Paying College Athletes

By: Keegan Jones

The Issue

• There is a debate across the country regarding whether or not collegiate students athletes should be compensated for their talents, and also whether they receive a share of the revenue that they bring into the school.

Thesis Statement

• I believe that Universities need to find a way to fairly compensate their athletes for their talents, and that the athletes deserve a share of the revenue which they bring into the university.

Exploitation

Exploit: to use selfishly for one's own ends

I believe that by not paying the athletes, these colleges and universities are committing exploitation. Major sports at universities is essentially a billion dollar business that doesn’t have to pay it’s workers.

Ethos

• Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel: NCAA Athletes and Money, Part 1 (HBO) – YouTube

• Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel: NCAA Athletes and Money, Part 2 (HBO) – YouTube

• (These two videos are the same video broken into two parts.)

• This video has Ethos because of Bryant Gumbel. He is well known as a sportscaster and for covering sports. He is also know as the former host of NBC’s The Today Show. I chose this video because Bryant Gumbel discusses how he believes that these athletes are being exploited.

Pathos

• PAY COLLEGE ATHLETES – YouTube

• I believe this is an example of pathos because the creator is trying to make you feel bad for these athletes. He is also attempting to make people angry at the Universities for exploiting these athletes.

Logos

• Outside the Lines - Mark Emmert, NCAA president – YouTube

• I believe this video is an example of logos because they site several different examples of athletes being exploited. It also uses statistics and logical information to support their claims.

Annual Revenue Brought in by Football Team

Conclusion

• There are many different stances on this issue, and different ways to try and persuade people to one side or the other. These 3 videos have strengthened my stance that collegiate athletes deserve to be compensated in some way other than just receiving a “free education” for the money that they bring into the university. By not fairly compensating these athletes colleges are making billions of dollars off of them, which in my opinion is exploitation. In the business world if a business was making billions off their workers and not paying them, it would be highly illegal but somehow because these young men and women are still going to school it’s legal. I do not agree with this. It is wrong and something a change to the system is needed.