Show Them Some of That Money

Show Them Some of That Money

Have you ever turned on your television on new years day to watch the rose ball, or ever tuned in to March Madness to watch the top four basketball colleges in the country compete for NCAA basketball royalty. If you did then consider this, those athletes you see on your TV are not really hundred percent athletes they are actually student before they were ever considered athletes. In a matter of fact, they are even called student athletes. Notice that the term "student" came before the term "athlete". Being an student athlete can be harder than just being an athlete, actually it is much harder because not only must the athlete concentrate on his sport and his performance during matches and games, but also equally on his academics which is a necessity if he wants to continue playing or his college. Most colleges require their athlete to maintain a 2.00 GPA to continue playing for the college. That means that the athlete has no time for anything else but his sport and his books and that's it. He has no time not even for a part time job to earn him a little pocket change by which he can survive on. Also students athletes are told or in other words advised by their coaches not to get a part time job cause it will effect their availability to the team and also because that spare time they got off the field and outside of practice, is for them to study and maintain that 2.00 GPA. After stating that this question a raises. How do student athletes make their money in order to survive? Shouldn't they get paid for their hard work? And how do colleges compensate their athletes, if any at all?

Some people say that students athletes get paid by having their education paid for in a form of scholarship, but if you look at the ulterior motive behind scholarships i think people would change their minds. Coaches try to get the players who they think would be most beneficial to the team and persuaded them to join their school by giving them scholarships. So the whole idea behind an athletic scholarships is to lure the students to come to your school. Scholarships are just like a recruitment tactics used by the school and sport directors to get the players they want. After the school gets a good team assembled for free, then they get a coach that can guarantee victorys and make those students slaves, I meant student athletes compete for their schools glory and prestige on a national level and against other institutions in the country. But in the world of college sports its win or go home and the winners go the spoils. With that in mind, the student athletes who are not on the teams that wins their division and rank on the top get nothing for their hard work.

Most successful college sports teams rank in millions of dollars in revenue. Take for example university of Florida and their football team Florida Gator, who just signed a 2.5 million dollar a year contract for their coach Steve Spurrier. Can you believe that 2.5 million dollars just for the coach, so you can just start to imagine how much money those colleges have in their sports programs. Obviously those students athlete are making money for their schools and in exchange they get what? Education. Is that it! Well, lets see education for those players don't mean much, they are not after the degree they are after the bigger fish, they want to make it to the NHL or NBA and get paid the the big Benjemins. So the education that ranges any where from $7,000 to $30,000 a year per student doesn't satisfy the athletes all that much. However college programs generate thousands if not millions more off their athletes. Take this example for instance the University of Notre Dame signed a five season 38 million dollar contract with NBC for its home football games. If there is a 100 full scholarship players for Notre Dame, that would equal 380,000 per player from the TV revenues only, not taking in account ticket revenue and merchandise sold because of the players.

Even the NCAA (National collegiate Athletic association)- which imposes the rules on the players- makes about 242 million of TV revenues each year. When student athletes only receive a scholarship of around $10,000, it would appear that since they can bring it up 10 million, student athletes are being exploited and used by their colleges to make them major money. Don't