Should college athletes be paid? This is a topic that has been lingering in the sports world for a while now. Personally, I believe that they shouldn’t be paid for a few different reasons. For example, not all colleges would be able to pay players the same amount of money, it would create a less competitive NCAA, it could lead to programs being cut and student-athletes already get a stipend 

My biggest reason why college athletes should not be paid is because not all colleges would be able to pay players the same amount of money. This would lead to the bigger schools getting the cream of the crop for recruits.  According to www.baylorlariat.com,“ This would lead to big schools becoming powerhouses, as many donors and recruits would only want to go to those schools because they would be paid significantly more money.”  The smaller schools would not be able to keep up with the bigger schools, giving them no chance to compete with them. One of the most exciting things in college sports is seeing that big upset, and by paying athletes you could start to see a lot less of that. Also, there wouldn’t be fair pay between all players and programs. The girls’ sports that don’t bring as much money as the men’s sports probably wouldn’t get much pay, if any.

By paying student-athletes, other programs in the school that don’t bring in much money will be erased. Even the bigger schools in the NCAA won’t be able to pay every single player and keep up financially with other sports programs resulting in them being cut off. Also, according to www.baylorlariat.com, “If a university starts paying student-athletes, it could negatively affect other sports programs. There would not be enough funds to pay every single student-athlete equally and to be able to keep every single sport. The smaller sports that do not generate enough revenue to sustain the program would definitely get cut.” There wouldn’t be as much opportunity for everyone if we paid our student-athletes. 

My last reason why student-athletes should not be getting paid is because most of them already get stipends for playing. College athletes get a lot of opportunities already by getting to show their skills off in order to get an opportunity to go pro. Also, if on scholarship, they get a free education along with free room and board.  According to ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com, “ 57% of all student-athletes receive some level of athletics aid.”  More than half of student-athletes are rewarded with financial aid, and with how expensive college is today, athletes get an upper hand on their college education. By paying college athletes, we would start to maybe see the price of college go up. 

Some may say that colleges make a lot of money off of their athletes, which may be true; however, there’s only a smaller percentage that could afford to pay their athletes. According to businessinsider.com “paying college athletes would cost $200 million each year.” This is a substantial amount of money and in theory says they could do it but is not practical when factoring in all the things that would have to happen to do so. 

Although paying college athletes sounds like a good idea, it is unreasonable and probably won’t happen. After all, they are a student first then athletes, and they are going to college to get an education. If you pay one, you have to pay them all. Finally, “TITLE IX says that schools receiving federal aid must provide equal opportunities to men and women. And income is an opportunity that cannot be bestowed only on some of the men.” This is why paying college athletes will never happen.