Any home football game at the University brings tailgating, partying and hours of cheering for our Tigers.
But while the fans have a great time, the team faces enormous pressure to win the game. A player can’t go out and party all day, and they can’t get drunk or fill up on chips and dip.
College athletes, especially Division I athletes, deserve to be paid for the time and energy they put into serving their school.
Many argue college athletes don’t need to be paid because many of them receive athletic scholarships. However, only about 2 percent of high school athletes get an NCAA scholarship when they play in college.
If a college athlete does receive a scholarship, his or her only chance at having a full ride is playing Division I for one of the six “head-count” sports: football, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s gymnastics, volleyball or tennis. If they play another sport or are not Division I, their scholarship will likely be in a small denomination.
If an athlete does not have a scholarship, they don’t get any kind of compensation for the hours they put into the team. College athletes spend more time practicing and playing than most students spend doing any other job or work study.
An NCAA survey showed Division I men’s sports practiced for about 32-43 hours a week, while Division I women’s sports practiced for about 33-38 hours a week. A standard full-time job clocks in at 40 hours per week, which means some college athletes spend more time practicing than people work at a full-time job. Over-practicing can put both a physical and mental strain on even the toughest athlete.
These numbers are put in an even worse light when the amount of money universities make from college sports is taken into consideration. Universities can make millions of dollars from college athletics, and the students who play the sports are unable to make any kind of profit of their own. They can’t even sell things like autographs or other merchandise.
I understand allowing players to sell merchandise could promote unethical behavior, but if a player spends the majority of his or her time working for nearly nothing, they need some way to make money without taking up more of their already precious time.
Division I athletes are held to a high standard and are expected to put in extensive effort while balancing their schoolwork. Though many athletes seem to enroll in easier courses to take some of the pressure off, they can only relieve so much of the work.
College athletes are students like everyone else. If they are not on the fast track to a professional career, the sport they play takes a lot of time away from planning for the future. Though a student athlete may not care at the time, when graduation rolls around, they may realize they got little out of their collegiate career other than the enjoyment of playing a game.
I do not believe every student athlete should be paid a salary that covers for all or even most of their tuition. I think they should get an amount of money comparable to a work study or other campus job.
I got paid to write this article, and student athletes deserve to be paid for the job they do. Even if they only get a little bit of money, college athletes should be rewarded for the endless hours they spend trying to make a name for the school they represent.
Lynne Bunch is an 18-year-old mass communication freshman from Terrytown, Louisiana.