College athletes work just as hard as professionals. They have to find time for college school work and studying too. Between practice schedules and studying, they don’t have anytime left over for a part time job. Scholarships are great, but should the NCAA be paying student athletes? First of all, they bring a lot of money into the schools. Secondly, most players don’t even graduate from the colleges they play at. Lastly, they should get better compensated for their injuries.

According to the NCAA, out of all of the men’s college basketball players who enrolled in college in 2006 only 64% graduated, layers often depend on being drafted to the professionals to make a reasonable living. But the statistics on buisnessinsider.com say that only 1.2% of them will actually go on to play professionally. When they don’t get drafted, all the years of dedication to their sport are proved to be-maybe not wasted, as I’m sure the experience was great- but hardly beneficial to their futures.

According to business revenue, college athletes are worth about $298,031 per year. They earn about $23,204 in scholarship money. Which is as good as wasted if they’re only there to play basketball and they don’t get diplomas. College basketball coaches make about $1-4 million, as it says on usatoday.com. There is clearly enough money in the system to pay the players, even if it is just enough enough so that they won’t have to borrow money for laundry, considering they don’t necessarily have time for part time jobs with their crazy schedules.

When I went on cbssports.com, i counted at least 72 athletes that have been injured so far this season. They play as hard as the pros, and needless to say, basketball can be dangerous. If athletes are getting injured as a result of playing for a college, the school should take care of any medical fees the player has from it.

As you can see, college athletes work hard and sacrifice a lot of time, and sometimes health, for college sports. They make a lot of money for their school, but get payed none of it besides scholarships. It wouldn’t be too inconvenient to pay the players at least a fraction of what they’re worth. In fact, it would only be decent .