The National Collegiate Athletic Association - 2154 Words

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) revenue for the 2011-12 season was $871.6 million, most of which came from games and media agreements (NCAA n.p.). However, the student-athletes who actually put on these games are not paid a single dime. These athletes put their blood, sweat, and tears into their game and aren’t legally paid for something that creates such a huge revenue for the school as well as the NCAA. College sports are apart of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a non-profit organization whose purpose is to protect students and promote equitable sportsmanship both in the gym and in the classroom. The NCAA’s statement that intercollegiate sports is that, â€Å"maintaining amateurism is crucial to†¦show more content†¦Not to mention these students personal rights are being exploited by NCAA. To compensate for all of these mistreatments, all collegiate-athletes should be allowed to be paid for their athletic performance in college sports regardless of NCAA’s amateurity policy. Amateurism is one of the key points critics of athletes being paid turn to attack. NCAA president Mark Emmert believes that students should be students and that their athletic scholarship should be the only compensation they are paid (Ornstein n.p.). The NCAA does not allow players to receive payment or any other compensation for their work since college sports are â€Å"not a source of personal financial remuneration† as it states in its amateurity policy (â€Å"Paying† n.p.). In order for college sports to remain in the amateur league, they must remain without pay since the line between amateurism and professionalism is so fine. But in actuality, is college sports really that much different than the professional league? In both the amatuer or college league and the professionals, there are financial advisors who create agreements outside of the NCAA to allow the athlete to gain money. However, in the case of college athletics this transaction is illegal. Current lineb acker of the Omaha Nighthawks Steve Octavien attended the University of Nebraska on an athletic scholarship. Since his scholarship didn’t cover all of his living expenses, he was in