Why the NCAA Should Not Pay Its Players

The NCAA directly paying their players has been a big issue for a long time. Most fans think colleges should pay their athletes, but they don’t see the negatives to that. The NCAA should not pay their players because: schools already allow players to make money off of their NIL (name, image, and likeness), it would give college athletes even more of a benefit over regular students, it would negatively change the atmosphere of college sports, it would be hard for a team to pay everyone on the team an equal amount, it would negatively affect smaller schools, and it would negatively affect less popular college sports.

In 2021 the NCAA changed the rule on player’s NIL by stating that players were now allowed to monetize their NIL. College athletes, because of the rule change in 2021, are allowed to make money from anything that is related to their NIL whether it’s endorsing products, social media posts, selling autographs, etc. Recently in the summer of 2024, the five power conferences signed a deal with the NCAA making it possible for these teams to pay their players directly.

College athletes who are on scholarships already have an advantage over regular students: they get free tuition and can make money from endorsements they are not getting paid directly from their college. If colleges also pay them directly, then they have an even bigger advantage over regular students. While other students will have student loan debt, these athletes could be multimillionaires by the time they graduate college.

Football and  basketball are main money makers for the NCAA. Paying players would mean that they would also not have enough money for other sports like golf or swimming. Some other sports would need to be cut. If sports at big schools are not generating enough money then they cannot pay everyone equally, so they would have to cut the program.

Smaller schools would disappear if colleges pay their players. If less known schools were to pay their players, it would actually hurt the schools because they may not have enough fans or supporters. A lot of Division II schools would be abandoned because they would not be able to pay their players and also generate enough money. Smaller D1 schools would have less money for scholarships and other things so tuition would go up and the school would be negatively affected. Smaller schools would get smaller and bigger schools would get bigger off of money.

College sports players are considered amateurs, and if you were to pay them they would be professionals. College sports is a path to the professional world of sports, so why would we make amateurs all of sudden professionals? This will confuse college sports from the professionals.

College sports have always been one step below the professionals, so if they were to pay college athletes there would be no clear line between them. Fans of college sports would go up, but fans of professional sports would go down because of college players getting paid.

The way college players would have to get paid would also be an issue. Players would want big salaries just like the professionals. For example if Zion Williamson was still in college playing at Duke, he would want to have a big contract. There would also be players who are benchwarmers who would have to get paid. Colleges don’t make enough money as the professional leagues do so that would be a problem.

College players would want to skip college and go to the professional leagues because of all these issues. There would have to be another amateur league to get to the professionals if college sports were to turn professional. There would be new sports leagues to take over college sports if they were to pay its players. People would want another sports league that is not professionals that is full of young talent, that is why people would want to watch college sports. If they were to pay their players it would put an end to that.

Once you pay you players, your school would turn professional. That means that would have to compete with other professional leagues like the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB. College sports compared to those leagues are miles behind and would not even come close to the talent and skill level of those leagues. A NFL player compared to NCAA players is so much better at everything. The difference is that the NFL player’s job is to play football while the NCAA player’s job is to also be a student athlete. If any professional athlete were to go against a NCAA athlete they would get destroyed by the professional athlete.

The NCAA should not pay their players because schools already allow players to make money off endorsements, merchandise and most players are on scholarships. If they pay their players, it would negatively affect other sports programs and smaller programs.

Sources:

Laurence, Alexandra. “Student-athletes shouldn’t be paid by their universities.” Baylor Lariat, Baylor, 31 Aug. 2021, baylorlariat.com/2021/08/31/student-athletes-shouldnt-be-paid-by-their-universities. Accessed 16 May 2022.

Patterson, Tiffany. “Should College Athletes Be Paid?” SmartAsset, 29 May 2019, smartasset.com/retirement/should-student-athletes-be-paid. Accessed 16 May 2022.

Wood, Liam. “Why College Athletes Should Not Be Paid.” bfamercury, 9 Mar. 2022, bfamercury.org/5566/opinion/5566/. Accessed 18 May 2022.

Boor, William. “College Athletes Do Not Deserve to Be Paid, Now or Ever.” Bleacher Report, 7 June 2011, bleacherreport.com/articles/725981-college-athletes-do-not-deserve-to-be-paid-now-or-ever?scrlybrkr=945abdf9. Accessed 18 May 2022.