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Cole Leverage

English Composition II

Professor Hellmers

July 14, 2021

Why should student athletes receive a commission on top of their scholarships?

For quite a while now, student athletes have been fighting for a chance to make money

off their name, image, and likeness (NIL), but the NCAA was not about the idea. It has been an

ongoing fight with lots of ups and downs for some of the athletes. For some, it is a struggle being

a student athlete. Student athletes should be able to receive monetary payments on top of their

scholarships due to the amount of time they have to commit to their sport that takes away from

their academic studies. Not only that, but the schools also make so much money off the sports

that these athletes are playing representing their school.

The history of NIL rights has been a long-fought battle. A timeline from ESPN staff

writer Dan Murphy tells the journey starting from back in 2019 when the NCAA’s board of

governors said it was time to modernize their rules and regulations regarding name, image, and

likeness. All throughout 2020, there were multiple ideas and bills presented to Congress to try to

get these NIL rules changed for athletes to receive monetary payments from the schools and

other endorsements. Government representatives were not only calling for a change to the NIL

rules, but also for all the NCAA rules and regulations. At the beginning of 2021 in January, the

NCAA Division 1 Council decided to delay their vote on the NIL rules. In March of the same

year, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments. June was a hot month of decisions that came to

impact these rules, where there was a proposal to let the schools make the decisions on their own

and creating their own policies. The Supreme Court ended up ruling against the NCAA. Murphy
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said, “the justice’s ruling made it clear that NCAA restrictions, including on NIL activity, could

face serious legal challenges in the future” (1).

Schools make so much money from these sports, yet they did not want to pay the athletes

that played the sports and that are the ones producing the money for these schools. Student

athletes are almost like professional athletes except for the fact that they are in school and do not

get paid. Reports from the NCAA say that “at the more than 1,100 NCAA schools across all

three divisions, more than $18.8 billion was spent on athletics in 2019. Of that figure, $3.6

billion went toward financial aid for student-athletes, and $3.7 billion was spent on coaches

compensation” (1). Student athletes are basically getting the same amount of money put toward

them as their coaches are getting compensated. That is crazy to think about being that the money

going toward the athletes is only their scholarship, not them making a profit from playing the

sports.

A lot of things can come into play on whether a student athlete should get paid. The

following question would be, “how much do we pay these athletes?” If you want to go the fair

route, you will pay all the athletes the same. On the other hand, you could pay the athletes based

off their skill, what sport they play, or how needy of money they may be. Some would say that

football and basketball players deserve the most money because those are the sports making the

most profit for the school. In fact, football and basketball help pay for some of the other sports so

they can be played. If the schools decide to not compensate the athletes, there are also brand

deals and sponsorships that these athletes can sign for. When it comes to those, I do not think

you can really regulate how much the athlete can make at that point. That is really when your

name, image, or likeness comes into play, because the better player/person you are, then the

more and better brand deals you can get.

It is not too often that you see a student athlete with a part time job, but those people are

out there. There are those student athletes with partial scholarships that do not have the money to

pay for the rest of their college, so they work a part time job on the side. If you think about it,

these kids working part time jobs go from practice, to doing school, back to practice, then if they

have time the rest of the day, they might spend a couple of hours working at a part time job.

“Advocates for paying student-athletes point out that compensation would make daily life more

financially secure for student-athletes, especially because colleges and universities often have

strict policies prohibiting student-athletes from holding part-time jobs out of concern that

working would detract student-athletes from their athletic and academic responsibilities and

possibly lead to injuries that could disrupt their participation in sports” (Garcia,1). Going off the

quote, some of these colleges will not let these student athletes work a part time job which makes

it harder for them to earn money to help pay off the rest of their school. The only time that they

would have to work a part time job would be during the summer, but if you are in division one

athletics, you may not get a summer to work since practice would probably run year-round.

Being a student athlete is basically like having a part time job but on a more extreme

level. Shabazz Napier was quoted in a Bleacher Report article written by Joseph Zucker, “We do

have hungry nights that we don’t have enough money to get food in. Sometimes money is

needed. I don’t think you should stretch it out to hundreds of thousands of dollars for playing,

because a lot of times guys don’t know how to handle themselves with money. I feel like a

student athlete. Sometimes, there’s hungry nights where I’m not able to eat, but I still got to play

up to my capabilities” (1). These student athletes spend around 40 hours a week practicing,

lifting, watching film, and whatever else comes with being a student athlete. Then they must do

schoolwork whenever they have the free time, which on some days it may be never. Shabazz
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even said it himself, they do not need hundreds of thousands of dollars, just enough to help

supply themselves with what they need to live. They do not need the hundreds of thousands

because most of them probably would not know how to handle that money or even how to act

with that money,

In some cases, you could compare a student athlete to a professional athlete. One of the

biggest comparisons is that these people are playing a sport that is making money for an

organization. For the professionals, they are making money for their sports team and whatever

league they are in. For the student athletes, they are helping make money for their schools and

athletic programs, plus their conferences. With being an athlete of any level comes a lot of

criticism at times. Professionals deal with a lot of criticism, but it is their job to play the sport

they play, and they are making good money from it, so it is almost like part of the job. On the

other hand, a student athlete being criticized is a lot different. These kids are trying to get better

at their sports to make it to the next level and they are not even getting paid for it. This can cause

a lot of stress on the student athletes facing a lot of criticism. In this case, paying them could help

relieve some of the stress so they do not have to worry about how to get money to buy a meal.

Shown above is a chart provided by the NCAA with information from USA Today that

shows how the revenue of the NCAA was used. The money going to the schools should be more
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than enough to supply a salary for a student athlete. The salary does not have to be huge, just

something small to support the athlete’s financial needs and also to compensate them for the

money that they are the ones making.

There have been a lot of incidents in the past regarding the NIL rules with these student

athletes. Some of the most famous events come from Reggie Bush and Donald De La Haye. Out

of these two, Bush would be the most well-known as he later went on to play in the National

Football League and have a very successful career. The controversy with Bush had to do with

when he was at the University of Southern California. Bush was a very successful college

running back for the football team where he broke records and even won the Heisman Trophy in

2005. All of those later got taken away from him when the NCAA came to find out that Bush

and his family were receiving benefits from the school while he was in attendance.

A quote from Pro Football Network says, “Investigators found that Lake and business

partner Michael Michaels gave Bush lavish gifts that included hotel stays, a rent-free home for

his family, and a limousine ride and suit for the 2005 Heisman Trophy ceremony” (Fragoza, 1).

There is a decent amount of student athletes being sent to schools to play sports that grew up

with close to nothing. Like with the Bush family, they needed help. Paying student athletes

would allow them to send money back home to help their families live better and repay them for

all the support given to them to get them to college.

Then we see a story like Donald De La Haye and his controversy with the NCAA. De La

Haye was a placekicker at the University of Central Florida. Something De La Haye would do on

the side of his athletics and studies would be making YouTube videos. On YouTube, he goes by

the name of “Deestroying,” and at the time he had more than 91,000 subscribers. A quote by

CBS Sports from back in 2017 says, “The kicker for UCF has been ruled ineligible after refusing
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to demonetize his YouTube channel for athletic-related videos” (Sallee, 1). The kicker was given

the opportunity to keep his eligibility only if he earned money from non-athletic videos, but he

refused because he thought it was unfair. After refusing to stop monetizing his videos, De La

Haye went on to continue his life making YouTube videos while also playing a little bit of

professional football in Canada. Today, De La Haye has almost 3.5 million subscribers on

YouTube and has met some of the most famous athletes and getting the chance to film with

them. He still has a dream of kicking professionally in the National Football League. Safe to say

he probably made the right choice to pursue his career in YouTube while still being able to work

for his dream.

Those who oppose student athletes being able to make a paycheck have other things to

say, “Opponents of paying student-athletes argue that the opportunity to obtain a free education

is itself a valuable commodity that should not be overlooked” (Garcia, 1). Most student athletes

do not always have a totally free education. There are a lot of partial scholarship athletes that still

must pay for some of their school. That is why making money would help them pay off the rest

of their school, with the extra money they make acting as spending money for whatever they

would like to use it on.

Another thing the opposition would say is that paying these kids could hurt them in some

cases. They may get all caught up in the money and think they have it made and start getting

lackadaisical when it comes to their performance on the playing field and in the classroom.

When they start to perform badly, they could lose their scholarship and possibly get kicked off

the team and their chances of going pro would be ruined. There is also a positive that can come

out of this. That being, these kids could learn how to properly control and spend their money
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upon making it which could benefit them in the future. Money management is always a good

thing to be able to do.

Some may say paying student athletes would be unfair to their classmates around them.

Essentially, these student athletes would have a pretty good scholarship and be making money on

the side too, while most of their classmates are paying top dollar for the school they are attending

with little to no scholarships or merit. The only difference between the regular students and the

athletes is athletic ability. One thing separating them is that one is going to school and possibly

making money for going to school, while the other is going to have to take out a loan after they

are done with school.

Not only would the classmates potentially be upset with the money that the athletes are

making, but some of the athletes would probably be upset too. If you think about it, not all the

athletes are going to get paid the same and that could make some of them that are not making as

much money feel left out. There are going to be the best athletes on the team making a decent

amount of money from brand deals and sponsorships, while the kids who barely see the playing

field may get lucky to have at least one sponsorship.

At the end of June, there was a temporary rule change that was adopted by the board of

directors that opened the door for NIL activity, allowing schools to have their own policies. That

brings us to July 1, 2021, “the first batch of state laws, and the NCAA’s new rules, go into effect.

Athletes start signing endorsements deals minutes after the clock strikes midnight” (Murphy, 1).

As you can tell, the history of the NIL rights for student athletes has come a long way. Some

may agree with the decision on letting these kids make money while still playing a collegiate

sport, and others are perfectly ok with it. I am sure these student athletes are more than ok with

this decision, given they are the ones that get the benefits.
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Athletes are already making crazy amounts of money since the NIL rule change. Bryce

Young, quarterback for the University of Alabama football team, is said to be approaching seven

figures in endorsements and brand deals, and he has not even started a college football game yet.

The dollar amount is not specific but, “Young has already signed with CAA for marketing deals

and he has a deal with Cash App” (Kercheval, 1). Bryce Young is not the only one coming out of

this rule change with a boat load of money. Olivia Dunne, gymnast for Louisiana State

University, was predicted to be the first student athlete to reach a million dollars in earnings. She

has a huge platform of followers on social media that spreads across Instagram and TikTok.

“According to Blake Lawrence, CEO of Opendorse, athletes can potentially earn up to $20 per

Instagram follower, $3-4 per TikTok follower, $4-7 per YouTube follower, and $10 per every

1,000 Twitter followers” (Seats, 1). Social media is a huge part of these deals that the student

athletes will be making since that is where most of their following is, which means that is where

they will get the most views too. There are many more athletes getting huge paydays from this

rule change, not just Bryce and Olivia, but those are the top two student athletes headlined in this

topic.

We will have to wait and see what happens with these kids, whether the money spoils

them and ruins their ways, or if the money benefits them and they are smart with it and use it to

better themselves in all ways possible. This is a good step in the right direction, letting these kids

make money off their talents and abilities. Lots of time will be saved for those that were working

a part time job to try and keep up with payments of whatever had to be paid, like college for

those non full ride students, and a lot of stress will be relieved for those going through a hard

time trying to earn a paycheck while facing a lot of criticism on the side. At the end of the day,
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however hard these kids work as a student athlete will determine how well their brand deals and

sponsorships will be, and the better the deals, the more well-earned money in their pockets.
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Works Cited

Fragoza, James. “Why Was Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy Revoked?” Pro Football Network,

16 July 2021, www.profootballnetwork.com/why-was-reggie-bush-heisman-trophy-

revoked/. Accessed July 17, 2021.

García, Justin D., PhD. “Paying Collegiate Athletes.” Salem Press Encyclopedia,

2021. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=ers&AN=114325115&site=eds-live. Accessed July 5, 2021.

Kercheval, Ben. “Nick Saban Reveals Alabama QB Bryce Young Has Earned 'Ungodly

Numbers' in Income from NIL Deals.” CBSSports.com, 20 July 2021,

www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/nick-saban-reveals-alabama-qb-bryce-young-

has-earned-ungodly-numbers-in-income-from-nil-deals/. Accessed July 20, 2021.

Murphy, Dan. “Everything You Need to Know about the NCAA's NIL Debate.” ESPN, ESPN

Internet Ventures, 14 July 2021, www.espn.com/college-

sports/story/_/id/31086019/everything-need-know-ncaa-nil-debate. Accessed July 17,

2021.

Sallee, Barrett. “UCF Kicker Ruled Ineligible after Refusing to Agree to Terms over YouTube

Channel.” CBSSports.com, 1 Aug. 2017, www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ucf-

kicker-ruled-ineligible-after-refusing-to-agree-to-terms-over-youtube-channel/. Accessed

July 17, 2021.

Seats, Alex. “How LSU Gymnast Olivia Dunne Could Become the First NIL Multi-Millionaire.”

247Sports, 247sports.com/Article/Olivia-Dunne-LSU-gymnast-could-become-first-NIL-

multi-millionaire--167565650/. Accessed July 20, 2021.

Zucker, Joseph. “Shabazz Napier Says He Goes to Bed Starving Because He Can't Afford Food.”

Bleacher Report, Bleacher Report, 3 Oct. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/2020901-

shabazz-napier-says-he-goes-to-bed-starving-because-he-cant-afford-food. Accessed July

17, 2021.

“Big Business of College Athletics.” Paying College Athletes, ncaaathletepay.weebly.com/big-

business-of-college-athletics.html. Accessed July 20, 2021.

“Finances of Intercollegiate Athletics.” NCAA.org - The Official Site of the NCAA, 23 Sept.

2020, www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/finances-intercollegiate-athletics.

Accessed July 17, 2021.