History

5 Pages 1340 Words

For years, Division I athletes have been pouring their hearts out day after day, week after week, to protect the pride and tradition of their universities. With television contracts and shoe deals alone, the athletes are really bringing in the money and other forms of revenue. Sure, you can say that the typical athletes scholarship is enough to compensate, but are they? A true athlete plays the game simply because he loves it. When you’re at the Division I level of sports, it is more or less a business and it is their job to make money for the school. Also, these athletes give up many freedoms. For a given number of hours per week, they give their blood, sweat, and tears just to play a sixty-minute game or run two times around a track. Take these factors and combine it with the athlete’s academic responsibilities, and it’s a lot to account for. When all is said and done, how much money does the athlete see? Well, aside from scholarships, they see nothing.
Most people think that an athlete should just be thankful for the education he receives in exchange for a few hours of practice. But an enormous amount of cash is being circulated within that school, at the athlete’s expense, which that athlete will never see. Author and sports writer Steven Wulf says, “They are required to put in long hours of hard work for next to nothing, in hostile conditions, always under intense scrutiny of their coaches. Also, time and physical constraints do not allow these individuals to actively pursue a part-time job so they are unable to deposit that measly check most of us work toward outside academic duties.”(Wulf). This is a very controversial topic, and many people have different opinions, some believe that college athletes should receive a certain amount of money for their work and dedication to their team, and some believe that paying college athletes would ruin the pride and tradition of college sports. Judy Runge, a coach for the wom...