College Athletes Should not be PaidCollege athletes should not be paid to encourage equal participation opportunities among interested students. Individuals with ingrained talent and desire to participate in athletic events would remain engaged as those with the primary focus on financial gains withdraw from relevant competitions. Consequently, more learners would get relatively fair chances to explore their capabilities and develop their talents in athletics. Besides, every learner should get some opportunities to actively engage in athletics as part of physical exercises that promote learning (Perini et al., 2016). Greedy and selfish students would not allow others, especially upcoming athletes, adequate time to participate in games if payment is effected (Sack, 2009). Instead, such selfish athletes could spend most of their time participating in athletics rather than studying. Hence, the learning institutions may lose their original meaning and become athletic and business institutions.  

Moreover, scholarships and exposure should act as adequate compensation and non-monetary reward for college athletes (Sorauren, 2000). Since it is almost impossible to accurately estimate the value of exposing students to priceless athletic events, college athletes should remain contented and satisfied to encourage more exposures and support by their institutions. Thus, it could be one of the best ways through which the athletes express their appreciation to their institutions for supporting their studies and exposing them to athletic games.  

Additionally, college athletes should not be paid because they may attain other nonmonetary benefits of extremely high value compared to the relatively little amounts they could receive as payment. For instance, the athletes could win other valuable scholarships and sponsorships, especially through televised games (Sack, 2009). Precisely, student-athletes gain more popularity and increase the chances of securing other benefits by participating in athletic events. Besides, learning institutions could incur relatively huge costs by supporting the student-athletes through the purchase of necessary equipment, games kits, and food items. Consequently, the learning institutions could recover the spent funds by using names and images of their best athletes to attract more learners and facilitate other advertisements.

Also, colleges and other institutions of higher learning should utilize most of the gains from sporting events to fund development projects rather than paying student-athletes. Since the learning institutions serve as homes that accommodate, educate and develop the students, they (colleges) should spend most of the gains from sporting events in improving their infrastructure and training their tutors to encourage better service provision (Dhar, 2015). Thus, student-athletes would not lose but rather gain by supporting their institutions through the generation of income from games and related events such as advertising.

In conclusion, college athletes should not be paid because they tend to enjoy numerous non-monetary benefits. Moreover, student-athletes should not be paid to encourage equal participation opportunities among students while preserving the original aims of colleges as learning institutions. Therefore, college athletes should consider forgoing monetary payments and focus on long-term and non-monetary benefits from sporting events.

References

Dhar, R. L. (2015). Service quality and the training of employees: The mediating role of organizational commitment. Tourism Management, 46, 419-430.

Perini, R., Bortoletto, M., Capogrosso, M., Fertonani, A., & Miniussi, C. (2016). Acute effects of aerobic exercise promote learning. Scientific reports, 6(1), 1-8.

Sack, A. (2009). Clashing Models of Commercial Sport in Higher Education: Implications for Reform and Scholarly Research. Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics.

Sorauren, I. F. (2000). Non-monetary incentives: Do people work only for money?. Business Ethics Quarterly, 925-944.