PaY For Play Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

PaY For Play - Essay Example Sports players are a huge asset for the colleges because they enhance the college reputation and prestige. One of the realities of the current university and college system is that they derive a residual level of profitability from whatever sports programs that the school offers. This residual level of revenue has come to be an important funding stream that colleges and universities rely on to ameliorate the economic pressures of hard times. However, regardless of the degree of revenue that these institutions are able to garner as a result of their sports programs, the student athletes are not paid for their work outside the scholarships that they are oftentimes offered as an incentive to play the game. However, it is normally seen that the athletes or sportsmen have not given much consideration when it comes to upholding their rights. When it came to my college, I saw that our college athletes were not given due respect with regard to the reward structure. In our society college ath letes undergo much sacrifice and bring money but not be paid in return. I myself have been a football player in college and I understand what it means to be able to have spending money to survive during the university experience; a luxury that those not playing sports can readily achieve merely by picking up a part time job while in school. Thus, following inductive reasoning I can say that those college athletes who participate in major money making sports, such as football in the SEC, should be paid and not just in kind. The approach of ethos, pathos and logos is used in this paper to prove the point. For logical approach inductive reasoning is used based on facts, ethical appeal is used after considering views of different authors regarding payment of college athletes and an emotional appeal also lies underneath the arguments presented in the paper. Background of Sports Play at College and Problems in Pay for Play: Regulation regarding paying college athletes should be changed in order to compensate athletes and payment should be made mandatory. This is because these players bring in a lot of money and put in too much work for that without earning a paycheck. The idea of sports played in college came into existence during 1850. Soon after, sports achieved its place in the curriculum of the college activities. Gradually colleges started to prepare for the intercollegiate competition as a mean of boosting the self confidence and as a method of learning to overcome the obstacles in life. The first intercollegiate athletic competition held in America was secondary to the promotional wishes and was launched as a commercial venture. It has been regarded as the perfect physical activity and the desire of the young men. The competitive spirit and vigor which are parts of college sports enhanced the mental and physical pleasure of the students. The college authorities elaborately planned sports activities which motivated the students immensely and sports events at c ollege and national levels became a prestigious venture and money making phenomena for college authorities. The media kept the young athletes in the lime light and the scholarship provided by colleges to them stood as a bonus (Smith, 2011, pp. 1-8). However one should consider their importance to the colleges and their role as revenue earners in order to compensate them in cash and kind. Here lies the ethical appeal. Playing college sports has evolved to be an honor