Paying College Athletes, Revisited

College athletics has long debated whether athletes should be paid. One argument says athletes already receive compensation through scholarships, coaching, medical care, and related support, with full scholarships worth substantial amounts annually. Athletes in non-revenue sports also receive some compensation, though typically less. Another claim frames the issue as an employee-employer dispute, since athletes have been recognized as employees with rights such as unionization. The NCAA and colleges prefer lower compensation because it preserves revenue for others. They have allowed certain benefits like scholarships while limiting other forms, such as prohibiting athletes from accepting certain prizes and preventing athletes from sharing profits from licensing likenesses for video games.

"One classic argument is that in the big money sports (football and basketball) the athletes already receive compensation in the form of scholarships, coaching, medical care, etc. Given the cost of higher education, a full scholarship can be worth $27,000 a year or more."

"Following this reasoning, it can be claimed that college athletes have always been paid-in that they receive valuable compensation for their contributions. In fact, college athletes have been recognized as being employees with the right to unionize. As such, the dispute is over the amount and nature of the desired compensation, which is a classic employee-employer dispute."

"Obviously enough, the NCAA and colleges want to keep player compensation as low as possible, since the less the athletes are paid, the more everyone else gets to keep. However, the fact that they would rather not provide better compensation is not proof that athletes should not receive more."

"While the NCAA and colleges have been on board with specific sorts of compensation (such as scholarships), they have often been very draconian about college athletes receiving other benefits. Based on my own experience at road races, college athletes were forbidden from accepting gift certificates they won. While the NCAA and the college can license the likeness of a player for use in a video game, athletes were not allowed to share in the profits."

Read at A Philosopher's Blog