Division I college athletes should be paid a stipend.

I'll go over my opponents contentions first Your first contention is that it's unfair to give stipends to students and not to athletes. You say their treated unequally. I agree, athletes aren't treated equally. They're treated far better. Along with the free education and other benefits one receives with scholarship, athletes receive gifts for reaching bowl games, get money from the Pell Grant, and can work summer jobs for money also. Also, the exposure they receive from playing in games can translate into millions of dollars in the pro leagues. How is this not enough for the student athletes? Your second contention is that a stipend would encourage athletes to stay in school and receive an education. I don't believe this at all. No amount you can pay will make these kids stay in school. The NFL promises them a minimum amount of $200,000. A stipend can only offer them a $100 dollars or so a month. Pro leagues can offer far more. There are over 130,000 college athletes in Division I. The NCAA can't pay them an amount that can compete with the professional leagues and expect to make a profit. Your third contention is that athletes need money to support themselves. I agree, but stipends are not the answer. Most of the money the NCAA makes goes to help athletes. 19.8 million is allocated for enhancement of academic-support programs, 12,314,000 is sent to conference offices in early August to assist student-athletes in Division I with special financial needs, and 27,718,000 is given to the Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund, which is specifically designed to assist students and their families. http://www1.ncaa.org... Now to go over my contentions 1. Scholarships are one of the key reasons athletes shouldn't get a stipend. First the education. Do you know what people around the world would be willing to endure for a chance to be educated at one of our institutions of higher learning? People are dying on makeshift boats damn near every day just trying to sneak over here and live in one of our "slums." And I'm supposed to feel sorry because a university is selling a jersey and not kicking back a few of the dollars to Joe Running Back? Education is something you can't put a price tag on. Second, the benefits. Besides an education, they will get free rooms, books, meals, tutors, and other benefits one does not get with just an academic scholarship. 2. Education first is not just an opinion, but a fact. To even be eligble for an athletic scholarship, you have to meet acadmeic standards FIRST. During the season, an athlete must do well in his classes or he/she cannot compete in their respective sport. Also, the number of kids who reach the pro levels is small, and if athletes put their future in sports rather than their education, then they may end up in a worse position than they ever thought possible. The way this negatively impacts society is that when you send the message that sports is more important then education, more and more kids will go into college with that impression. 3. The money the NCAA makes from the contract goes directly to funds designed to help athletes with financial problems. Most of the money not given to those funds is given to the schools, not kept by the NCAA. So, in fact, the schools would be responsible in paying the athletes, and most schools don't have the money to pay athletes. Thanks to Title IX, schools had to cut some of their athletic programs. How many more would have to be cut to pay athletes? And also, where do you draw the line at who to pay? Does the punter get paid the same as the quarterback? Does someone from the golf team get paid the same as someone on the basketball? If you pay them all the same, eventually the football and basketball athletes will demand more than other athletes receive. Paying athletes will result in a snowball effect that will turn the NCAA into a watered down version of the pro leagues. Once you give schools the right to pay athletes, bigger schools (like Duke, Notre Dame, Michigan) will give bigger stipends then smaller schools. Soon, recruits go to schools based on who can give them the most money, exactly like the pros.