“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” That’s the motto of the Dillon High School Panthers on NBC’s hit series “Friday Night Lights.” One of the main characters of the show, Brian “Smash” Williams, comes from a home with a single mother and four young sisters. As the best college prospect in the state of Texas, Smash received recruitment letters from all the major schools across the country.
After tearing his ACL in his knee as a senior, Smash’s scholarship offers were taken away from him. Depending on football to get him into college, Smash was forced to take a job at a local fast food restaurant to help support his family. While this is the story of a fictional high school football superstar, it is a completely realistic scenario that many athletes face during their careers.
When a college athlete is asked about being on the team, a very common answer might be, “It’s a job.” Thousands of college students have jobs as waiters, babysitters or cashiers, so what separates their jobs from those of the men and women who wear uniforms and compete? The answer is quite simple: money.
College athletes put in just as many hours as, if not more hours than, the girl who asks if you would care for a dessert tonight. When so much time and dedication gets put into hitting the buzzer-beater, scoring an overtime goal or landing the perfect triple back flip, why are they not being compensated for their success?
Student athletes spend seven days a week preparing for their games, matches and competitions, while most business people work five days a week and get vacation and sick days. On average, college football players spend 44.8 hours per week devoted to football alone. Compared to the average 40-hour business week, college athletes are absolutely right when they say being a college athlete is a job, and when someone has a job, they expect to be paid. When working on average five more hours than the average American, athletes should be compensated.
Arguments have been made that players earn full-ride scholarships as payment for their success on the field or court. Earning scholarships for performance in sports is extremely impressive, but in a world where one can earn a scholarship for being left-handed, what makes an athletic scholarship stand out?
On a Google search for the word “scholarship,” about 175,000,000 pages were found. When taking this result with a grain of salt, scholarships are fairly easy to come by. College students are very fortunate to earn scholarships as they are incredible gifts, but in comparison, there is no question a college athlete has put in the time and effort to earn more than that.
Ultimately, it should be up to the school to pay its players however it chooses; the payment of athletes has occurred for generations. The athletes are the reason the fans are buying tickets, and they are the reason athletic programs and schools are growing.
When everything can be taken from them in a split second, the student athletes should be allowed to make the most of their time on the team. Sign the players to yearly contracts and allow them to receive some compensation for their talents.
When the schools are willing to spend millions just to sign the players, they could just as easily reward them for their performance. Realistically, the life of a college athlete is a job, and jobs pay. Pay the players. They’ve earned it. With clear eyes and full pockets, nobody loses.
