The biggest assignment we had this semester was a research paper presenting an argument. I chose to write about the unfairness against student athletes and the lack of compensation they get for it. My argument was to expand on the current monopolization of student athletes and the lack of consideration given to the students in return for their hard work. The purpose of this research paper was to learn how to incorporate researched sources into an argument and to strengthen the credibility and validation of it. The process of writing this argument was successful to me as it shows growth in presenting the argument. The audience I chose to write to was to other student athletes and their families to highlight the situation. I presented sources that explain the six different challenges faced by student athletes and the more major problems. I establish the inconsistencies on the compensation given to athletes and the amounts of money being made off of them. It damages students and families that come from a poverty line of neighborhoods. My essay shows good evidence for my ability to draw on sources and construct persuasive arguments.  

Draft

 I know that throughout the years of college sports, many student athletes generate some money towards networks. I have heard that many times and even seen the debate time and time again. There are a lot of points as to why student athletes should be compensated and as to why they shouldn’t. I am on the side that they should. I have learned that the majority of student athletes come from poverty and run down areas and that both families and the student athletes don’t get compensation for their efforts. I want to discover how those problems can be fixed for both the students and their families. Big opportunities don’t come to pass for them and it’s a big problem in my eyes for students who want to achieve something better in their careers. College sports are increasingly becoming more popular and more of it generates more money for the networks and everyone else involved except the players that are responsible for generating it in the first place. I think that this will help student athletes to get out of their current situation and it’ll benefit their talents as athletes to a huge extent. Universities or the different networks getting these benefits can pay out the athletes in return for their commitment and sacrifices they made to get where they needed to be. Sports have been the most entertaining part of our society. Millions of dollars are generated because of how much people advertise it, how much people pay for it, and because of how much athletes make the experience thrilling. Although, not everyone benefits from this. What if I told you that student athletes are struggling more than people realize because they don’t get the compensation for it. Student athletes generate so much money for big networks and events like march madness but they don’t get paid for it. While the NCAA and networks generate billions, none is contributed to the athletes and their families. Majority of students aren’t paid for their tuition fully, student athletes should be compensated for their efforts and to help their families because Majority of student athletes come from poverty, Universities receive tons of money from students, and their huge commitments with the challenges they overcome. 

Student athletes have to go through challenges to get to where they need to be and have to have the biggest commitment in order to stay. Not only do they have to overcome these challenges, but programs like the NCSA that have rankings can help those athletes find the college that fits both their and families criterias. Daniel B. Kissinger, PhD, LPCS, is an associate professor of counselor education at the University of Arkansas states “Parham (1993) suggested that college athletes experience a set of six distinctive challenges: (1) balancing athletic and academic responsibilities; (2) balancing social activities with the isolation of athletic responsibilities; (3) balancing athletic successes and/or failures with emotional stability; (4) balancing physical health and injury with the need to continue competing; (5) balancing the demands of relationships with entities such as coaches, teammates, parents, and friends; and (6) addressing the termination of one’s college athletic career.” These are the challenges that student athletes have to overcome for a very long time. Despite these challenges they face, student athletes are committed to a better future. These are huge challenges they have to go through, but there are more challenges that they have to face as both a student and an athlete. The argument that will be brought up is more concerning. 

A bigger challenge that student athletes have to face traces back to their families well being and themselves not being able to eat when they need to. DeWitt Henry elaborates, “The first violation is compensation. Athletes cannot get paid. If you believe that education is fair compensation, this violation might make sense. However, according to the National College Players Association, 86 percent of college athletes live below the poverty line. So when many of these student athletes are being pulled from low income homes, an education cannot keep the water running in their homes. An education cannot buy them food. “There are hungry nights that I go to bed, and I’m starving,’ Shabazz Nabier, a former UConn guard, told reporters  after winning the NCAA championship.” This is a concern, knowing that the majority of these athletes are from poverty line families and have no way of giving compensation to the athletes in order to help their families and themselves in order to have something to eat. The athlete Shabazz Nabier is a good example of this situation as even though he won a championship, he still sleeps hungry. Many more athletes such as him aren’t given more than they should to help themselves and those they care about. It’s a huge problem for young students that work hard everyday mentally and physically. This goes back to my statement of these athletes coming from a poverty of neighborhoods.

 

“It’s a $6 billion a year industry. Last year, CBS and TBS split up $1 billion just off of March Madness. There’s so much money being made and the people who are creating this wealth do not get to participate and they don’t get to graduate. Football and basketball are on national TV. They generate money for all of these national sponsors and advertisers. It’s incredible how much money is being made. The president of the NCAA makes $1.7 million a year, yet the people who are performing and generating this cash do not get to participate in any way.”(Kareem) This further brings up the concern once again as even the president of the NCAA makes over a million while those who are performing aren’t getting an ounce of it besides scholarships. Not even scholarships help student athletes as much as the NCAA thinks it does.

The NCAA believes that the athletes getting scholarships is considered compensation, yet it’s not enough for them because it’s only meant for their education. Not even 5% of student’s get full rides in universities. A journal writer Mark J. Drozdowski claims, “What about scholarships though? Some argue student-athletes are “paid” through full scholarships, something most college students can only dream about — and that’s partially true. According to the NCAA, over 150,000 Division I and Division II student-athletes receive $2.9 billion in scholarships each year (Division III schools don’t offer athletic scholarships)…Yet the average scholarship is roughly $18,000, which doesn’t cover out-of-state tuition and fees at most public schools or the total cost of attending a private school. In short, most college athletes on scholarships aren’t receiving a full ride…All told, only about 1% of student-athletes receive a full scholarship.” This proves more to the point that the given amount of students with full ride scholarships are very low and the scholarships given to those athletes are only good for their education and not outside of it. It’s not enough money for them to support themselves or even their families. With all the money that’s being made, The NCAA thinks that this is the best compensation they can give athletes that mainly come from a poverty background. 

The moral of this argument isn’t to just say pay student athletes immediately but to only show you the reasons why this generates bigger problems for our young athletes who work hard everyday and struggle everyday to receive little to no compensation while money is being made out there. Challenges that these athletes must face that hurts on a daily basis and more with their status and background. They need to be recognized with how much work they are putting themselves into. All these statistical facts claim that there is a way to fix this. 

Final Draft

 I know that throughout the years of college sports, many student athletes generate some money towards networks. I have heard that many times and even seen the debate time and time again. There are a lot of points as to why student athletes should be compensated and as to why they shouldn’t. I am on the side that they should. I have learned that the majority of student athletes come from poverty and run down areas and that both families and the student athletes don’t get compensation for their efforts. I want to discover how those problems can be fixed for both the students and their families. Big opportunities don’t come to pass for them and it’s a big problem in my eyes for students who want to achieve something better in their careers. College sports are increasingly becoming more popular and more of it generates more money for the networks and everyone else involved except the players that are responsible for generating it in the first place. I think that this will help student athletes to get out of their current situation and it’ll benefit their talents as athletes to a huge extent. Universities or the different networks getting these benefits can pay out the athletes in return for their commitment and sacrifices they made to get where they needed to be. Sports have been the most entertaining part of our society. Millions of dollars are generated because of how much people advertise it, how much people pay for it, and because of how much athletes make the experience thrilling. Although, not everyone benefits from this. What if I told you that student athletes are struggling more than people realize because they don’t get the compensation for it. Student athletes generate so much money for big networks and events like march madness but they don’t get paid for it. While the NCAA and networks generate billions, none is contributed to the athletes and their families. Majority of students aren’t paid for their tuition fully, student athletes should be compensated for their efforts and to help their families because Majority of student athletes come from poverty, Universities receive tons of money from students, and their huge commitments with the challenges they overcome. 

Student athletes have to go through challenges to get to where they need to be and have to have the biggest commitment in order to stay. Not only do they have to overcome these challenges, but programs like the NCSA that have rankings can help those athletes find the college that fits both their and families criterias. Daniel B. Kissinger, PhD, LPCS, is an associate professor of counselor education at the University of Arkansas states “Parham (1993) suggested that college athletes experience a set of six distinctive challenges: (1) balancing athletic and academic responsibilities; (2) balancing social activities with the isolation of athletic responsibilities; (3) balancing athletic successes and/or failures with emotional stability; (4) balancing physical health and injury with the need to continue competing; (5) balancing the demands of relationships with entities such as coaches, teammates, parents, and friends; and (6) addressing the termination of one’s college athletic career.” These are the challenges that student athletes have to overcome for a very long time. Despite these challenges they face, student athletes are committed to a better future. These are huge challenges they have to go through, but there are more challenges that they have to face as both a student and an athlete. The argument that will be brought up is more concerning. 

A bigger challenge that student athletes have to face traces back to their families well being and themselves not being able to eat when they need to. DeWitt Henry elaborates, “The first violation is compensation. Athletes cannot get paid. If you believe that education is fair compensation, this violation might make sense. However, according to the National College Players Association, 86 percent of college athletes live below the poverty line. So when many of these student athletes are being pulled from low income homes, an education cannot keep the water running in their homes. An education cannot buy them food. “There are hungry nights that I go to bed, and I’m starving,’ Shabazz Nabier, a former UConn guard, told reporters  after winning the NCAA championship.” This is a concern, knowing that the majority of these athletes are from poverty line families and have no way of giving compensation to the athletes in order to help their families and themselves in order to have something to eat. The athlete Shabazz Nabier is a good example of this situation as even though he won a championship, he still sleeps hungry. Many more athletes such as him aren’t given more than they should to help themselves and those they care about. It’s a huge problem for young students that work hard everyday mentally and physically. This goes back to my statement of these athletes coming from a poverty of neighborhoods.

 Check Me, a not well known channel, responds to this situation just as any average American citizen. “These athletes are bleeding, they aren’t in the best situation, they should get paid. The college institutions aren’t making it fair for them and I think as Sanders said this, they said that they didn’t want college athletes to get paid because they aren’t responsible with their money. Teach them, incorporate that, teach them how to be smart with their money. The perspective that people are going with, saying they shouldn’t get paid and it’ll go out of hand. They’re taking care of their families. Their families come first because when that one person eats, their whole family eats”(3:46). As he says, student athletes are bleeding, and it’s a bad sign that nothing is being done from organizations, and even universities to help them or their families. If the argument brought up is that athletes are irresponsible with money, then that is a horrible statement to claim, as all the students want is to help their families. Another thing to keep in mind is the amount of money that is being generated by these athletes and networks. 

Networks and other outside sources generate millions off of student athletes and none of the athletes are given any of it. With the amount of money being made, there is more than enough money out there that can be given to the players, such as what Colin stated on his channel. Colin has a known channel on youtube with a million followers. He is on a talk show where he says his opinion on paid athletes. “For those that think you shouldn’t pay the college athletes…Yesterday the USA today reported that the SEC alone, just the SEC conference, posted revenue of 527 million during the first year of the SEC network…it’s time to now pay players. Now I don’t know how you do it exactly. A stipend for every athlete, you have to pay all the athletes. Maybe $237 a month a week…we have gotten to a point with college football now, when an individual conference network made 530 million dollars, when Washington, Kansas, or Oregon state can build 40 million dollar weight rooms, there’s enough money out there”(0:56). He makes a very good argument. With all the money being made and all the money being spent on gym equipment, Universities or even the Networks can provide enough money to student athletes. Colin mentioned 3 Colleges that spend about 40 million and that’s less than half the colleges across the United States. If colleges spent close to that amount, then they can help in paying student athletes as well as the networks making the money off of them. There’s more to the words that these individuals are saying about student athletes and not getting what they should have in terms of compensation. Not only do they make reasonable arguments, but as a whole it attracts more to the situation at hand with these young athletes. So much so that a former NBA player spoke about this. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar makes his statement clear in his interview.

“It’s a $6 billion a year industry. Last year, CBS and TBS split up $1 billion just off of March Madness. There’s so much money being made and the people who are creating this wealth do not get to participate and they don’t get to graduate. Football and basketball are on national TV. They generate money for all of these national sponsors and advertisers. It’s incredible how much money is being made. The president of the NCAA makes $1.7 million a year, yet the people who are performing and generating this cash do not get to participate in any way.”(Kareem) This further brings up the concern once again as even the president of the NCAA makes over a million while those who are performing aren’t getting an ounce of it besides scholarships. Not even scholarships help student athletes as much as the NCAA thinks it does.

The NCAA believes that the athletes getting scholarships is considered compensation, yet it’s not enough for them because it’s only meant for their education. Not even 5% of student’s get full rides in universities. A journal writer Mark J. Drozdowski claims, “What about scholarships though? Some argue student-athletes are “paid” through full scholarships, something most college students can only dream about — and that’s partially true. According to the NCAA, over 150,000 Division I and Division II student-athletes receive $2.9 billion in scholarships each year (Division III schools don’t offer athletic scholarships)…Yet the average scholarship is roughly $18,000, which doesn’t cover out-of-state tuition and fees at most public schools or the total cost of attending a private school. In short, most college athletes on scholarships aren’t receiving a full ride…All told, only about 1% of student-athletes receive a full scholarship.” This proves more to the point that the given amount of students with full ride scholarships are very low and the scholarships given to those athletes are only good for their education and not outside of it. It’s not enough money for them to support themselves or even their families. With all the money that’s being made, The NCAA thinks that this is the best compensation they can give athletes that mainly come from a poverty background. 

The moral of this argument isn’t to just say pay student athletes immediately but to only show you the reasons why this generates bigger problems for our young athletes who work hard everyday and struggle everyday to receive little to no compensation while money is being made out there. Challenges that these athletes must face that hurts on a daily basis and more with their status and background. They need to be recognized with how much work they are putting themselves into. All these statistical facts claim that there is a way to fix this.