CONS
There are only two revenue collegiate sports. What happens to the rest of the student athletes?
Football and basketball are the main revenue generating sports for most colleges. These two sports generate most of the athletic departments money and help fund all the other collegiate sports. If athletes were to be paid based on their image, there would be a large disparity between certain sports. For example an average Division 1 basketball player is worth $170,098 (Gaines and Yukari). A collegiate tennis player would be worth a lot less since their image is used less and does not generate as much revenue. Additionally, there would be a large gender gap since men’s sports statistically generate more revenue. If student athletes were to be paid for their image, only men's football and basketball would be making money.
It would create a bidding war which would decrease the amount of competition.
If colleges could pay their athletes salaries, it would create a bidding war like what is seen in professional sports. For example, schools would bid over 5-star players to try to win them over. This would take away from the amateur feel of collegiate sports and turn it into more of a professional feel. Additionally, schools with more television revenue would be able to “bid” more for highly talented recruits to try and win them over. This would create a system where only a couple teams would have all the talent and the rest would be scrambling to find players. This is the main reason why the NCAA does not allow athletes to be paid. If only a couple schools had all the talent, the competitiveness of games would decrease which would result in a decrease in revenue since fans don’t want to watch a blowout game (Miller).
As with other professional sports jobs, there would have to be many rules in place as to how and if athletes would be paid based on certain situations.
At the end of the day, a student athlete is still a student first before he is an athlete. Even if he is a future NBA player or the next QB in the NFL, they are still a student first while in college. This means that their academic work and priorities comes first before their sport. The NCAA currently has many academic rules in place that keep athletes eligible to play in games. What happens if an athlete fails a class or does not meet the minimum required GPA and is forced to sit out the next home game? Will they be forced to dock their pay for that game even though their image would have been used to promote the game? Another situation is what happens if a severe injury happens that causes an athlete to miss time? Will they be paid through that? The payment of athletes in salary form creates a list of questions that NCAA Officials will have to clearly solve. This is too much work for a non profit organization whose job is simply to create a system where athletes can play the sport they love while getting a great education (Miller).
The NCAA is broken into three divisions. If Division 1 athletes were to be paid, would Division 3 athletes as well?
The NCAA has three divisions (I, II, III). Division 1 athletes bring in most of the revenue and advertise their athletes the most. Most Division 2 and Division 3 athletes barely bring enough money to keep their own programs afloat. How will they receive compensation for their image? Will they even receive compensation? The only way they would be able to receive enough compensation to help them survive through college would be if the money Division 1 colleges generated was evenly split among all the other divisions. This would create its own set of issues because A Division 1 athlete that has worked his tail off to get to that level wouldn’t want to give up the money he worked for to a Division 3 athlete.
Lastly, a student-athlete’s main focus is school. By paying him, the focus switches to athletics.
The NCAA was founded as a way for athletes to get a great education in the form of a degree while also improving their athletic skills in the hopes of playing professionally. The primary focus of a student athlete is to graduate with a degree. This is why the NCAA has a list of academic requirements that ensure an athlete is on track to graduate. By paying an athlete, their focus changes from school to their sport since that will determine how much money they make.