Scholarship Athletes Do Not Deserve Extras

Have you ever noticed that when the media talks about athletes in college that they refer to them as "student-athletes?"

Notice that the word "student" comes before "athlete." There is a reason for that. Collegiate athletes are to be students first, and athletes second while they are in school. Grades come before play.

Unless, of course, you played basketball under Bob Huggins at Cincinnati.

This, among many other reasons, is why I think college athletes should not be paid for playing.

Student-athletes are already getting paid more than the average student anyway. Scholarship athletes have it easy. Granted, they are not allowed to have a job, but what do they need to pay for?

Scholarships cover room and board, meals and tuition, all of the necessities for any college athlete.

If college athletes were to get paid, then schools would begin recruiting with money and not with the normal facilities and program standards.

And I, for one, do not want that to happen.

College athletics these days is as impure as a Spears family dinner already.

If colleges are allowed to go after athletes like they do coaches, the fans would suffer. Some team would become the New York Yankees, and spend the money to buy the players.

And players would no longer be at college, even on the surface, for an education; they will be playing a sport at a school for the money.

If a player has the money, they don't need the school.

And smaller schools like Jacksonville State would end up with players that could barely play NCAA Division III sports because the school doesn't have the money to pay 200-plus athletes year-in and year-out.

Not all of these players are going to go pro. Have you seen the NCAA commercials about the student-athletes with the tagline "And we're almost all going pro in something other than sports?"

That is why college athletes need school. Without being paid, they need to go to school in case a professional league doesn't pan out. If student-athletes were to get paid, they would have the money and no need for the education.

Nobody wants to see college athletes be professionals until they are in a professional league. Eighteen-year-old kids are not supposed to be millionaires. They aren't even supposed to be thousand-aires. They should spend their college years like every other student. Just because they are an athlete should not give them more than a great student as it stands.

If a student is on full scholarship, they are allowed the same benefits as a five-star athlete. So, unless we start paying students for being great students, we should not pay athletes for being great athletes.