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Division-One College Athletes Deserve SalariesBy Dariyus WootenStaff WriterDivision-one college athletes should be given salaries for the hard work and dedication they put into their sport. These college athletes should receive salaries because they bring a significant amount of money to their schools and they risk getting injured playing college sports, which could jeopardize their careers.While playing college sports, college athletes could also lose their scholarships if they don’t meet their school’s academic expectations.Division-one college athletes bring in the majority of the profit made at division-one universities. These college athletes are the main reason why people come to games, buy gear, and support college sports with their precious time and money.According to data collected from USA Today and the U.S. Department of Education, Texas A&M (a division-one college university) collected $192.6 million in revenue from college athletics.Many other division-one colleges receive a similar amount of revenue if not more from college athletics, but they still choose not to compensate their athletes. Instead of paying them, most division-one colleges pay a fraction of their revenue to coaches, athletic directors, and other administrators.Scholarships are the main reason why people don’t agree with student-athletes receiving salaries. Many people believe that division-one college athletes should not receive salaries because scholarships cover most of their tuition, if not all.While in some cases this is true, college athletes are still putting their health at risk playing college sports. When an athlete is injured, that athlete and their family could be responsible for covering their own medical bills and insurance.According to a New York Times article, Erin Knauer, a Colgate University student-athlete, injured her back and legs in training for the crew team and assumed her $80,000 of medical bills were covered, but her insurance covered less than a third.An Ohio University football player who was temporarily paralyzed during a workout did not find out about his $1,800 in unpaid medical bills until he went to buy a car six years after his injury.These athletes cannot control whether they get injured or not. Since they are responsible for their own medical bills, insurance, and well-being, they should be paid salaries while they play college sports so they can pay for their own needs.Scholarships are not guaranteed! An athlete can also lose his/her scholarships due to injuries or not meeting their coaches or their school’s expectations. While playing college sports, college athletes’ scholarships and careers are at risk.For example, Kyle Hardrick lost his basketball scholarship at Oklahoma University after tearing his meniscus. When an athlete is injured and no longer valuable to the team, that athlete can easily be replaced and no longer receive their athletic scholarships from their division-one school. This is due to all the competition and recruits division-one college sports has.Being a college athlete is also a full-time responsibility, which may feel like a job to many athletes. College athletes don’t just get to put on a jersey and go play, they have many other liabilities that come along with being a college athlete. One of the liabilities college athletes has to take on is practice.The majority of division one college athletes practice at least 30 hours a week. According to CollegeXpress, this can feel like a full-time job, bouncing between the weight room, court/field, film, and classes. These athletes are expected to keep their grades up and perform at a high level in their sport daily. Even though many college athletes accomplish all of these things to stay in college sports, they are still not paid.While division-one college athletes are working hard to maintain scholarships that are merely enough, division-one college coaches are being paid millions. According to USA Today, the average salary of a head coach at a major Division I football program was $950,000 in 2006. That number had increased to $1.47 million by 2011, and, by 2012, the average major football program head coach salary was up to $1.64 million.A bleacher report article states that “There are no NCAA Division-one athletic scholarships that go longer than a single year at a time.” This means no division-one athlete is guaranteed more than one year to play at their university. It is up to the coaches and school to re-up the scholarship each year.This is also why division-one college athletes should be paid because their positions are not guaranteed for all four years of college.According to Marc Edelman in Forbes, “the NCAA's tournament schedules require college athletes to miss classes for nationally televised games that bring in revenue.” This shows that the NCAA uses these athletes to make their revenue, and in some cases, puts sports over academics.This is also against the student-athlete system which means that one is a student before one’s an athlete. Therefore division-one athletes should be paid for putting sports before academics.Division-one college athletes deserve salaries. They should be paid for all the work they put into their sport because they bring in the majority of the money made from college sports at their schools, they risk getting injured playing college sports, which could jeopardize their careers, and their scholarships are not guaranteed. College sports, athletes are expected to accomplish many things with just scholarships, which are merely enough. It is unfair that division-one college athletes are not paid and division-one college coaches are.Division-one college athletes should no longer go uncompensated and should not be used for profit. ................
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