Since 1906 the NCAA has claimed to "protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletic practices of the time." It was according to an NCAA survey that the average football player spends almost 50 hours a week on athletics with the average overall time spent in any sport being 35. These athletes are putting in more time than most full time jobs and generate billions of dollars a year, yet they are only compensated by tuition reimbursement, a virtually free fee from the universities. These athletes are abused for their time and health from a massively profitable industry. College athletes need to be paid to play these sports that directly generates revenue. The NCAA, a "non-profit organization", is a multi-billion dollar industry. In the last year alone the NCAA generated over $845 do to the athletes ability to perform for viewers at their fullest extent (Wilbon). They've created a corporation that makes massive amounts of profit without the expense of playing their employees. The perfect business model for maximum profit.
Does the millions of dollars a school receives every year actually equate to (at most) a Bachelor's degree? The NCAA even has the nerve to restrict their athletes from having jobs to make money because they don't want the athletes to cash in on their image in any way. The average salary for a division I football, basketball, or baseball head coach is $2-3.5 million (Brian). The universities should step up and pay their employees; the student athletes. Virtually every university employs large amounts of student employees. Students frequently are paid to work in the library, admissions office, cafeteria, and even teaching assistants. Student athletes directly generate profit, they should at least be awarded the same benefits as an admissions office receptionist. A great visual representation created by John Kerensky at Greensville College can be seen below: Where we can see how much, in millions, that each of the SEC football programs generated with respect to how much they pay their coaches and players.
