Why Aren’t We Paid?

By Jovon Morris

My cultural artifact was about how college athletes deserve to be paid. The reason why I picked this topic is because it is a major concern to anyone that is a parent of a student athlete or someone who is a student athlete.  I really feel strongly that student athletes deserve to be paid because of the fact that they put in so much of their time and hard work into their schools and they’re not even getting paid for it. An average athlete puts in more work than an average working American, so that’s about 43 hours plus. Then on top of that they also have to be a full time student as well. Student athletes go through a lot of stuff throughout their time in school. They have the pressure of doing well inside of their classes and also outside on their sports as well. And when the student doesn’t perform well most of the time their scholarship or/and their grades go down as well. The have been many stories saying that most student athletes go to bed hungry because of the fact that they missed their meals because of practice and schoolwork and all these other things as well.  But I think the biggest reason why athletes should be paid in college is because of the fact that all of the money that the colleges make off them is ridiculously high. Div. 1 colleges make millions off of their players and the students don’t see a dime of that in their pockets. But they do see the big pay that the college that they play for is going inside of their coaches’ pockets. The highest paid college coach is the football coach at Alabama University. He makes about seven million dollars a year just by being their coach and his players don’t see no payment being brought to them by the university. I know that the big counter part to this whole argument is that the student athletes shouldn’t expect to receive any payment because the reason that they go to college isn’t for money; it is for an education. But my thing for those who make this statement is that if you were a football player at your school and you were the talk of the town because of the way you play and everyone wanted to be you and wear your jersey to the games and watch you play on the screen every time you come on TV and you’re so famous you’re on a video game that has your name, face, and talents on it. And plus on top of that you’re on commercials and things as well, but because of the rules you can’t be paid for none of it. But you’re the guy that coach is making millions off of and your teammates, would you want to get paid to do what you do as well? This is pop culture American topic because college football is a major thing and is always on TV, but not even that sport — all college sports are famous and watched by millions of fans all over the nation.