Money has become a common issue in sports. In college sports, the greed of money has unfortunately set in with the athletes. In recent years, there has been a serious debate about whether college athletes should be paid to play in addition to their scholarships that they earn.

Let me start out by simply saying that whoever thinks that college athletes should be paid is an absolute fool! It’s pathetic that there is even consideration for students to be paid to play a sport for their college or university. We have people in America who, in tough economic times, can’t pay for any kind of secondary education. Because they can’t pay for college, they either have a low-paying job or no job at all and could be facing homelessness. Yet, we have egotistical, self-centered, greedy athletes who think that they should be getting paid for playing on top of their full scholarships. To me, it seems that a college athlete gets the luxuries of college. I have seen examples where not only does that student athlete get free room and board, but they also get free books, and any class they want. On top of that, those same student athletes can get up to $120,000 for a scholarship. No wonder our economy is in rough shape, when athletes are the priority.

In college sports, there are over 400,000 student athletes who compete. If all 400,000 student athletes asked for $1,000 to play, the total cost for every student athlete would come out to $400,000,000. But, we all know most of these student athletes would ask for more than just $1,000.

College athletes should be applauded and praised for working hard inside as well as outside the classroom. But, if you think that they deserve money beyond the scholarships for the work that they put in, think again! You don’t get paid to go to elementary or high school. Your job is to get an education so you can be prepared for what the world has to offer. You never get paid academically. Student athletes’ responsibilities are to work out and practice. That is the sports equivalent to studying in the world of academics. If a student wants to become a scientist, you don’t often see him or her getting paid for doing labs in college, do you? Students, academically, don’t typically get paid in their fields until they graduate from college. That should not be any different for athletes.

If athletes want to get paid, then I would suggest they should work hard, and maybe they will hear their name called on draft day.