Student-athletes get fame and bring a lot of money to universities– but do their scholarships show what they are worth?
Getting a scholarship is a great achievement for a student-athlete. You can tell people, “hey! Look what I did– I paid my way through college with athletics!” Being a scholarship athlete gives you not only financial security, but it gives you a status among other athletes. When people find out that you have a full scholarship, they immediately realize that you must be really good to get one.
Scholarships cover a variety of things: tuition, books, living expenses (rent), and others. But do athletes really get enough to live on? Athletes are given a stipend check each month to cover rent and food expenses, but usually– the athlete has to chip in to make ends meet, especially if they live in a city where the rent is expensive (ex. Miami, New York, Los Angeles, etc.) With the check going to just rent and food, there isn’t much left for incidentals. Everyone needs to get toothpaste! 🙂 Is this current scholarship system fair for athletes?The NCAA has rules on how much athletes do get, but there are some people that say that athletes’ scholarships need to increase to help them out more One of the rules that the NCAA has on student-athletes is that they can only work for a certain amount of time and can only earn a total of $2000. Over a course of the year, that doesn’t go too far for a student. But what happens if we start giving athletes’ salaries? Some argue that wouldn’t help out– but there has to be a way that athletes can get some help when it comes to incidentals.
Universities make a HUGE amount of money off their athletes. Football brings in the most money at schools (unless you are at a basketball school like UNC or Kentucky)– and that helps out with the other sports. Not to mention all the TV revenue from the games, bowl appearances, and their athletes in new video games. Where does the money go? Hmmm– well, some goes to other sports at the university and a lot goes to the administrators of the university. What about the athletes that generate all of this revenue? The administrators think that they should be happy that they are “representing their school well”.
I believe that a little financial help will go a long way for athletes– they are not asking for a huge amount of money, but a small amount for them to go to the movies, buy things that they need as a student, etc.
0 Comments