Why College Basketball Players Should be Paid (Synthesis)
College Sports have been corrupt for so long. College athletes put in timeless hours and effort for their alma matter and universities make extreme amounts of money off of their backs. The NCAA has taken advantage of these young men for too long.
Now, players may get an education out of playing but some players can’t afford life on campus or necessities like food. Also the amount of money that they receive in terms of education is not nearly as much as the NCAA makes off of each player. This year the NCAA in total made $1.1 billion, most of which comes from basketball events such as March Madness. (Berkowitz) The average amount of money for a 4 year education for the 2017-2018 school year was $33,480 at private colleges, $9,970 for state residents at public colleges, and $25,620 for out-of-state residents attending public universities. (Goldy-Brown) Each year there is an average of about 4,511 Division 1 college basketball players. (Feng)So if each player has a 4-year tuition cost of $25,620, then it would cost $115,571,820 to pay for each players tuition. That is $984,428,180 that the NCAA makes off of these players backs. And that number is the smallest possible difference because it is based on every player going out of state and receiving 4 years of education, which is not what happens the majority of the time as players will go in state, to private schools, or leave early for the NBA.
In addition, coaches are already paying players illegally. Just recently Adidas and the University of Kansas got caught for paying Silvio De Sousa to play for them. Tons of other colleges are doing the same thing with their star players but just haven’t been caught yet. When Lonzo Ball was asked what he thought about the matter he said, “All the money they generate for the programs and stuff, it’s kind of an unfair system…Everybody knows everybody’s getting paid and that’s how it is. Everybody’s getting paid anyway. You might as well make it legal. That’s how I feel.”
The NCAA has been taking advantage of these young men for far too long. They make hundreds of millions of dollars off of everything that players put into their programs and universities. Since the industry has turned into a billion dollar industry, it’s past time that the NCAA starts paying their players.
