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Ethan Legge
Professor Collins
ENGL 1302
28 April 2016

A Scholarship is not Enough

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a multimillion dollar organization that is
in charge of all college athletics throughout the United States of America. The profit of the
NCAA is entirely based on college athletes and the entertainment value of their games. Whether
it be by merchandise, ticket sales, advertisements, or television views, the NCAA relies on these
young athletes. Currently under NCAA rules, college athletes are not allowed to receive
compensation for their performances on the field or court unlike their professional counterparts.
This includes jersey sales and autographs. A handful of college athletes receive a level of
Hollywood celebrity-like fame, but they are unable to benefit from their elite status. An example
of a college athlete that received an enormous amount of notoriety is Texas A&Ms Johnny
Manziel. Manziel had a variety of off field issues during the offseason before his last season in
College Station including his alleged profit of five figures for signing memorabilia. The
Heisman winning quarterback was able to avoid serious punishment and was merely suspended
for the first half of the Aggies first game of the season for his supposed crimes (Manfred). If an
athlete breaks any rules regarding receiving compensation, they will be punished by the NCAA
in whatever way the athletic association deems fit. This punishment is usually being suspended
from playing in a number of games equivalent to the severity of their violation. After being
named the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player and being named MVP of the 2014

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national championship game, Shabazz Napier claimed in an interview that he often goes to sleep
starving (NCAA Council). The NCAA annually makes around $900 million in revenue from
the tournament, representing about 90% of its annual revenue (Parker). It seems unfair that the
champion teams most talented player is going to bed hungry some nights due to not being able
to afford food while the NCAA is making about eight hundred ten million dollars off of the
tournament that his team won. Because of how much time and work student athletes put into
their sports, the NCAA should allow athletes to receive pay, set by their university, for their
athletic performances.
The salaries for the athletes will be paid for using revenue that is brought in from their
specific sport. Athletes are forbidden from being compensated using the profit from sports that
that particular individual does not participate in. This will inherently result in unequal pay
between different sports. However, it will be proportional to the revenue brought in by those
sports. Therefore for most universities, football players will be compensated the most due to the
larger capacity of stadiums and more television viewers. Following football programs will be
basketball for most schools, although it is not even close as the top 15 college basketball
programs generated roughly $293 million, less than a third of what the top 15 football programs
generated (Morgan). However, basketball and baseball programs have a massive incentive to be
successful due to the significant increase in profit that March Madness and the World Series will
produce for their programs. With the increase in profit for their teams if they win those
tournaments, the athletes will have greater incentive to win which could lead to competitions that
are even more entertaining for the fans to watch.
Athletic directors will consult head coaches to determine how much each athlete will
earn. However, the NCAA will set a minimum and maximum salary per sport that the athletic

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directors will have to stay within. Minimum salaries will increase as the student gains seniority.
Increasing salaries in this manner will also have an impact on how many athletes stay for their
final years before deciding to progress to the professional level. Universities will also be allowed
to give athletes incentives for reaching individual statistical milestones during a season, or
perhaps have bonuses for the entire team that can be earned for winning a certain amount of
games or winning a championship. Bonuses can also be given to starters, team leaders, and allAmericans. If a particular athlete achieves enough incentives to exceed the maximum salary then
they will unfortunately have to stay at the maximum salary for the rest of the season.
Currently the NCAA and college athletes are not allowed to use their names for profit.
This has not stopped EA Sports from releasing college sports video games that include all
Division I schools and their full rosters. The rosters only include the players jersey numbers and
do not use any names. These players are clearly based off of real college athletes as their height,
weight, speed, and other attributes accurately reflect the athlete with the corresponding number.
This is one of the primary reasons that the game generates so much revenue, and none of it goes
to the athletes that are imitated in the games (How EA). Universities are also allowed to sell
the jersey of their top players. Of course the jersey does not use the name of the athlete that it is
representing, it only has their number on the back. To most people that are well versed in college
sports, the number leaves no doubt of which players jersey that is. Texas A&M made slightly
less than sixty thousand dollars off of jersey sales from the 2012-2013 football season (Johnny
Manziels Heisman year) which accounted for less than two percent of the universitys licensing
revenue (Dosh). Although jersey sales and video games account for only a small percentage of a
universitys yearly profit, it is still ridiculous that the players will never see any of that money in
their own pockets.

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If an athlete gets injured, they will continue to receive compensation. However, athletes
unable to play due to injury will only be paid their minimal salary regardless of whether they are
a starter or team leader. Injured athletes will continue to receive their salaries due to most
athletes fears of suffering a major injury while in college that will diminish their chances of
playing at the next level. Injuries are inevitable for all sports with roughly twelve thousand five
hundred college athletes get injured every year. Most of these injuries are not extraordinarily
serious, although something as minor as a high ankle sprain could have long lasting effects if not
treated properly. For males, most injuries occur in football. This includes thirty percent of
football players reporting suffering two or more concussions in their career (Thomas). These
concussions could not only have negative effects on their professional careers, but it could also
seriously affect their brain later on in their lives. Although injuries are inevitable in all
competitive athletics, an injury in college should not prevent an athlete from being paid in the
present or future.
A large portion of on-field success is the result of the work put in during the off season.
In fact, most college athletes say they spend as much or more time on sports during the offseason as they do during the season and that some of those workouts are not particularly
necessary to keeping those individuals in shape (New). The workouts that take place nearly every
day of the off-season do not bring in any profit for the organizations. The best way to satisfy the
athletes and coaches on this issue would be to create a minimal required off season workout time.
This workout time should be roughly two thirds of the current amount of time spent on off
season workouts. During the minimal required workout time, athletes will not be compensated
their time in the gym as it will be considered as an investment into the well-being of the
individual and the program. Athletes will approve of this because they will have more time for

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other college related activities. Athletes that are willing to put in extra time at the gym will
receive compensation at minimum wage for those workouts. Trainers and coaches will monitor
these workouts to insure that athletes are only actually working out and not just socializing in the
weight room. They will also monitor the amount of time each athlete spends in the gym to assure
that the individuals are not spending too much time and over working their body. The coaches
will be satisfied with these changes because they will not have to compensate their athletes for
all the time during the off season workouts and determined athletes will still spend the same
amount of time in the gym as they previously would. Athletes are more than content with a
decrease in mandatory workouts along with being paid for going above and beyond.
When most people argue that college athletes are not deserving of pay, they argue that
they are already getting their education payed for by their scholarship. However, most colleges
do not offer full-ride scholarships to athletes of all sports. Division I baseball programs are
allowed to split 11.7 scholarships amongst their players (Frank). This results in most of the
players not receiving full-ride scholarships. Athletes not receiving a full-ride will be required to
pay for the remaining tuition, dorm, books, and other expenses not covered by their scholarship.
The average athletic scholarship is worth less than eleven thousand dollars (OShaughnessy).
That eleven thousand dollars is roughly thirty-two hundred dollars less than what is necessary for
a college student to live a healthy lifestyle (Zola). The idea that all college athletes are getting an
education as payment for playing their sport is a common misconception that does not stand true
for all athletes.
Due to everything that college athletes sacrifice on a daily basis, it is only reasonable that
the NCAA give back money to the athletes that make them hundreds of millions of dollars on a
yearly basis.

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Works Cited
Dosh, Kristi. Selling Jerseys with Current Players Numbers Isnt Worth the Risk. The
Business of College Sports. 5 June 2014. Web. 27 April 2016.
Frank, David. How to Get a Baseball Scholarship. Athletic Scholarships. Web. 18 April 2016.
Manfred, Tony. The Johnny Manziel Autograph Scandal Is Everything That's Wrong With The
NCAA. Business Insider. 4 Aug. 2013. Web. 13 April 2016.
Morgan, Scott. How Much Money Do College Sports Generate? Zacks Finance. Web. 20 April
2016.
New, Jake. What Off-Season. Inside Higher Ed. 8 May 2015. Web. 13 April 2016.
OShaughnessy, Lynn. 8 things you should know about sports scholarships. CBS News. 20
Sept. 2012. Web. 21 April 2016.
Parker, Tim. How Much Does the NCAA Make off March Madness? Investopedia. Web. 18
April 2016.
Thomas, Jim. Frequency of Injury Among College Athletes. Live Strong. 22 June 2015. Web.
18 April 2016.
Waldron, Travis. NCAA Council Approves Unlimited Meals For College Athletes. Think
Progress. 16 April 2014. Web. 13 April 2016.
Waldron, Travis. How EA Sports Profits Off College AthletesWithout Paying Them. Think
Progress. 9 May 2013. Web. 27 April 2016.
Zola, Warren. NCAA Amateurism Is an Illusion. US News. 1 April 2013. Web. 13 April 2016.