Should College Athletes Be Paid?

As a public service I am re-posting this which is from my original blog. Toward the end of my other blog this became one of the more popular searches to my site. Most of what you find on the net for this subject are all paid essays. Obviously this is not one of them. Feel free to use my ideas but just make sure you quote me or reference me if you use any of it in a paper. Otherwise you could get caught for plagerism :)

Someone found their way to my site by doing a search for 'Should college atheletes get paid'. Not that I've ever talked about this but in one of my blogs I did talk about athletes getting paid and how my mom put me through college. This subject is interesting to me so I figure I would touch it.

I know its not like me but I really don't have a strong opinion about this subject. I really do see both sides of this argument. I tend to lean toward no, college athletes should not get paid. Here is my reasoning. I actually have to start with the opposite view, Athletes should get paid. Basketball and Football teams bring millions of dollars to the universities. Not only do the directly bring in cash through ticket sales, merchandise, and fees for playoff appearances but they bring in money through higher alumni donations and higher enrollments. They put in grueling hours both practicing, training, and going to school (well some athletes). However NCAA rules stipulate that an athlete can not have a job that pays him/her more than $2000 during the year.

To me this is a little unfair. The reasoning behind this is you could mask paying the athlete by giving him a bogus job where he does nothing but gets paid a huge amount of money. Now I had a summer job that once paid me a lot. I also kept a job during the year where I worked 8-10 hours a week and probably collected several thousand during the year. Now under NCAA rules I wouldn't be eligible to play. I didn't do anything unscrupulous. I definitely didn't get the jobs because I'm an athlete. Why should an athlete be treated differently? Probably less than 1% of college athletes have the ability to go pro and make millions yet all athletes are governed under the same rules.

That being said, college athletes do get a full scholarship. This can be worth upwards of $120,000. A lot of athletes don't care but this is quite a deal. Further there would be terrible inequities in the system. Using my reasoning only Men's Basketball and Football players would get paid. Well how fair is that? You know that would never fly. Further, at least in Basketball, thereare other choices now. There are developmental basketball leagues out there. Athletes have other, albeit less desirable, options than to go to college. I don't buy the argument that they put in so much time training and practicing and get nothing in return. My roommate in college was a world-class rower. He probably put in more hours training than anyone else I knew yet he still found time to study and be a model student. We all have our own unique situations which take large amounts of time.

I don't have all the answers to this question but this was my 2 cents.


If you like this post you may like these other post:
Athletes
Overpaid
sports

Diesel Jeans: Worth it?

So I went and did it. Every year for my birthday I buy myself something kind of frivolous. One year I bought some rollerblades, another year I bought some RayBan Sunglasses. This year I topped myself, I bought a pair of Diesel Jeans.

I went to South Coast Plaza because they have a Diesel Store. You can buy Diesel Jeans in stores like Nordstroms but I figured my first trip into the world of designer jeans I would go straight to the source. I must say that I love South Coast Plaza. I know there are a lot of people who have a problem with this bastion of capitalism but people who know me know why I love this place. Its big and it has infinite choices . If you can buy it its probably somewhere in South Coast. People in OC just have too much time and money.

So are the jeans worth it? People who own them swear by them. For me the jury is still out. I like the way they look, and I like the way they feel so right off the bat I will say that they are better jeans. But are they worth 3x-4x the cost of regular jeans. Well supposedly Diesels don't wear out as fast and are really good about keeping their color so I'll have to let you know in a few months.