They have practice every day for at least 2 hours, team meetings for at least 3 hours a week, weight lifting 3 or 4 times a week, plus games and travel time. If you add all this time up you would get at least 20 hours if not upwards of 40 hours. These athletes spend just as much time on their jobs as normal college students but it is much more physically and mentally demanding then a normal job. This makes no sense that people get paid for doing a job that is not demanding at all and others don't get paid for performing something much more physically and mentally demanding. Because of all the time and effort spent on perfecting their sports many athletes feel like they deserve to get paid for their time, and if they don't they may make a stupid decision and leave school early to get the compensation they feel they deserve. .
Another reason college athletes should be paid for playing a sport in college is that it will support higher education for athletes in college. There had been more then 100 basketball players in the past 5 years that left college early in order to make some money being a professional athlete. About half of them are ever drafted and less then half of them become a star and make lots of money (www.nba.com). The players that don't get drafted are not allowed to go back to college and finish playing their four years of college sports. If we would pay college athletes to play their sports they would be more willing to stay all four years because they would have money to spend and it will give them more time to master their sport. Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, and many more athletes came right out of high school and tried to make it in the pros. Now these players are famous and kids see them and think they could be the next one to make it big but there have been more people to come out of high school that were busts then ones that are stars. We tend to forget about them but if athletes knew how hard it is to become a star in the professional ranks I think more would stay in school.