College athletes are a huge part of our American culture, and play a huge role in the universities they attend.  For example, some of these colleges bring in lots of revenue for their successful athletic teams. However, none of these college athletes get paid for their accomplishments and athletic ability, and many people think they should.  If they are the reason why they bring in so much money, then why should they not be rewarded for it? But then again why should they be paid if they are getting a free education to play the sport they love? Many people forget the whole purpose of college sports.

Not all of these college athletes will play professionally, but these athletes will for sure be making a living some other way.  Some of these athletes can have up to a $200,000 scholarship and attend a university which includes free housing, free meals, and most importantly a free degree.  Therefore, why should they be paid if they are given so many free opportunities that most would kill for. Lots of college students across the United States have a hard time paying for college, when college athletes want to be paid on top of getting a free education.  Also, some of these big universities may make a ton of money, but lots of this money goes towards the school or the athletic department. Even some universities have a hard time paying the departments expenses even if they receive a huge amount of revenue from their successes.  For instance, Ohio State’s revenue only makes up one third of the university’s budget each year. This just proves how hard it would be to pay each college athlete. Also, would you pay all of the college athletes the same, or pay the better players more? What also needs to be put into consideration is do all of the college athletes on every sport team get paid?  For instance, the golf and tennis teams could have as much of a time commitment compared to their school’s football team. Or do the teams that bring in the most revenue pay their athletes? Obviously it would be extremely unfair to only pay certain teams over others because why should certain college athletes be put on a pedestal over others?

Also, the idea of college sports would completely change if the NCAA starts paying these college athletes.  The main point for these athletes to play in college is that they should to want to play the sport they love.  If they started to get paid it would take away the real incentive as to why they should be playing. Also, what about the division three schools?  Should smaller schools pay their athletes, or should only the well known schools with successful sports team pay their athletes? Overall, the whole idea of paying these athletes would cause more problems than benefits.  Therefore, why should the NCAA take away from the sport. The whole premise of participating on an college athletic team is to possibly gain opportunities to pursue a career professionally, or to merely appreciate the opportunity to continue playing the sport they love.

Therefore, the many who believe they should be paid need to look at the grand scheme of things.  The NCAA actually does not have enough money to pay every college athlete, and you cannot just pay certain college teams over others.  It would completely take away the love for the game. It would also make college sports more of a business deal, and would may discourage athletes to continue playing after high school.  The whole premise of playing a sport is because the athlete enjoys playing it, not because they want to make money. Especially many of these college athletes receive so many benefits from these higher education institutions, so why should they receive more of a reward when they already do not have to pay a cent to attend college?

Ryder, Lesley. “Don’t Pay College Athletes.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Nov. 2011, www.huffingtonpost.com/lesley-ryder/pay-college-athletes-_b_968479.html.

 

When it comes to the topic of the Super Bowl, the amount revenue made from this one game of year is so great that you would think that many people involved would be paid a decent amount.  Especially if the cheapest ticket available is $3,000, there should be no reason for anyone to get underpaid. However, many do not know that the NFL cheerleaders actually are extremely underpaid.  Not even just in the Super Bowl, but also during the regular season.

The wage gap has been an ongoing issue in the professional football for many years, but was just brought to America’s attention only a few years ago.  People started to take notice when a cheerleader from the Oakland Raiders filed a lawsuit for wage theft. From this one incident many other cheerleaders from different teams started to come forward about this issue.  However, there are some teams like the New England Patriots who paid their cheerleaders well, but this is not the case for most cheerleaders for most NFL football teams. The most cheerleaders earn is around $1,000 a game, when the minimum is only $100 a game.  This is vast difference between the different teams, and it is unfair for these professional cheerleaders to be cut short. Especially the amount of work these cheerleaders put in and are put through, and they only get paid the bare minimum? For instance, they are expected to be in such phenomenal shape, and are criticized if they are not which could put strain on their mental health.  Many have to do a, “jiggle test,” which is when they have to do jumping jacks and their coaches see if their body parts are jiggling too much. Therefore, these cheerleaders must go through so much training to be considered acceptable for their job. Also, the NCAA does not even consider cheerleading a sport, even though some tumble which puts their bodies at risk of getting hurt. Another point made is that the team mascot for each NFL team gets paid more than the cheerleaders.  Which seems crazy because the work the cheerleaders go through is much more tedious than the training the mascot has to go through. However, some do believe that these cheerleaders do in fact know what they are getting into. They believe they do it for the title of being a NFL cheerleader, and is almost like an unpaid internship to give them more connections for their future. Therefore, this side of argument promotes the idea as to why we should care the cheerleaders are getting underpaid.  However, if you bring up the question if what if this was your daughter makes people think. Yes, many of these cheerleaders could possibly do it for the title, but should that take away from their efforts they bring to the game?

All in all, many NFL teams have changed some of their wages for their cheerleaders, but mostly only because lawsuits were starting to form against them.  Even some came to a settlement. This is a step in the right direction, but unfortunately not all of the teams have been making significant changes for their cheerleaders.  Even though people do not go these sporting events to go see the cheerleaders, they are still an aspect to the team and the NFL in general. They need to be valued for their hard work.  They are not doing it for the money, or to be recognized to be as sport. They are asking to be considered more, and not left as the least important part of the NFL teams. Therefore, people need to stop asking why they want to be cheerleaders in the first place, but why the NCAA does not value their role more.  In my opinion, if they do not seem to care about the concerns of these cheerleaders then why do they want them for these teams? If they are not willing to pay them an appropriate salary then why does the NCAA want the NFL teams to have NFL cheerleaders at all.

Work Cited:

Reader, Ruth. “NFL Cheerleader Pay: This Super Bowl, Let’s Remember The Ultimate Wage Gap.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 5 Feb. 2018, www.fastcompany.com/40524880/nfl-cheerleader-pay-this-super-bowl-lets-remember-the-ultimate-wage-gap.

Irvine, Amelia, and Eric Gay. “Dear NFL Cheerleaders: Don’t Sue Your Teams over Low Wages.” Washington Examiner, 13 June 2017, www.washingtonexaminer.com/dear-nfl-cheerleaders-dont-sue-your-teams-over-low-wages.