Dear Editor,
College athletes should be paid for playing. Colleges cost a lot of money, athletes put tons of time into playing their sport, and paying the athletes will increases the level of their performance.
If a college athlete does not have a scholarship, then it is very expensive. The article “College Costs Continue to Climb,” published in 1996, states that colleges for a non-athlete or an athlete without a scholarship is an average of about $13,000 a year. The non- athletes have to pay for rooming, food, classes, and books. The money from a scholarship can help with all of these. A full-ride scholarship will pay for everything, while a half-scholarship helps with paying these bills.
Athletes put a lot of time and effort into the sport they play. The article “Should College Athletes Be Paid,” published in 2014, indicates that playing a college sport is a lot like a full-time job.
They are always working out, and they practice all the time. During summer, the team will have camps they put on to help younger kids excel in a sport, and hope that maybe when some of them are older they will play a college sport as well.
College athletes are always away from family, and they also travel a lot. The athletes are always on the move. Like most full-time jobs, the athletes have to come back to practice right after a holiday.
In all, college athletes put time and effort into something they love because they want to succeed.
By paying college athletes, it will help them learn responsibility from playing a college sport. Most athletes just play to play, but college athletes are playing because they are working towards something.
They have to get out of bed early so they can get to practice or the weight room on time, and a paycheck can come from that hard work. Just like people with jobs, athletes need to get paid because they are also working for a living. They are just as busy or even more busy than a person with a job. Paying athletes can help a lot of them succeed in life.
The article “The Real Story About Executive Pay,” explains that people have been getting paid without putting any time or effort into their jobs. Getting paid for not putting any effort into something does not teach anybody, including college athletes, about responsibility.
But an athlete putting time and effort into playing a college sport, such as basketball, and excelling at that sport can eventually lead to something called the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), where they can get paid even more for a living.
In conclusion, college athletes should be paid for playing.
—Jayme Cass
(Ed. note: The preceding letter was written for an assignment in Debb Proctor’s Freshmen English class. Please send any responses to this letter to *protected email*)