College Athletes getting Paid? A Counterargument

The major trend in college athletics these days seems to be moving toward paying the athletes.  The controversy of athletes working so hard on and off the field and not receiving a payment for it has caused quite the uproar in the sporting world.  But this trend is not without an opposite side.  The traditional NCAA model has always been that athletes receive a full academic scholarship and are not allowed to receive any outside payment.  Many people within the sporting world would still like to see this model continue, even with all of the controversy that comes along with these policies.

The reasoning of traditionalists when it comes to the argument of payment in college athletics is usually rather simple-they want to see that amateurism remains prevalent.  What is amateurism? Amateurism means that the athletes are not paid for what they do.  This contrasts with the idea of professional sports, where athletes are paid a yearly salary, similar to any other job.  Keeping outside payment out of the hands of athletes keeps amateurism in check.  This is beneficial for many reasons.  A main reason has to do with schools being able to influence recruits using money.  If athletes become enabled to receive payment from other sources besides their academic scholarship, schools could use benefactors to influence an athlete's college choice using money.  Endorsement deals are another issue.  NCAA rules currently prohibit college athletes from signing any types of endorsement deals, and are not allowed to make money off of their own name.  If college athletes are allowed to sign deals with companies like Nike or Adidas, these brands could use their wealth to influence athletes to attend a school with the company's branding rights.  All of these reasons are why many still firmly believe that college athletes should not be paid.

So what does this counter argument mean for college athletics?  Obviously, the big business and money making mentality of the NCAA would like their current model to stay true.  The current athlete model where athletes are not paid keeps the money in the pockets of the NCAA.  Officials for the association have continuously commented that they still firmly believe in this concept of amateurism and do not want to see athletes being paid.  I believe that even though payment for college athletics could lead to the possible corruption that was mentioned earlier, the trend of a new model is going to end up pushing through.  The media has spoken their word and the fans, including myself, mostly seem to be on board with this idea of college athletes getting paid.  The pros completely outweigh the cons, and it is time athletes start getting the money that they work their butts off to earn.  There would be no money in college athletics if it weren't for the players, so how can it possibly make sense that the athletes don't receive that money?  This is why the argument that college athletes should be paid seems to be trumping the opposite viewpoint, and I believe that will continue to be the case for the foreseeable future.  

The Problem with College Athletics-Draft Two

For every normal job that someone holds, the typical model is that you do work in order to make your employer money.  For this work that you do, you are paid accordingly.  This is the usual model for jobs all across the country.  There is an exception to this model though, and that would be college athletics and the NCAA.  Student athletes all across the country put in maximum effort in the classroom and on the field every single day, and they are not allowed to make a single dollar off of their name while their "employers" in the NCAA make millions of dollars.  If you find yourself thinking this doesn't make any sense, it's because it doesn't.  I believe that student athletes should be able to make money off of their own image because the current lack of compensation is unfair to athletes.

The current NCAA rules are as follows.  College athletes are not paid any sort of salary or compensation outside of a full-ride academic scholarship.  Athletes cannot use their name or image to make any money, and athletes cannot accept any sort of outside payment for things such as food or travel.  While a full-ride scholarship may seem like an adequate payment, this is simply not the case.  Without any sort of outside payment, the spending cash needed for the things I mentioned like food and travel just doesn't exist.  The more confusing idea is still yet to come.  NCAA officials and university athletic directors make millions of dollars in their salaries, and the big business mentality of the governing body of college athletics pulls in billions of dollars per year through advertising and TV deals.  But the athletes, the ones who perform on the field in order to put games on TV to make all this money, don't receive any of it.  It simply does not make any sense.  The current NCAA model is completely unfair to student athletes, and it needs to be changed.

I propose a change to the NCAA student athlete model, and it is one that many likely would agree with.  First off, I actually do not believe that athletes should be paid a straight salary.  I do believe that continuing this lack of a salary keeps around the idea of amateurism in college athletics.  However, I propose that athletes would be able to make money off of their name through things like endorsements and video game licensing royalties.  I also propose that universities, instead of paying an actual salary, allow some extra money on top of a scholarship to be given to athletes for things like food and travel, as well as medical benefits and educational assets.  It is the simple truth that athletes are currently exploited for their talents and treated unfairly and that the NCAA's student athlete model needs to be changed.

Devastating Beauty Response

This essay is a very effective use of the argument techniques discussed in class.  The author makes a lot of good points on how the media completely warps the minds of girls with unrealistic expectations of looks.  She provides quality evidence and statistics to support her argument.  I especially like the point she makes that girls under the age of 10 are already having their views of a beautiful woman warped.  It blows my mind that girls this young can already be convinced that they need to be thinner and are not beautiful.  While offering quality evidence using the logos appeal, there is also a lot of emotional appeal in this essay.  By attacking the media and using persuasive language, the author makes readers feel for women and the skewed standards for beauty.  This is a very effective argument and I can imagine that readers would find themselves very persuaded after reading this.

The Problem with College Athletics

University of Louisville basketball player Montrezl Harrell walks out of the arena after a big win.  He walks by the official clothing store that sells U of L merchandise.  Montrezl sees his number 24 jersey there in the store being sold for $100, but the jersey does not have his name on it.  The issue with this jersey being sold is that the effort that Montrezl just put in on the court and the honor that comes with wearing that jersey have no effect on the fact that he will receive no sort of payment for that jersey being sold.  The issue with college athletics is clear.  I believe that it is unfair that student athletes are do not receive any sort of payment under the current NCAA model because the NCAA makes billions of dollars while student athletes do not receive any money outside of their academic scholarship.

So what's the deal with the current NCAA model and why isn't it working? The current way things are run goes like this.  Athletes at major athletic schools usually receive a full-ride academic scholarship which pays for all of their schooling in return for playing a sport there.  But outside of this scholarship, there is no payment allowed to be accepted by student athletes.  The schools pay the athletes nothing, they aren't allowed to make money from advertising, they can't even accept $10 from someone to go buy a meal.  Athletes are just as broke as any other college student struggling to get by.  So what is the problem with this?  Athletes put in unbelievable amounts of effort and time in order to perform best on the field.  Stress and injuries take their toll very quickly.  Constant travel, workouts, lack of time to do schoolwork-all of these things take a lot of dedication.  But what is received by athletes for putting in all this effort? Absolutely nothing.  This is my main issue with the NCAA and how it runs its student athlete model.  Athletes put in the same amount of time and work load as any other typical employee, but they do not receive any sort of compensation for doing so.  This lack of payment speaks volumes to how unfairly college athletes are treated by the big-business mentality of the NCAA and member schools. I believe that student athletes should be able to receive money from third parties as well as making money off of their own name.

Difficulties in Writing to the World

An example of a time that I had difficulty in public writing was writing a sports article for my high school newspaper during my junior year.  I am a passionate sports fan myself, so it was incredibly easy for me to talk about the basketball game that I was covering and to analyze it in my own language.  The difficulty I found was meeting audience expectations, which is mentioned in Lunsford's writing on page 233.  She mentions that authors need to assess their relationship with the audience, as well as establishing authority as a writer.  I went into writing this article thinking that it would be effortless to write about a basketball game, but I found during the editing process that you had to be much more clear and concise in your descriptions in order for the whole school audience to understand what you were talking about.  Not everyone knew every basketball player's name, and some readers probably don't even know much about basketball.  Another difficulty was appealing to a student audience and a potential teacher audience as well.  Lunsford also mentions that your style of language and word choice should fit your audience as well.  It became difficult to try and use language that would work for a student audience in a student newspaper while also sounding professional to a faculty and parent audience.