Its time for the NCAA to stop hiding behind the term ‘student athletes’ and just call students who play sports athletes. The NCAA keep hiding behind this term because they want to avoid the elephant in the room topic of paying the players. I believe college athletes should be compensated because they bring tremendous value to the NCAA. ‘Student Athletes’ help the NCAA generate huge profits.

 During the 2016-2017 school year the NCAA reported that for the first time they made more than $1 billion dollar in revenue. Most of the NCAA revenue came from the 2017 men’s March Madness tournament where they made $761 million dollars. It is reported that this year’s tournament is expected to pull in about $869 million dollars. The NCAA made $129.4 million dollars in ticket revenues and $60 million dollars in marketing rights during 2017.

All this astronomical amount of money the NCAA is making in revenue is outrageous because the players are not getting compensated for their worth. Without the player’s performing at an extremely high level and making the games enjoyable to watch the NCAA would be nothing. They would not be making all this money without the players. The NCAA pay everyone else but the players who are the ones putting their all into these games. Some college players don’t come from families that are affluent and sports is their only way out of their situation.

People who say a scholarship is enough for these college players needs to stop with that. I get it that getting a full college scholarship to play sports is great but, a scholarship doesn’t always cover everything. Shabazz Napier a star basketball player who helped UCONN win the 2014 NCAA men’s basketball tournament revealed that some nights he went to bed starving. Let that sink in. This can all be solved easily if the NCAA stop exploiting college athletes and pay them what they truly deserve. More cases like Napier is more than likely out their but they may not have the same name recognition as him. If a star college athlete went through this imagine all the other players that feel the same way but may not want to speak out about it.

College coaches make a whole lot of money. Nick Saban who coaches the University of Alabama football team is making more than $8 million dollars. Urban Meyer who coaches the University of Ohio State football team is making more than $7 million dollars. Jim Harbaugh who coaches the University of Michigan football team is making more than $7 million dollars. Finally, Jimbo Fisher who coaches the University of Texas A&M football team is making $7.5 million dollars.

These are the top 4 college football coaches who make the most money. The buyout amount on these coaching contracts are just ridiculous. Once again everyone is getting paid and the athletes aren’t earning anything from their exceptional talent and performance they put on every day for the fans. Without elite talent and great leaders on there team these college coaches would not have these amazing teams. The players should be taken care of because they are the main draw. Fans go to games to see players play not the coaches.

College’s sell players jersey’s all the time and yet again the players receive no money from it. They are basically exploiting the players likeness and not compensating them for it. Their jerseys are being sold in team stores but, the only thing colleges do is take the players name off the back of the jersey. Taking their name off doesn’t make a difference the players are still being used to make money for everyone else. College athletes are basically employees the only thing is that the NCAA is refusing to pay them.

 All this recent recruiting corruption that has hit college basketball a few months ago can might be avoided in the future if the NCAA pay the athletes. The NCAA constant stubbornness to stick to the principle of amateurism have led them down this path of being involved in a corruption trail. If all college players were being paid maybe some colleges wouldn’t feel the need to offer elite recruits thousands of dollars to come play for their schools. The NCAA needs to adapt to the current time and get out of the past. College athletes should be paid because they help generate BILLIONS OF DOLLARS FOR THE NCAA.