Athletics do not benefit society financially: jobs do – which is the reason many students attend college.
Universities are expensive. Most state universities charge college students $20,000 a year just to attend (not factoring in the price of private universities). This money is on top of the GPA required to get into universities, food, housing and all other basic necessities.
Getting a full-ride scholarship for taking what could be considered a class (many universities with students participating in sports consider participation a PE course), is unfair, and shouldn't be happening - this particularly being the case for when a student only wants to compete in their sport of choice at a "college level."
While scholarships generally range from as little as $500 per quarter to as much as full-ride scholarship, athletic scholarships are given to athletes who have to maintain a mere 2.0 GPA, while most academic scholarships usually require at least a 3.5 (and the majority of those eligible still aren't granted one).
This is unfair, since the reason most people go to college is to better themselves academically, as a means to being succesful and making money in the real world.
According to Dexter Rogers of the Huffington Post, college athletes should be paid because the NCAA, TV networks, and college coaches are getting paid. "What about the athlete?" he asked.
So not only would college athletes get free rides through college for participating in an activity, (which they probably would have signed up for anyway), they'd be paid for it as well. Talk about adding insult to injury, since academic scholarships are much harder to maintain than a three month a year commitment and a 2.0 GPA.
What can be said? Why are athletes getting so much? A full-ride scholarship is $20,000 a year or more, and that $20,000 dollars is given for a single semester of participation in athletics. Some people with full-time jobs don't even make that in a year, let alone two or three months.
Some will say universities aren't charities, but businesses, and they can only stay open with a sufficient amount of money. Sports programs shouldn't be cut since a good athletic program at a university could bring in $30 million a year, so academic and fine arts classes should be the first to go.
It all comes down to whether a university should be looking out for its own interest or that of the students.
We need to cut back on athletic scholarships and spend the money on academics, professors, and the entire student body rather than just a small portion of it.
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