. The coach’s advice, the medical treatment, the strength training. All of these cost money. But the athletes don’t have to pay a single cent for these and many other services. They are provided for free as compensation already.
• Not a lot of athletes will actually become professionals. Out of all college athletes, a mere 2% go pro as a result. Most of them see doing sports as a way to receive education and nothing more.
• It can harm other colleges’ programs. Since the salary would come from the college budget, there would be inevitable cutbacks. As a result, every student in the institution suffers.
• There are not many sports that make a profit. More often than not, sport doesn’t bring a lot of money. Exceptions are basketball and football. Should football players make more money than, for example, swimmers? Here’s where the next issue occurs.
• Possible inequity. You see, if some students participate in a sport that has no profit, then why pay them? As a result of such logic, whole college teams will cease to exist.
• Possible study problems. With the appearance of salaries, the expectations from the players will rise. Attending training sessions and games will become a definite must. No skips would be allowed. In this case, ping-ponging your priorities from sports to studies is much more difficult.
• The love for the game would go away. College students play sports mostly because they want to do what they love. Paying them might destroy the compassion for doing sport. The amateur leagues will be filled with players who are in it for the money and nothing else.

💡 Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay Topics

• Balancing college sports and academic mission.
• Payments to collegiate athletes.
• Top college athletes are worth six figures.
• Title IX in the female sports development.
• Kids and sports: Lack of professional sports guides.
• College athletes do not deserve the degrees they’re studying for.
• Steroid abuse in the world of sports .
• Shortage of officials at the high school sports level.
• College sports should be made professional.
• Steroid use effects on professional young athletes.
• Is it justified for college athletes to be paid?
• College sports should not require missing classes.
• Professional athletes allowed to use steroids.
• Paying college athletes: Reinforcing privilege or promoting growth?
• If colleges pay college athletes, it would increase the disparity between small and bigger college teams.
• School athletes and drug tests.
• Arguments for adequate remuneration for college athletes.
• The NCAA definition of college athletes as amateurs is outdated.
• Sports-related problems and conflicts.
• African American studies. Negro baseball league.
• The moral side: “A gentlemen never competes for money” (Walter Camp).
• Running injuries, workout and controversies.
• Should college athletes be paid?
• Ed O’Bannon’s lawsuit: Using athletes’ images in video games.
• Does youth sports play a part in character formation?
• Children participation in sports.
• Where does college sports money go?
• Sports analysis: steroids and HGH in sports.
• Steroid usage in professional sports.
• College athletes work as marketers for their college, as their success in sports improves admission rates.
• Physical activity and sports team participation.
• Using performance-enhancing drugs and in the world of sport.
• Research handbook of employment relations in sport.
• Successfully luring college athletes.
• College athletes should be paid.

Haven’t found anything inspiring in the list above? Try using our topic-generating tool !

📑 Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay Outline

Before writing your work, the first thing you want to do is outline. An argumentative-style essay would be perfect for writing on our topic.

We will go with a generic 5-paragraph format :

• Hook. A flashy sentence or two to evoke interest in your work. A joke or a shocking fact, for example.
• Background information. General info that the reader needs to know before going deeper into the essay.
• Thesis statement. It is a sentence that reflects the main idea of the further text. It leaves room for debate and briefly showcases the arguments you will discuss further.
• Body. The body is the biggest part of your work. In our case, it will be three paragraphs long. Each paragraph names and explains the argument you want to make.
• Conclusion. The end of your essay. Nothing new should be added. Just restate your thesis, summarize the points you made in the body, and be done with it.

💸 Why College Athletes Should Be Paid Essay Example

In 2017 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) made over $1.04 billion in revenue. None of the college athletes have seen any part of this sum. A survey made the same year showed 60% of the sportspeople to be satisfied with the scholarship-only payments. The situation, however, has drastically changed over the years. The same 60% now agree that college athletes need monetary compensation. While college athletes' payments are a controversial topic, their hard work and health must be fairly compensated no matter what, and a salary seems to be the best way for it.

It is no surprise that doing sports consumes a solid number of things. Time is one of them. An average college student puts in their sports activities 35 hours a week. It can be compared to having a generic work-study job. The only difference is the job brings you money as any hard labor should. However, in the case of college sport, it seems to profit anyone but the athletes themselves. While the NCAA executives make six-figure salaries, the players, the actual stars of the competition, have the status of the unpaid workforce.

Another thing consumed by sports activities is health. In 2017 over 60% of all Division I players were reported to suffer a major injury. Although, this phenomenal danger to athletes' well-being seems to go unnoticed as well. The only "compensation" provided to people who risk their soundness for the sake of university is education itself. Usually, the health risk is considered a reason for a salary raise. Unfortunately, in our case, there is nothing to give a raise to.

Putting yourself to the fullest in any activity must be rewarded. And the sportspeople truly give it their best. Time, passion, health, everything is given. And for now, everything they give is given for nothing.

🙅 College Athletes Should Not Be Paid Essay Example

There are hundreds of sports college athletes do. Only two of them bring the college profit. The issue of paying the students involved with the college sports activities has been around for a while. Some are satisfied with their scholarship and the possibility to get an education. Others, however, demand more tangible rewards for their achievements. While payments may seem justified, the fact that the athletes already receive enough compensation for their work via scholarship and education is often overlooked.

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) reports more than $3.6 billion in athletic scholarships to be provided annually to more than 180,000 student-athletes. A simple calculation shows $20.000 a year for each athlete. This sum is more than enough to cover the average cost of an academic year of $17,797.

Furthermore, most college athletic programs make barely enough money to sustain themselves, not to mention paying salaries. The only two kinds of sport that make enough profit to afford salaries are football and basketball. Others, sadly, do not. And this fact creates a significant equity problem. Do we pay all players equally? And if not, who do we pay more? All these questions remain unanswered.

While it seems just, creating salaries brings more problems than solves. The extent of the compensation necessary is, of course, negotiable. But all efforts made by college athletes are compensated in some way. That is a fact.

We hope that this info helped you with your assignment. Make sure to let us know what part you’ve found the most useful in the comments. And also, check out our title page maker . And good luck with your studies!

• 16 college athletes already getting paid under new NCAA rule
• Should College Athletes Be Paid? | BestColleges
• Should College Athletes Be Paid? Reasons Why or Why Not
• All college athletes in California can now get paid – KTVU
• Pay for Play: Should College Athletes Be Compensated?

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Paying College Athletes — Leveling the Playing Field: An Argument for Paying College Athletes

Leveling The Playing Field: an Argument for Paying College Athletes

• Categories: Paying College Athletes Student Athletes

About this sample

Words: 730 |

Published: Mar 1, 2019

Words: 730 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Works Cited

• Edelman, M. (2016). Paying College Athletes: A Solution to the Problems Facing the NCAA. Seton Hall Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, 26(2), 267-306.
• Eitzen, D. S., & Sage, G. H. (2015). Debating Issues in American Education: Should College Athletes Be Paid? SAGE Publications.
• Fleisher, A. A., Goff, B. L., & Tollison, R. D. (2013). The Case for Paying College Athletes. The Independent Review, 18(4), 537-553.
• Hawkins, B. (2018). The Case for Paying College Athletes. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/09/why-college-athletes-should-be-paid/570981/
• McMurphy, B. (2019). Athlete Compensation: What's Fair and What's Legal? National Collegiate Athletic Association. Retrieved from http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/athlete-compensation-whats-fair-and-whats-legal
• Miller, K. (2018). Should College Athletes Be Paid? Pros, Cons, and Perspectives. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 30, 45-59.
• Sack, A. L. (2019). Pay for Play: A Historical Analysis of the Arguments Surrounding the Compensation of College Athletes. Virginia Sports & Entertainment Law Journal, 18(1), 1-37.
• Suggs, W. (2015). NCAA Athletic Departments and the Money They Make: Should College Athletes Be Compensated? Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 39(2), 106-128. doi:10.1177/0193723515576591
• Tulane University Law School. (n.d.). Pay for Play: The Ethics of Student-Athlete Compensation. Retrieved from https://scholarship.law.tulane.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1842&context=sportslaw
• Zimbalist, A. (2019). Unwinding Madness: What Went Wrong with College Sports and How to Fix It. Brookings Institution Press.

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Why Should College Athletes Be Paid, Essay Sample

One of the most pressing issues in college sports is the debate over whether or not college athletes should be paid. This topic has gained significant attention in recent years, with many arguing that it is only fair for college athletes to receive compensation for their hard work, dedication, and revenue-generating contributions. This free essay sample from Edusson will explore the various reasons why college athletes should be paid and will provide a comprehensive analysis of the issue.

Time Commitment and Workload

College athletes put in a tremendous amount of time and effort into their sport, often at the expense of their studies and personal life. As a student-athlete, I know firsthand the dedication it takes to balance academics and sports. We have rigorous practice schedules, intense training sessions, and games that require travel, leaving little time for anything else. Many athletes have to miss classes or sacrifice study time to attend competitions or travel with their teams. The workload of a college athlete can be overwhelming and can negatively impact their academic performance and mental health. Some may argue that athletes receive scholarships and other benefits, but these do not fully compensate for the amount of time and effort they put into their sport. Paying college athletes would help to alleviate some of the financial burden that many student-athletes face, while also compensating them for their time and workload.

Financial Struggles

As a student, I believe that college athletes should be paid for their hard work and dedication to their sports. One of the main reasons for this is the financial struggles that many college athletes face. These athletes come from low-income families and often struggle to make ends meet while attending college. They are unable to work part-time jobs to earn extra income due to the rigorous demands of their sport. This creates a challenging situation where they are unable to support themselves or their families financially. Paying college athletes would provide much-needed financial support and alleviate some of their financial struggles. This would allow them to focus on their studies and athletics without the added stress of financial instability. It would also give them the opportunity to contribute financially to their families, which many of them are unable to do currently. In short, paying college athletes would help alleviate the financial burdens they face and provide a fair compensation for their hard work and dedication to their sport.

Health and Safety Risks

As college athletes compete at a high level, they put their bodies on the line and are exposed to various health and safety risks. These athletes often play through injuries, which can exacerbate the severity of the injury, resulting in long-term physical damage. Therefore, it’s essential to consider the health and safety risks associated with college sports. Paying college athletes would acknowledge the risks that they take and provide a safety net if they get hurt. Furthermore, college athletes who are injured may not have access to the same level of healthcare as professional athletes. Paying them would help ensure they have the proper medical care and resources to recover from injuries. Moreover, paying college athletes could also incentivize schools to prioritize athlete safety and ensure that their health is a top priority. Overall, providing financial compensation to college athletes for the risks they take and the injuries they sustain is not only fair but also necessary for their wellbeing.

Revenue Generation

One of the main arguments in favor of paying college athletes is that they deserve to be compensated for their role in generating revenue for their universities and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). When fans attend a college sports event or purchase team merchandise, they are supporting the team and the entire athletic program. The athletes who are responsible for the success of these programs, however, do not receive any monetary compensation for their efforts. It is unfair that the NCAA and universities benefit from the work of college athletes without providing them with fair compensation. It is also worth noting that college sports have become a commercial enterprise, with the NCAA and universities treating them as such. Many top college sports programs generate millions of dollars in revenue every year, and the athletes who contribute to this success are essential to the financial health of their respective programs. However, athletes often struggle to make ends meet due to the demands of their sport, and they don’t have the time or resources to work part-time jobs to earn extra income.

Fairness and Equity

As college athletes put in countless hours of hard work and dedication to their respective sports, it’s only fair to compensate them for their efforts. However, one aspect that often goes unnoticed is the lack of rights and privileges that college athletes are subjected to, especially when it comes to earning money from their name, image, and likeness.

It is unfortunate that college athletes are the only ones on campus who are not allowed to monetize their skills and talents. This is in stark contrast to everyone else on campus, including musicians, artists, and actors, who can earn money from their talents while attending college. This discrepancy can cause a sense of injustice among college athletes who are forced to watch others monetize their talents while they are restricted from doing so.

In recent years, the issue of fairness and equity has gained considerable attention, and rightfully so. Paying college athletes would go a long way in promoting fairness and equity among all students. It would ensure that athletes have the same rights and opportunities as other students, allowing them to monetize their skills and talents just like everyone else. Additionally, paying college athletes would help eliminate the economic disparities that exist on campuses, especially among low-income athletes who may not have the financial support they need to sustain themselves.

Furthermore, paying college athletes would promote gender equality. Female athletes have historically been paid less than male athletes, even at the professional level. This inequality also extends to college sports, where female athletes often receive less funding and attention than their male counterparts. By paying college athletes, regardless of gender, colleges and universities would help bridge this gap and promote equality among all athletes.

In this table, we will outline some of the main reasons why college athletes should be paid.

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Should College Athletes Be Paid? Essay Example, with Outline

Published by gudwriter on November 23, 2017 November 23, 2017

Here is an essay example on whether college athletes should be paid or not. We explore the pros and cons and conclude that college students have a right to be paid.

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Should College Athletes Be Paid Essay Outline

Introduction.

Thesis: College students should be paid given the nature and organization of college athletics.

Reasons Why College Athletes Should Be Paid

Paragraph 1:

Since college athletics programs are geared towards turning a profit at the end in terms of the revenue generated during the programs, it would only be fair to pay the athletes involved.

• Some of the revenues should be passed to the people who actually cause the fans to come to the pitch, the players.
• The NCCA should consider passing regulations that control the compensation made to coaches so that they do not get paid salaries that are unnecessarily high.

Paragraph 2:

Paying college athletes would also limit or even end corruption from such external influences as agents and boosters.

• Bribing players kills the spirit of whatever game they are involved because they would be playing to the tune of the bribe they receive.
• If they cannot get well compensated by their respective parent institutions, a player would be easily lured into corruption.

Paragraph 3:

Student athletes are subjected to huge workloads that only make it fair that they get paid.

• They are required to regularly attend physical therapy, weight trainings, team meetings, film sessions, and practice for the various sports they take part in.
• They are still required to attend all classes without fail and always post good grades

Reasons Why College Athletes Should Not Be Paid

Paragraph 4:

Paying college athletes would remove their competitive nature and the passion they have for the games they participate in.

• It would culminate into a situation where the only motive the athletes have for playing is money and not the sportsman drive of winning games and trophies.
• The hunger and passion usually shown in college sports would be traded for “lackadaisical plays and half-ass efforts that we sometime see from pros.”

Paragraph 5:

Paying college athletes would also lead to the erosion of the connection between athlete students and college values.

• College sports would be effectively reduced to a market where students who are yet to join college and are talented in sports are won over by the highest bidding institution.
• A student would join a college not for its values in academics and social values but because it offers the best compensation perks in sports.

Intercollegiate athletic competitions continue to grow and gain more prominence in the US. The NCAA and the institutions of higher learning involved continue to make high profits from college athletic programs. College athletes deserve being paid because without them, college sports would not be existent.  

Crucial question to explore; describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity .

Essay on “Should College Athletes Be Paid?”

College athletics is a prominent phenomenon in the United States of America and is controlled and regulated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Association is non-profit and is in charge of organizing the athletic programs of many higher learning institutions including universities and colleges. From the programs, the Association reaps significant revenues which it distributes to the institutions involved in spite of it being a non-profit organization. Noteworthy, the participants in the athletic programs from which the revenues are accrued are college students. This scenario has led to the emergence of the question of whether or not college students deserve being paid for their participation. This paper argues that college athletes should be paid given the nature and organization of college athletics.

Since college athletics programs are geared towards turning a profit at the end in terms of the revenue generated during the programs, it would only be fair to pay the athletes involved. “A report by  CNN’s Chris Isidore  in March 2015 named the Louisville Cardinals as the NCAA’s most profitable college basketball team for the 2013-14 season…” (Benjamin, 2017). Additionally, the programs have attracted huge coaching salaries which continue rising, with a basketball coach getting as high as $7.1 million in salaries. So, would it not be prudent to pass some of these revenues to the people who actually cause the fans to come to the pitch, the players? The NCCA should consider passing regulations that control the compensation made to coaches so that they do not get paid salaries that are unnecessarily high. This would allow for some part of the revenue to be channeled to compensating the players and give more meaning to collegiate athletics.

Paying college athletes would also limit or even end corruption from such external influences as agents and boosters. “Over the years we have seen and heard scandals involving players taking money and even point-shaving” (Lemmons, 2017). Bribing players kills the spirit of whatever game they are involved in because they would be playing to the tune of the bribe they would have received. But again, if they cannot get well compensated by their respective parent institutions, a player would be easily lured into corruption. It should be noted that since it is some sort of business, an institution would do all within its reach to enable its college sports team(s) win matches and even trophies, including bribing players of opponent teams. The most effective way of curbing this practice is to entitle every player to a substantial compensation amount for their services to college athletics teams.

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Further, student athletes are subjected to huge workloads that only make it fair that they get paid. They are required to regularly attend physical therapy, weight trainings, team meetings, film sessions, and practice for the various sports they take part in. On top of all that, they are still required to attend all classes without fail and always post good grades (Thacker, 2017). Is this not too much to ask for from somebody who gets nothing in terms of monetary compensation? Take a situation whereby an athlete gets out of practice at about 7 pm and has got a sit-in paper to take the following day. He or she is expected to study just as hard as every other student in spite of being understandably tired from the practice. It beats logic how a student in such a tight situation is expected to get all their work successfully done. It becomes even less sensible when it is considered that these students still have a social life to make time for (Thacker, 2017). Being paid for this hectic schedule may give them the motivation they need to keep going each day despite the toll the schedule takes on them.

Paying college athletes would remove their competitive nature and the passion they have for the games they participate in. It would culminate into a situation where the only motive the athletes have for playing is money and not the sportsman drive of winning games and trophies. As noted by Lemmons (2017), the hunger and passion usually shown in college sports would be traded for “lackadaisical plays and half-ass efforts that we sometime see from pros.” College sports would morph into full blown business ventures whereby the athletes are like employees and the colleges the employers. Participation in a sport would become more important for students than the actual contribution their participation makes to the sport. Moreover, students would want to take part not in sports in which they are richly talented but in sports that can guarantee better payment.

Paying college athletes would also lead to the erosion of the connection between athlete students and college values. “If a high-school football prodigy reported that he chose Michigan not for its academic quality, tradition, or beautiful campus but because it outbid all other suitors, a connection to the university’s values would be lost” (Yankah, 2015). College sports would be effectively reduced to a market where students who are yet to join college and are talented in sports are won over by the highest bidding institution. The implication is that a student would join a college not for its values in academics and social values but because it offers the best compensation perks in sports. It is clear here that the connection would purely be pegged on sports and payment. This will also turn colleges from grounds of molding future professionals to sports ventures.

Intercollegiate athletic competitions continue to grow and gain more prominence in the US. The NCAA and the institutions of higher learning involved continue to make high profits from college athletic programs. There are even coaches whose salaries for offering their services to college sports teams run into millions of dollars. Yet, those who work so hard so that this revenue can be realized are sidelined when it comes to payment. College athletes deserve being paid because without them, college sports would not be existent. It is thus less logical to continue engaging them while they do not enjoy the proceeds from their work.

Benjamin, J. (2017). “ Is it time to start paying college athletes? Tubby Smith and Gary Williams weigh in” . Forbes . Retrieved 21 November 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbenjamin/2017/04/04/is-it-time-to-start-paying-college-athletes/#72b48b3af71f

Lemmons, M. (2017). “ College athletes getting paid? Here are some pros and cons” . HuffPost . Retrieved 21 November 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/college-athletes-getting-paid-here-are-some-pros-cons_us_58cfcee0e4b07112b6472f9a

Thacker, D. (2017). Amateurism vs. capitalism: a practical approach to paying college athletes.  Seattle Journal for Social Justice , 16(1), 183-216.

Yankah, E. (2015). “ Why N.C.A.A. athletes shouldn’t be paid” . The New Yorker . Retrieved 21 November 2017, from https://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/why-ncaa-athletes-shouldnt-be-paid

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Who gets paid? How much? What to know about the landmark NCAA settlement

The Texas A&M softball team sings the Aggie War Hymn after the win during the NCAA Division I regional final softball game against Texas State on Sunday, May 19, 2024, in College Station, Texas. (Meredith Seaver/College Station Eagle via AP)

FILE - Southern California’s McKenzie Forbes reacts after being presented the Pac-12 tournament Most Valuable Player trophy by Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould after USC defeated Stanford in an NCAA college basketball game for the championship of the Pac-12 tournament March 10, 2024, in Las Vegas. The NCAA and the nation’s five biggest conferences have agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle a host of antitrust claims,a monumental decision that sets the stage for a groundbreaking revenue-sharing model that could start directing millions of dollars directly to athletes as soon as the 2025 fall semester. (AP Photo/Ian Maule, File)

Florida coach Tim Walton meets with officials before the team’s NCAA college softball tournament game against Florida Gulf Coast, Friday, May 17, 2024, in Gainesville, Fla. (AP Photo/Gary McCullough)

Indiana’s Ty Bothwell (41) throws against Purdue batter during an NCAA college Big Ten conference tournament baseball game Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in Omaha Neb. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)

FILE - The Pac-12 logo is shown during the second half of an NCAA college football game between Arizona State and Kent State, in Tempe, Ariz., Aug. 29, 2019. Southeastern Conference and Pac-12 officials are expected to provide the final approval of a $2.8 billion plan that will settle antitrust claims and set the stage for college athletes to start sharing the billions of dollars flowing to their schools. (AP Photo/Ralph Freso, File)

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The nearly $2.8 billion settlement that has been approved by the NCAA and the nation’s five largest conferences is a historic step toward a more professional model for college sports.

The plan, which still needs approval from plaintiffs and a federal judge, calls for paying damages to thousands of former and current college athletes who say now-defunct NCAA rules prevented them from earning endorsement money.

It also calls for setting up a first-of-its-kind revenue-sharing system for college athletes, which will impact hundreds of schools across the country as early as fall 2025.

The key takeaways:

WHO GETS PAID NOW?

Under the settlement, $2.77 billion in damages will be paid over 10 years for approximately 14,000 claims dating to 2016. The original plaintiffs included former Arizona State swimmer Grant House and current TCU basketball player Sedona Prince.

Determining how much each athlete gets is a question that will take months to figure out and involve attorneys, the judge and a formula assessing what they are owed.

WHO GETS PAID LATER?

The Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and SEC will be making the largest investment going forward because the settlement includes a proposed revenue-sharing system that will allow schools to commit up to $21 million per year to be paid directly to athletes. The overall commitment, including damages, is expected to be about $300 million per school (there are 69 in all) over 10 years.

How that will work is a major question that will take time for schools and conferences to work out. NCAA rules will likely need to be re-written. Schools do not have to make the financial commitment, but not doing so could result in a competitive disadvantage.

WHO IS PAYING?

The NCAA will cover 41% of the $2.77 billion total, with the biggest Division I conferences (the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern) accounting for 24% and the other five major college football conferences (American Athletic, Mid-American, Conference USA, Mountain West ands Sun Belt) covering 10%.

Conferences that compete in the second tier of Division I football, the Championship Subdivision, would cover about 14% and the non-football D-I conferences would be on the hook for 12%.

Reduced spending, insurance and reserve funds from the NCAA are expected to cover about $1.2 billion and the rest will be money that would normally be distributed to 352 Division I schools but instead will be withheld.

Many smaller schools are worried about the loss of that NCAA money on their budgets.

ROSTERS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

One change that could have the most noticeable impact on the field is a switch from the NCAA’s traditional scholarship limits to using roster size to determine how many athletes a school can have for a particular sport.

That could allow the wealthiest schools to provide financial benefits to even more athletes than they already do, trying to gain a competitive advantage. It could also push schools to be more deliberate in deciding how much to invest in certain sports.

“My greatest fear of all of this is what we’re asking for, what is that going to do to all the sports on every campus?” Florida softball coach Tim Walton asked. “What’s it going to do to some of the programs that were relying on their conference and the NCAA for the money? What’s that going to do? Are they dropping programs? Are they dropping sports?”

AP Sports Writer Mark Long contributed.

AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football

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Should College Athletes Be Paid? Thesis Example

Type of paper: Thesis

Topic: Students , Sports , College , Money , Athletes , Soccer , American Sports , Football

Published: 12/26/2021

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Introduction

Increasingly, American universities make a significant if not a majority of their revenues from college sports. For instance, from college football alone, the National College Athletic Association (NCAA), which represents over 1,200 colleges and universities, will make U.S. $7.3 billion in licensing fees for the right to broadcast the College Football Playoffs (CFP) over the next 12 years (Yee, 2016). On the individual school level, the four football teams that participated in this year’s CFP, namely Alabama, Clemson, Michigan State, and Oklahoma will have the right to a substantial cut of the U.S. $ 50 million in expected revenues that the playoffs are expected to generate (Yee, 2016). Furthermore, these revenues that universities make does not even include the money they can earn from merchandise, such as caps and sweatshirts; or concession sold at their stadiums. The only element of college sports that does not enjoy it financial benefits are the players themselves. But why should a college athlete “work” for nothing? The clear answer is that they should not. To be sure, college athletes need to be paid for the work that they do and especially for the outsized revenues that they earn for their schools.

While colleges earn enormous amount of money off their sports programs, those funds are, for the most part, kept out of the hands to the individuals that are most responsible for making those revenues, namely the players. To be sure, outside of scholarships, college players are paid little to nothing for the immense amount of money they earn for their schools. If this were to take place anywhere outside of higher education, some might call it indentured servitude or worse. This is no way for a high-minded higher education should act towards its students. Paying the athletes would not only compensate them for the services that they provide, like any other job; but also, based on the revenues that they generate from sports, the universities have plenty of money to pay.

Money in College Sports

The Players’ Situation Why Pay for Play in Needed Conclusion

Yee. D.H. (2016, Jan. 08). College sports exploits unpaid black athletes. But they could force a change. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/08/college-sports-exploits-unpaid-black-athletes-but-they-could-force-a-change/

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Overpaid Athletes: Debate Essay

Introduction, common ground, works cited.

Professional athletes’ pay often becomes the center of discussion among the public. Annually, magazines reveal the list of the highest-paid sportspersons and talk about their salaries, comparing them to famous actors and CEOs of major companies. The debate regarding this topic presents two major sides – the first group states that athletes are extremely overpaid for their performance, while the other group argues that they earn the amount of money they deserve. In reality, the border between these two statements may be less clear if one takes into account the fact that players are often judged not only by their performance but also their popularity and exposure. Some professional athletes’ pay is inequitably high in comparison to salaries of specialists in other spheres, although less recognized players may be underpaid due to the lack of celebrity status.

The pay of the most popular players is often questioned regarding its necessity. According to McIntyre, journalists and sports fans are often concerned with the amounts that some athletes receive because of their contracts (1). For example, in 2014, Forbes released a list of athletes with the largest salaries, revealing how much money a sports celebrity can earn in a year. The list included such players as Christiano Ronaldo, Floyd Mayweather, and Kobe Bryant (Korzynski and Paniagua 186). The last of these athletes, while not being at the very top of the list, still managed to earn “almost eight times [more] than any other basketball player” (Korzynski and Paniagua 186). This data shows that a disparity between athletes’ wages exists in the industry.

Earnings also differ from one country to another. A study by Liu et al. revealed that U.S. baseball players earned as much as 75 times more than Taiwanese athletes (865). While this number may be connected to the economies of these countries, the correlation between it and perceptions of athletes in the states is also present. Many factors affect the players’ pay: performance (both personal and of the team), experience, contract length, and received awards (Liu et al. 866). Popularity and status can also be considered, although they are not included in the calculation explicitly.

Some people believe that athletes’ pay is justified for a number of reasons. First of all, professional players are viewed as entertainers and public figures whose primary responsibilities are not limited by sports-related activities (Korzynski and Paniagua 186). Therefore, their salaries may be compared to those of famous performers and actors. Some individuals can even view them as role models for children and young persons if players are framed as people who have achieved their dreams.

Another argument states that athletes sacrifice their personal lives in order to achieve a high level of professionalism. Indeed, professional sportspersons spend a significant amount of time training, and many of them start pursuing this path in their childhood. College football and basketball players, for instance, often play without any monetary incentives, although they often have to forgo other activities in order to compete and maintain good grades (Berry 246). Thus, high salaries may be interpreted as compensation for players’ past time and efforts.

Presented arguments show that athletes should be earning enough money as famous and hard-working specialists. Nevertheless, it is necessary to note that the high salaries of popular athletes do not contribute to the overall earnings in the industry but create and exacerbate income inequality. The sports business is rather monopolistic – athletes engaged in a particular sport have limited options for business affiliations (Humphreys and Pyun 677). Therefore, the competition for earning a place in a team may restrict players’ ability to demand better treatment. Thus, some less famous players may have lower salaries in comparison to their famous counterparts (Korzynski and Paniagua 186). Such inequity may be enforced further if one treats athletes only as entertainers.

Moreover, the inequality between different industries may also be viewed as a reason to argue that athletes are overpaid. As this occupation remains to be among the ones with the highest salaries, less recognized careers may seem undesirable and undeserving of high compensation. Healthcare professionals and teachers can also be framed as role models, similarly to the presented above argument. Nevertheless, their salaries often cannot compete with those of professional athletes, although their duties and training are also demanding.

It is possible for one to see a connection between these arguments. Indeed, athletes sacrifice their free time in order to train and achieve results. Therefore, they should be rewarded according to their efforts. However, this statement applies to other occupations as well and should be regarded as unifying and not separating for different industries. Furthermore, the disparity between more and less famous athletes, as well as the lack of financial compensation for younger players, should be addressed. It may be possible that young athletes may benefit from a more just system of financial support.

The issue of overpaid athletes should center on the fact that a small number of famous individuals attract the attention of the public and form the view of the whole industry. It is vital to address the inequity of salaries for different types of players and the difference in perceptions of various careers. Athletes deserve fair pay as much as other committed professionals. Nonetheless, some arguments dismiss the problems in the sphere of sports, neglecting the disparity that high salaries create for less recognized sportspersons.

Berry, William W. “Employee-Athletes, Antitrust, and the Future of College Sports.” Staford Law & Policy Review , vol. 28, 2017, pp. 245-272.

Humphreys, Brad R., and Hyunwoong Pyun. “Monopsony Exploitation in Professional Sport: Evidence from Major League Baseball Position Players, 2000–2011.” Managerial and Decision Economics , vol. 38, no. 5, 2017, pp. 676-688.

Korzynski, Pawel, and Jordi Paniagua. “Score a Tweet and Post a Goal: Social Media Recipes for Sports Stars.” Business Horizons , vol. 59, no. 2, 2016, pp. 185-192.

Liu, Zhenjia, et al. “The Relationship between Player Characteristics, Team Characteristics and Athletes’ Remuneration: An Advanced Empirical Study of Asian and US Professional Baseball Leagues.” Modern Economy , vol. 8, no. 7, 2017, pp. 865-877.

McIntyre, Kevin. “The NFL Salary Cap and Veteran Players’ Salaries.” Archives of Business Research , vol. 5, no. 7, 2017, pp. 1-11.

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Paying college athletes will usher in a new era of uncertainty. But here’s what won’t happen

This week, the NCAA , ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC voted to allow schools to pay their athletes .

Let that sink in for a moment.

A day few would have deemed imaginable even three years ago, much less 30, has (almost) arrived. Technically, their votes were just the first step toward reaching a $2.7 billion settlement in the landmark House v. NCAA antitrust suit . A judge still has to approve it. There will be more hearings. Still, the leaders of college sports have agreed to something they’ve spent a century railing against — albeit begrudgingly, and only due to the pending threat of a verdict that would likely bankrupt the entire system.

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There are so many details still to sort out: how many schools will actually offer the entire $20 million or so a year in revenue they’ll now be allowed, but not obligated, to share with their athletes; how they will meet Title IX requirements; whether they’ll establish collective bargaining with the athletes, etc.

All I’m willing to forecast at this point are all the widely predicted ramifications of paying college athletes that WON’T ever come to fruition.

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Fans will not stop watching college football

It’s the doomsday scenario NCAA attorneys, expert witnesses and certain fans have been threatening for years: The public will lose interest in college sports if the athletes are ever compensated beyond their scholarships.

“If we go down the road of paying players substantial sums, all will be lost,” former CBS Sports president Neal Pilson testified during the 2014 O’Bannon v. NCAA trial. Citing misleading public opinion polls the NCAA invoked during the case, he predicted viewership would fall by 15 to 20 percent.

Well, we have nearly three years of data now that confirms this argument was complete bunk. Many college athletes — not just in football and men’s basketball — began receiving “substantial sums” of NIL money beginning July 1, 2021. What has happened since?

Thirty-seven regular-season college football games last season garnered at least five million viewers, up from 29 a decade earlier. Last year’s Ohio State -Michigan game drew the sport’s largest regular-season audience (19.1 million) since 2011, back when serving cream cheese on bagels was still an NCAA violation. And then of course there’s women’s basketball, which has seen stratospheric audience growth , arguably in part because the biggest stars — Caitlin Clark, JuJu Watkins, Cameron Brink — are now paid to appear in national advertising campaigns.

People will keep watching college football because A) there is no greater loyalty in American sports than a person’s favorite college and B) fall Saturdays remain awesome.

The athletes’ academic experience will not be affected

The NCAA for years framed its arguments for preserving amateurism as a noble-minded attempt to protect its “student-athletes.”

“It is incredibly important that we … protect the amateurism of college sports and support rather than detract from the student-athlete’s educational experience,” former NCAA president Mark Emmert said in testimony before the Senate in 2020 .

That would be well and good if it had actually been happening. If we completely ignored the decades-old practices of steering athletes to the easiest possible classes; “clustering” high percentages of athletes into easier majors; athletes spending far more than the supposed 20-hour-a-week limit on activities focused on their sport; embarrassing graduation rates; and, in certain cases, outright academic fraud.

That’s not to say all football players treat school as a joke. On the contrary, as on any campus, there are highly motivated students preparing well for life after college and others who couldn’t identify the library on a map. And that’s not going to change for better or worse because of revenue sharing.

NIL collectives will not go away

In administrators’ ideal world, the House settlement will bring an end to the “wild, wild West” era that sprouted up when the NCAA was forced in 2021 to allow NIL but instituted few if any regulations around it. Fat chance.

The settlement will allow, say, Ohio State, to share up to $20 million with its athletes. Which seems like a lot. But schools won’t be able to give all $20 million of it to the football team, lest they themselves want to be sued by their women’s sports athletes.

In The Athletic ’s recent reporting about the transfer portal and NIL, one CEO of a collective said, “We’ll spend around $14.5 million (this year). Football is probably 80 percent of that. Another: “We’re at $12-$13 million.” And this reporter has heard of several major programs with higher numbers than that.

NIL collectives won’t need to raise as much money as they do currently, but they will likely serve as a salary cap workaround of sorts for the upper-tier programs with national championship ambitions. After all, boosters were inducing recruits well before NIL, and there’s no reason to think they’ll stop in the new model.

The NCAA will not stop getting sued

The NCAA and the conferences opted to settle the House case in part because it would be consolidated with several similar suits filed by the same attorney. But the first hint that many more billable hours are in store for the defendants came Thursday when a judge in Colorado denied a motion to move another athlete-compensation case, Fontenot v. NCAA, to the Northern California court overseeing House.

Meanwhile, the NCAA is still ensnared in suits over athlete employment (Johnson v. NCAA; NLRB cases involving USC , Dartmouth and Notre Dame ), transfer rules ( Ohio et al v. NCAA) and booster involvement in recruiting (Tennessee and Virginia v. NCAA). There’s also Florida State and Clemson ’s suits challenging the ACC’s grant of rights, which could have ramifications across the entire industry.

House may reshape college sports unlike any lawsuit before it, but the larger remodeling project may still only be in the early stages.

Commissioners react to Charlie Baker's NCAA proposal on athlete compensation

People will not stop complaining about the state of things

College football is the rare phenomenon that is somehow both extremely popular yet extremely frustrating to its consumers on all variety of matters.

The House settlement may bring some much-needed stability to the NIL/portal world, but it will not solve any of the following widespread complaints:

• Exorbitant ticket prices (which if anything will go up even farther to help offset the lost revenue)
• Traffic in and out of the stadium
• Inconvenient kickoff times
• Conference realignment
• Officiating in general
• Long replay reviews/ too many commercials
• End zone fades
• Clock management
• The overtime format
• Coaches leaving before the bowl game
• Too many bowl games
• Your team’s recruiting ranking
• Your quarterback’s decision-making
• Losing to your rival

Considering we endure all those things, and still keep watching, a running back getting a paycheck is not likely to be the final straw.

(Photo: David E. Klutho / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

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Stewart Mandel is editor-in-chief of The Athletic's college football coverage. He has been a national college football writer for two decades with Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports. He co-hosts "The Audible" podcast with Bruce Feldman. Follow Stewart on Twitter @ slmandel

In major change, college athletes set to be paid directly by schools

The NCAA and its five power conferences have approved a deal that paves the way for schools to pay athletes directly, a change that would crush any last notions of amateurism in major college sports.

The agreement, which settles three antitrust cases and was voted on throughout this week, includes almost $2.8 billion in damages. That money will be distributed to current and former athletes, who sued in House v. NCAA over not being compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL) on television broadcasts.

In a joint statement Thursday night, the NCAA and its conferences announced that they had agreed to the settlement terms. And no matter how high the damages are, the most far-reaching component is a new revenue-sharing model, which would pay athletes a cut of money their schools generate from broadcast rights deals, ticket sales and sponsorships, among other streams.

Should the settlement go through, revenue sharing would likely begin at the start of the 2025-26 academic year, a seismic shift considering how long the NCAA has refused to have schools compensate athletes. Yet many steps remain before that can happen.

For the next four to six weeks, lawyers from both sides will hammer out the details, though NCAA representatives don’t expect them to look much different than the initial agreement. Judge Claudia Wilken — who presided over major college sports cases such as O’Bannon v. NCAA and Alston v. NCAA — would then call a hearing to review the settlement terms. If she approves, current athletes would have a chance to object or opt out of the agreement. Then, as a final step, Wilken would consider any objections before making her final decision. Attorneys estimate the whole process could take between six and eight months.

“The five autonomy conferences and the NCAA agreeing to settlement terms is an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come,” the NCAA and conferences said in their joint statement. “This settlement is also a road map for college sports leaders and Congress to ensure this uniquely American institution can continue to provide unmatched opportunity for millions of students.”

On Wednesday, the NCAA’s Board of Governors voted to implement the settlement terms. It was a landmark moment in that, though they had been heavily prodded, the NCAA’s top decision-makers approved a system for schools to directly pay athletes. The SEC and Pac-12, the last of the five conferences to vote, approved the settlement Thursday. The defendants in House , the most significant of the cases, were the NCAA, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Pac-12.

If Wilken ultimately approves the settlement, the NCAA would reshape its budget to account for 40 percent of the nearly $2.8 billion in damages. The other 60 percent would be paid by schools across the next decade, most notably through the NCAA withholding some of its March Madness revenue distributions each year. Beyond revenue sharing, the settlement could also establish a new model for at least the power conferences to make and enforce their own rules, according to Yahoo. It’s just another sign of how stratified college sports are in 2024.

As for the revenue-sharing cap, the exact number is still being finalized. But people familiar with the negotiations have mentioned a cap of about $20 million, formulated by taking about 22 percent of the average power conference school’s main revenue streams. The cap will rise slightly each year, then be reset every three years to keep pace with revenue growth. According to Yahoo, a school’s cap spending could include up to $5 million in education-related payments — known as Alston money — and additional scholarships. NIL collectives, the donor-funded groups that have paid quasi-salaries to athletes in revenue sports, should maintain a heavy influence in football and men’s basketball recruiting, though the NCAA is hoping to reimpose stricter rules on how and when collectives can negotiate with athletes.

In the past month, settlement talks went into overdrive because the NCAA and the power conferences wanted to avoid a January trial at all costs. Given the NCAA’s recent track record in court, the defendants clearly didn’t like their chances. If they would have lost at trial, the damages would have tripled. They also would have had to pay them immediately instead of over a 10-year period. But in the past week — despite being happy with the overall outcome — nonpower conferences have voiced displeasure about how the financial liability will be distributed.

With the proposal the NCAA, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC and Pac-12 voted on, the power conferences will pay 40 percent of the damages owed from schools. The other 27 conferences will shoulder the remaining 60 percent. Beyond damages, the power conferences will pay for legal fees and the potential addition of scholarships. Many power conference schools would also spend to the revenue-sharing cap. (Because revenue sharing will be optional, lower-revenue leagues are expected to refrain.) Either way, the nonpower conferences’ argument about the damages payments is simple: Not only are they not defendants in the suit, but a large share of the damages will be paid out to former power conference football and men’s basketball players.

“Based on the numbers we have reviewed, the liability of the … non-[Football Bowl Subdivision] conferences under the proposed formula appears disproportionately high, particularly because the primary beneficiaries of the NIL ‘back pay’ amounts are expected to be FBS football players,” Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman wrote in an email to her schools, which was first publicized by Yahoo on Sunday .

“I have voiced the Big East’s strong objections to the proposed damages framework through recent emails to [NCAA President] Charlie Baker and his counsel and through comments during commissioner calls over the past two weeks.”

While the settlement agreement answers some questions, it leaves many more unanswered. One potential complication is Fontenot v. NCAA , a fourth antitrust case brought by a different set of lawyers.

Jeffrey Kessler, a lead plaintiffs’ attorney in House along with Steve Berman, is also representing athletes in Hubbard and Carter , making it easier to consolidate those three cases. Kessler and Berman had hoped to fold in Fontenot , too, which would have offered more clarity on how much antitrust protection the NCAA (and its schools and conferences) would get from a settlement. But on Thursday, a Colorado judge denied the motion to consolidate Fontenot with the other cases.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys in Fontenot, who are against consolidating , have signaled that some athletes would oppose the settlement terms for House, Hubbard and Carter . How many athletes — and whether it would be enough to shake up a reshaped system — is unclear, though those answers will probably depend on what the final settlement looks like. It is also possible Fontenot could be resolved by the settlement at a later date, according to multiple lawyers. NCAA representatives are confident Fontenot will not interfere with the settlement agreed on this week.

“ Fontenot doesn’t have any relevance if our settlement is approved by the courts,” Kessler told The Washington Post on Thursday, adding that, because of the similarities between Carter and Fontenot , it was more important to consolidate Fontenot before Carter was lumped in with House and Hubbard . “Because our settlement will totally resolve all the claims in Fontenot.”

The House, Hubbard and Carter settlement also doesn’t address employment, meaning the NCAA will keep lobbying Congress to pass a bill that keeps athletes from becoming employees and receiving the rights that come with that status. To that end, the level of antitrust protection with this settlement — to shield the NCAA and its members from similar lawsuits in the future — remains murky.

Starting with this coming fall’s freshmen, athletes would have a choice to opt into the new revenue-sharing model. That system was devised by Berman and Kessler and was a critical part of the settlement agreement. Experts and conference officials originally thought there were two avenues to settling without the risk of the NCAA being immediately sued again on similar grounds: a collective bargaining agreement (which was always unrealistic because college athletes are not unionized) or a congressional bill that included some level of antitrust protection (which the NCAA has been lobbying for unsuccessfully for years). Then the opt-in system emerged as option three.

If an athlete objected to the terms, they would have a chance to argue their case in a hearing. The NCAA hopes that, for at least the next 10 years, settling House , Hubbard and Carter together — and having the opt-in system for revenue sharing — will lower the frequency and success rate for antitrust suits over athlete compensation, even with Fontenot lingering. A handful of antitrust experts and power conference officials are not as confident.

Beyond employment, the NCAA will keep pushing Congress for stronger antitrust protections and a preemption on state laws, making it so it can enforce rules without being sued by state attorneys general. The legal and political jockeying are far from over.

“The settlement, though undesirable in many respects and promising only temporary stability, is necessary to avoid what would be the bankruptcy of college athletics,” Notre Dame president John I. Jenkins said in a statement. “To save the great American institution of college sports, Congress must pass legislation that will preempt the current patchwork of state laws; establish that our athletes are not employees, but students seeking college degrees; and provide protection from further antitrust lawsuits that will allow colleges to make and enforce rules that will protect our student-athletes and help ensure competitive equity among our teams.”

And there are major questions about how revenue sharing will work. How will the money be distributed? How will Title IX apply, especially with the NCAA leaving that up to each school? Will a potential hard cap invite antitrust scrutiny? To handle the additional expenses, will schools turn to private equity, especially after two firms announced Wednesday that they’re open for business in college sports?

It won’t be a quiet summer. But in an era of nonstop change, that’s certainly nothing new.

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College athletes set to be paid directly by schools after NCAA, leagues agree on $2.8 billion plan to settle lawsuits

Signage is on the headquarters of the NCAA in Indianapolis, March 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, File)

The NCAA and the nation’s five biggest conferences have agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle a host of antitrust claims, a monumental decision that sets the stage for a groundbreaking revenue-sharing model that could start directing millions of dollars directly to athletes as soon as the 2025 fall semester.

The Pac-12 became the final conference to sign off on the proposal Thursday when its university leaders voted to approve, according to a person with direct knowledge of the results.

The Southeastern Conference presidents and chancellors unanimously approved the deal earlier Thursday, another person with knowledge of that decision told The Associated Press. Both spoke spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement between the Pac-12, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference and NCAA was still being prepared.

The other organizations voted to approve earlier in the week ahead of a Thursday deadline given by the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

The deal still must be approved by the federal judge overseeing the case and challenges could arise, but if the agreement stands it will mark the beginning of a new era in college sports where athletes are compensated more like professionals and schools can compete for talent using direct payments.

The details in the plan signal the end of the NCAA’s bedrock amateurism model that dates to its founding in 1906. Indeed, the days of NCAA punishments for athletes driving booster-provided cars started vanishing three years ago when the organization lifted restrictions on endorsement deals backed by so-called name, image and likeness money.

Now it is not far-fetched to look ahead to seasons where a star quarterback or top prospect on a college basketball team are not only cashing in big-money NIL deals but have a $100,000 school payment in the bank to play.

There are a host of details still to be determined, but the agreement calls for the NCAA and the conferences to pay $2.77 billion over 10 years to more than 14,000 former and current college athletes who say now-defunct rules prevented them from earning money from endorsement and sponsorship deals dating to 2016.

Some of that money will come from NCAA reserve funds and insurance but even though the lawsuit specifically targeted five conferences that are comprised of 69 schools (including Notre Dame), dozens of other NCAA member schools will see smaller distributions from the NCAA to cover the mammoth payout.

Schools in the Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences will end up bearing the brunt of the settlement at a cost of about $300 million each over 10 years, the majority of which will be paid to athletes going forward.

The Pac-12 is also part of the settlement, with all 12 sharing responsibility even though Washington State and Oregon State will be the only league members left by this fall after the other 10 schools leave.

Paying athletes

In the new compensation model, each school will be permitted but not required to set aside up to $21 million in revenue to share with athletes per year, though as revenues rise so could the cap.

Athletes in all sports would be eligible for payments and schools would be given the freedom to decide how that money is divvied up among sports programs. Scholarship limits by sport will be replaced by roster restrictions.

Whether the new compensation model is subject to the Title IX gender equity law is unknown along with whether schools will be able to bring NIL activities in-house as they hope and squeeze out the booster-run collectives that have sprouted up in the last few years to pay athletes. Both topics could lead to more lawsuits.

The class-action federal lawsuit at the center of the settlement, House v. the NCAA, was set to go to trial in January. The complaint, brought by former Arizona State swimmer Grant House and Sedona Prince, a former Oregon and current TCU basketball player, said the NCAA, along with the five wealthiest conferences, improperly barred athletes from earning endorsement money.

The suit also made the case that athletes were entitled to a piece of the billions of dollars the NCAA and those conferences earn from media rights agreements with television networks.

Amid political and public pressure, and facing the prospect of another court loss that some in college sports claimed could reach $20 billion in damages, NCAA and conference officials conceded on what has long been a core principal of the enterprise: That schools don’t directly pay the athletes to play beyond a scholarship.

That principle had already been dented numerous times over the last decade.

Notably, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled against the NCAA in 2021 in a case related to education-related benefits. The narrow focus of the Alston case didn’t collapse the collegiate sports system, but the strong rebuke of the NCAA’s model of amateurism flung the door open to more lawsuits. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a former Yale athlete, put it bluntly: “The bottom line is that the NCAA and its member colleges are suppressing the pay of student athletes who collectively generate billions of dollars in revenues for colleges every year.”

The other cases

The settlement is expected to cover two other antitrust cases facing the NCAA and major conferences that challenge athlete compensation rules. Hubbard vs. the NCAA and Carter vs. the NCAA are also currently in front of judges in the Northern District of California.

A fourth case, Fontenot vs, NCAA, creates a potential complication as it remains in a Colorado court after a judge denied a request to combine it with Carter. Whether Fontenot becomes part of the settlement is unknown and it matters because the NCAA and its conferences don’t want to be on the hook for more damages should they lose in court.

“We’re going to continue to litigate our case in Colorado and look forward to hearing about the terms of a settlement proposal once they’re actually released and put in front of a court,” said George Zelcs, a plaintiffs’ attorney in Fontenot.

College athletics overhaul

The solution agreed to in the settlement is landmark, but not surprising. College sports has been trending in this direction for years, with athletes receiving more and more monetary benefits and rights they say were long overdue.

In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker, the former Massachusetts governor who has been on the job for 14 months, proposed creating a new tier of Division I athletics where the schools with the most resources would be required to pay at least half their athletes $30,000 per year. That suggestion, along with many other possibilities, remain under discussion.

The settlement does not make every issue facing college sports go away. There is still a question of whether athletes should be  deemed employees  of their schools, something Baker and other college sports leaders are fighting against.

Some type of federal legislation or antitrust exemption is likely still needed to codify the terms of the settlement, protect the NCAA from future litigation and pre-empt state laws that attempt to neuter the organization’s authority. As it is, the NCAA is still facing lawsuits that challenge its ability to govern itself, including setting rules limiting multiple-time transfers.

Federal lawmakers have indicated they would like to get something done, but while several bills have been introduced none have gone anywhere.

Despite the unanswered questions, one thing is clear: Major college athletics is about to become more like professional sports than ever before.

NCAA, Power Five conferences reach deal to let schools pay players

The proposed legal settlement also would involve $2.8 billion in damages to former and current college athletes..

The NCAA, the Power Five conferences and lawyers for the plaintiffs in three antitrust cases concerning the compensation of college athletes on Thursday completed approvals of a proposed settlement that would include a nearly $2.8 billion damages pool for current and former athletes and fundamentally alter how current and future athletes are paid for playing their sports.

The SEC and the Pac-12 conferences provided their approvals of the deal on Thursday, sources familiar with those actions told USA TODAY Sports. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing state of the process, which includes the parties needing to craft a formal version of the proposed agreement and obtain court approval for it. Thursday’s moves followed approvals earlier this week from the other three conferences and two NCAA governing boards.

"Ecstatic to get this done," Steve Berman, one of the plaintiffs' lead attorneys, told USA TODAY Sports as he said he was transmitting a letter to the court overseeing the cases. "When we started this, I never dreamed of this day. It's a revolutionary moment in college sports." 

According to a summary of proposed settlement terms first reported by Yahoo! Sports and ESPN and later obtained by USA TODAY Sports, the NCAA would fund the damages pool over a 10-year period and schools would begin sharing future revenues with athletes. More than half of the money for the damages pool would come from reductions in the NCAA’s distributions to all Division I schools and conferences.

Multiple sources have told USA TODAY Sports they expect that the proposed arrangement will have a future impact of at least $20 million a year on the budgets of athletics departments that pay their athletes the maximum combined total that would be allowed under a cap that would be established, and then increase over time.

Athletes also would continue to be allowed to receive money for activities connected to the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL), including – but not limited to – endorsements and personal appearances.

In a joint statement, the NCAA and the commissioners of the Power Five conferences said, in part, the settlement "is an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come. This settlement is also a road map for college sports leaders and Congress to ensure this uniquely American institution can continue to provide unmatched opportunity for millions of students."

Representatives of the NCAA said Thursday night they will remain focused on efforts to keep athletes from being determined to be school employees, an issue that is the subject of another ongoing court case and complaints being pursued through the National Labor Relations Board .

The NCAA representatives said they also want to make sure that schools and the association will not face legal consequences for complying with the proposed settlement. Because the proposed settlement includes a cap on the revenues that would be shared with athletes, that potentially leads to continued pursuit of some form of antitrust protection.

As for the damages payments to former and current athletes, based on one of the lawsuits, payments could be made to athletes reaching back to 2016. That date is four years prior to when the suit was initially filed, the reach-back period allowed under antitrust law.

Berman said the settlement money will be divided into pools based on several criteria. For example, one pool would be based on TV broadcast money that would have gone to athletes if NCAA limits on pay had not existed; another would be based on money connected to video games. Payments also will depend on factors including the number of years an athlete was on a team. Berman said football and men's basketball players eligible to receive money from the damages fund each are likely to receive tens of thousands of dollars, if not more.

What happens next?

The proposed deal now will have to receive both preliminary and final approval from U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken. She also will consider a fees-and-costs request from the plaintiffs’ attorneys that usually is based on a percentage of the damages pool. A preliminary settlement proposal is likely to be filed within 30 to 45 days. As part of the overall approval process, athletes – presumably represented by other attorneys – will have the opportunity to object. The approval process likely will take months to complete.

There is already another ongoing antitrust suit against the NCAA and the conferences that has the potential to be a source of objection to the proposed settlement. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Denver denied a request from the NCAA and the conferences to move that case from Colorado to California.

Had Sweeney granted the request, the NCAA and the conferences likely would have sought to have this suit consolidated with one of those covered by the proposed settlement.

However, Berman said he and co-lead counsel Jeffrey Kessler will pursue legal strategies designed to make sure the plaintiffs' claims in the case in Colorado are covered by the proposed settlement. An NCAA representative expressed confidence Thursday night that the case in Colorado will not be an impediment to the proposed settlement. Berman said that if the approval process goes smoothly, he hopes athletes could begin receiving checks from the damages pool in fall 2025. 

How did we get here?

The concept of college athletes being compensated in this manner was anathema to even the richest athletics departments 15 years ago, when the first in what became a line of antitrust cases was filed by Berman's firm, Seattle-based Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP. At that time, athletes basically were limited to receiving scholarships comprised of tuition and mandatory fees, books, room and board.

Since then, college sports revenues, along with the salaries of coaches and administrators, have boomed. The Power Five conferences combined to total just over $3.55 billion in revenue during their 2023 fiscal years, according to their most recent federal tax records. Georgia football coach Kirby Smart recently signed a contract that is set to pay him $13 million annually . And former Texas A&M football coach Jimbo Fisher is receiving more than $77 million in buyout money after being fired by the school this past November.

Meanwhile, many college athletics officials at major-conference schools slowly – and under significant pressure from federal courts and state legislators – began warming to the idea of finding ways for their athletes to get greater benefits.

In 2019, t he California legislature passed, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed , a measure designed to make it easier for college athletes in that state to make money from their NIL. Several other states passed similar measures, and the NCAA in July 2021 changed its rules regarding athlete compensation from NIL activities.

In the courts, the NCAA lost one lawsuit filed on behalf of former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon, then another on behalf of former West Virginia football player Shawne Alston that culminated in a unanimous ruling by the Supreme Court that the NCAA could not place any limits on education-related benefits for athletes.

The proposed settlement would end a case on behalf of plaintiffs led by former Arizona State swimmer Grant House. As part of the case, Wilken in November 2023 granted class-action status to athletes seeking damages based on the share of television-rights money and the social media earnings they claim they would have received if the NCAA’s previous limits on NIL compensation had not existed.

Attorneys for the NCAA and the conferences had written in legal filings  that the athletes are seeking more than $1.4 billion . The filings did not specify whether that figure takes into account the tripling of damages awards that occurs in successful antitrust cases. If it does not, then more than $4.2 billion would have been at stake in the case.

The settlement also would cover two other cases. One, on behalf of former Oklahoma State football player Chuba Hubbard, included a damages claim rising from the Alston case that was based on the value of education-related benefits athletes say they would have received, absent NCAA limits. Those could have amounted to more than $900 million, if tripled.

The other, on behalf of former Duke football player DeWayne Carter, could have been the most devastating of all to the NCAA and the conferences. Like the case that has been allowed to proceed in Colorado, it seeks an injunction that would bar any NCAA rules that prevent such an open market – basically the creation of a formalized pay-for-play system in which athletes can be paid by their schools for their athletic services.

Because of the extent of that potential compensation, a damages award in either of those cases could be even greater than those at stake in the House case.    

College Sports | Paying college athletes is closer than ever….

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College Sports | Paying college athletes is closer than ever. How could it work, and what stands in the way?

A judge must still accept the proposal, which can also be challenged by individual plaintiffs, and there are many questions about how this will work and whether it can withstand future legal scrutiny. But college sports is clearly pointed toward a revolutionary path that could have some of the wealthiest schools directly paying athletes to participate.

House vs. NCAA is a class-action federal lawsuit seeking damages for athletes who were denied the opportunity, going back to 2016, to earn money from the use of their name, image or likeness (NIL). The plaintiffs, including former Arizona State swimmer Grant House, filed the lawsuit in 2020 and also asked the court to rule that NIL compensation should include billions of dollars in media rights fees that go to the NCAA and the five wealthiest conferences (Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, Atlantic Coast and Southeastern), mostly for football and basketball.

Who made the call?

The presidential boards of the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC and Pac-12 all voted to approve the settlement this week as well as the NCAA Board of Governors. Lead attorneys on the House case include familiar NCAA foes Steve Berman and Jeffrey Kessler, who have previous victories in college athlete compensation cases on their records. They will now work with their plaintiff clients on next steps with the judge.

The settlement calls for the NCAA to pay nearly $2.8 billion in damages over 10 years, backed by insurance and withheld distributions that would have gone to 352 Division I member schools. Last year, NCAA revenue approached $1.3 billion and the association projects a steady rise in coming years, thanks mostly to increases baked into a television contract with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery for the men’s basketball tournament. A new, eight-year deal with ESPN worth $920 million for the Division I women’s basketball tournament and other championship events takes effect in 2025.

The potential settlement could cost each school in the remaining power conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC) about $300 million per year over 10 years, including as much as $21 million per year to pay a school’s athletes. Administrators have warned that could lead to cuts for the so-called non-revenue sports familiar to fans who watch the Olympics.

“It’s the Olympic sports that would be in jeopardy,” Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said during a March discussion on Capitol Hill. “That’s men and women. If you look at the numbers for us at the University of Alabama, with our 19 sports outside of football and men’s basketball, we lost collectively almost $40 million.”

Who gets paid going forward?

Presumably, the payments would start with the athletes in sports that produce most of the revenue: football and men’s basketball players. Women’s basketball is likely next in line, but athletes in all sports should expect to see some benefit — but probably not at all schools.

The proposal would allow schools to pay athletes, but not require it. Schools that don’t rake in millions in TV revenue could pass and rely on NIL deals brokered in part by booster-backed collectives. Though how and if those organizations fit in a new system is murky at best.

There are also questions about whether the federal gender equity law Title IX would require equal funding for male and female athletes.

Employment and collective bargaining

Settling existing cases is only one step. A new system for compensating college athletes would be needed to avoid similar legal challenges in the future; for example, anything that looks like a cap on compensation by the major conferences could be ripe for another lawsuit.

The NCAA has been asking Congress for some kind of antitrust exemption or federal legislation for years, but the emphasis has shifted lately from regulating NIL compensation to keeping the athletes from being deemed employees.

A ruling from an NLRB regional director paved the way for members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team to vote to join a union after being deemed employees, and many have advocated for collective bargaining as a solution to college sports’ antitrust exposure. It could take years to settle the are-athletes-employees question.

What’s next?

The House case is being heard in the Northern District of California by U.S. Judge Claudia Wilken, who has already ruled against the NCAA in other landmark antitrust lawsuits. Wilken must approve the settlement, which is expected to cover at least two other antitrust lawsuits facing the NCAA. Another suit against the NCAA in Colorado remains separate, but could eventually be looped into the settlement.

In the meantime, schools will be trying to plan how revenue-sharing might work as college athletics continues its seismic shift from amateurism to a vastly different model.

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College athletes get paid and I play NCAA video games guilt-free because of California | Opinion

We common folk like to tell athletes to “shut and dribble” and “quit whining, you get paid millions of dollars.” For thousands of college athletes, the chance of a huge payday often never comes.

The power structure in college sports is only now starting to shift. However, progress has come slowly and only after too many college athletes saw their talents and revenue-generating power exploited by their schools, their fans, the NCAA and even me and my family.

I thought about that on Thursday with the announcement that NCAA College Football 25 - a video game that was an obsession for me as a kid - will again be available for purchase on July 19, 2025. Its long-awaited return a decade after a historic legal settlement sparked the inner child in me. It also makes the 29-year-old journalist I am happy for future athletes who will earn money if featured in the game.

It’s in the game

Pick any night during college football season when I was a kid, and you’d hear screaming and yelling between me and my brother as we played NCAA College Football 2007 at our home in Tullahoma, TN.

For all my younger siblings out there who played video games, you know the heavenly bliss of beating your older obnoxious sibling in a game. I lived to serve my brother a nice slice of humble pie on the sticks. See, my brother in high school was the more athletic of the two. With his 6-foot-2, lean and muscular physique, he was highly sought after by the high school coaches. He played baseball, rugby and football.

My brother was great at everything, but I was even better at video games, especially NCAA College football. And my brother couldn’t stand it.

In one match I played as the University of Kentucky Wildcats and my brother was the University of Tennessee Volunteers. After one quarter the score was 21-0 in my favor and I was starting at a disadvantage because the game rated his team stronger than mine. In the gaming world, we call that being “skunked.” I loved every minute of it, but my brother wasn’t having it.

“You’re cheating!” my brother screamed at the top of his lungs after he gave up another touchdown. “There’s no way you’re beating me with Kentucky.”

So we restarted the game and kept playing into the night.

Our PlayStation 2 could burn a hole in the floor from how long we would keep it on, playing for hours.

Likeness battle

In 2014, EA Sports discontinued all of its college sports video games - and their use of college brands overall - because a notable California athlete, former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon., joined other former student-athletes in a class action lawsui t against the NCAA, EA Sports and Collegiate Licensing Company.

O’Bannon was a starter on UCLA’s 1995 national championship team and the NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player who saw his l likeness in the game NCAA College Basketball 2009 and felt he should be compensated.. This was almost a decade after his brief NBA career had ended. There was a character in the video game that resembled O’Bannon, from his face to even the jersey number he wore.

Late in 2009, O’Bannon filed his suit, which was combined with others by other athletes, alleging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act. They contended that student-athletes deserve to be compensated EA and Collegiate Licensing Company, apart from the lawsuit, reached a $40 million settlement with O’Bannon and 20 other former athletes..

You could say the state of California has led the way in making college athletics more fair to college athletes.

Following O’Bannon’s transformative legal challenge, California passed the Fair Pay to Play Act in 2019, paving the way for any student-athlete to be compensated for their name, image and likeness. It also prohibits California colleges e from revoking scholarships from students pursuing endorsement deals. The law went into effect in 2023.

We shouldn’t make light of exploitive years before student-athletes could be compensated. Reggie Bush , the cover athlete on my NCAA Football 07 game, was publicly disgraced when he was stripped of his Heisman Trophy in 2010. A tailback for USC, Bush was found to have accepted thousands of dollars as a college athlete. Thankfully, Bush got his Heisman back in April, 14 years after it was taken from him. The Heisman Trust says that “enormous changes in the college football landscape” led to the decision to reinstate the trophy to Bush.

And they would be correct. Tons of change has come to college football and collegiate athletics. It’s time that we all shift our views as well.

At the root, sports are pretty awesome. They evoke so much joy and passion in us. For too long not enough people understood that collegiate sports made money for many people other than the players lacing up their cleats.

We have now entered a moment where the people on the field have a say in how their brand is used. And that’s alright with me.

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Monumental new deal for athletes: Colleges can pay students after NCAA, conferences agree to $2.8 billion settlement

The NCAA and the nation’s five biggest conferences said Thursday night they have agreed to  pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle a host of antitrust claims , a monumental decision that sets the stage for a groundbreaking revenue-sharing model that could start directing millions of dollars directly to athletes as soon as the 2025 fall semester.

NCAA President Charlie Baker along with the commissioners of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and Southeastern Conference released a joint statement Thursday night announcing they had agreed to  settlement terms.  They called it the move “an important step in the continuing reform of college sports that will provide benefits to student-athletes and provide clarity in college athletics across all divisions for years to come.”

The deal still must be approved by the federal judge overseeing the case and challenges could arise, but if the agreement stands it will mark the beginning of a new era in college sports where athletes are compensated more like professionals and schools can compete for talent using direct payments.

“There’s no question about it. It’s a huge quantum leap,” said Tom McMillen, the former Maryland basketball player and congressman who has led an association of collegiate athletic directors the past eight years.

The details in the plan signal the end of the NCAA’s bedrock amateurism model that dates to its founding in 1906. Indeed, the days of NCAA punishments for athletes driving booster-provided cars started vanishing three years ago when the organization  lifted restrictions on endorsement deals  backed by so-called name, image and likeness money.

Now it is not far-fetched to look ahead to seasons where a star quarterback or top prospect on a college basketball team are not only cashing in big-money NIL deals but have a $100,000 school payment in the bank to play.

There are a host of  details still to be determined,  but the agreement calls for the NCAA and the conferences to pay $2.77 billion over 10 years to more than 14,000 former and current college athletes who say now-defunct rules prevented them from earning money from endorsement and sponsorship deals dating to 2016.

“Even though it was only because of the overwhelming legal pressure, the NCAA, conferences and schools are agreeing that college athletes should be paid,” said Ramogi Huma, a former UCLA football player and longtime advocate for college athletes. “And there’s no going back from there. That’s truly groundbreaking.”

Some of the money will come from NCAA reserve funds and insurance but even though the lawsuit specifically targeted five conferences that are comprised of 69 schools (including Notre Dame),  dozens of other NCAA member schools  will see smaller distributions from the NCAA to cover the mammoth payout.

Schools in the Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences will end up bearing the brunt of the settlement at a cost of about $300 million each over 10 years, the majority of which will be paid to athletes going forward.

The Pac-12 is also part of the settlement, with all 12 sharing responsibility even though Washington State and Oregon State will be the only league members left by this fall after the other 10 schools leave.

PAYING ATHLETES

In the new compensation model, each school will be permitted but not required to set aside up to $21 million in revenue to share with athletes per year, though as revenues rise so could the cap.

Athletes in all sports would be eligible for payments and schools would be given the freedom to decide how that money is divvied up among sports programs. Scholarship limits by sport will be replaced by roster restrictions.

Whether the new compensation model is subject to the Title IX gender equity law is unknown along with whether schools will be able to bring NIL activities in-house as they hope and squeeze out the booster-run collectives that have sprouted up in the last few years to pay athletes. Both topics could lead to more lawsuits.

The class-action federal lawsuit at the center of the settlement,  House v. the NCAA,  was set to go to trial in January. The complaint, brought by former Arizona State swimmer Grant House and Sedona Prince, a former Oregon and current TCU basketball player, said the NCAA, along with the five wealthiest conferences, improperly barred athletes from earning endorsement money.

The suit also made the case that athletes were entitled to a piece of the billions of dollars the NCAA and those conferences earn from media rights agreements with television networks.

Amid political and public pressure, and facing the prospect of another court loss that some in college sports claimed could reach $20 billion in damages, NCAA and conference officials conceded on what has long been a core principal of the enterprise: That schools don’t directly pay the athletes to play beyond a scholarship.

That principle had already been dented numerous times over the last decade.

Notably, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled  against the NCAA in 2021  in a case related to education-related benefits. The narrow focus of the Alston case didn’t collapse the collegiate sports system, but the strong rebuke of the NCAA’s model of amateurism flung the door open to more lawsuits. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a former Yale athlete, put it bluntly: “The bottom line is that the NCAA and its member colleges are suppressing the pay of student athletes who collectively generate billions of dollars in revenues for colleges every year.”

THE OTHER CASES

The settlement is expected to cover two  other antitrust cases  facing the NCAA and major conferences that challenge athlete compensation rules. Hubbard vs. the NCAA and Carter vs. the NCAA are also currently in front of judges in the Northern District of California.

A fourth case, Fontenot vs, NCAA, creates a potential complication as it remains in a Colorado court after a judge  denied a request  to combine it with Carter. Whether Fontenot becomes part of the settlement is unknown and it matters because the NCAA and its conferences don’t want to be on the hook for more damages should they lose in court.

“We’re going to continue to litigate our case in Colorado and look forward to hearing about the terms of a settlement proposal once they’re actually released and put in front of a court,” said George Zelcs, a plaintiffs’ attorney in Fontenot.

COLLEGE ATHLETICS OVERHAUL

The solution agreed to in the settlement is landmark, but not surprising. College sports has been trending in this direction for years, with athletes receiving more and more monetary benefits and rights they say were long overdue.

In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker, the former Massachusetts governor who has been on the job for 14 months,  proposed creating a new tier of Division I athletics  where the schools with the most resources would be required to pay at least half their athletes $30,000 per year. That suggestion, along with many other possibilities, remain under discussion.

The settlement does not make every issue facing college sports go away. There is still a question of whether athletes should be  deemed employees  of their schools, something Baker and other college sports leaders  are fighting against.

Some type of federal legislation or antitrust exemption is likely still needed to codify the terms of the settlement, protect the NCAA from future litigation and pre-empt state laws that attempt to neuter the organization’s authority. As it is,  the NCAA is still facing lawsuits  that challenge its ability to govern itself, including setting rules limiting multiple-time transfers.

Federal lawmakers have indicated they would like to get something done, but while  several bills have been introduced  none have gone anywhere.

Despite the unanswered questions, one thing is clear: Major college athletics is about to become more like professional sports than ever before.

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