College athletes should be paid.

Thank you and I am looking forward to this discussion. The first thing I would like to look at is can some college athletes compete at a pro level. The first two that come to my mind are Kobe Bryant, and Lebron James. I will focus on these two, but I would like to note there are many others who can play at a pro level straight out of highscool because they are physically ready for it. I will even say in addition to highschool basketball players some football players are physically capable of going pro but do not have a say in it. The NBA and NFL both have procedures now that force their players to attend college. So since they are being forced to go to college until they are deemed ready. Let us take into consideration what can happen in that time. They can get injured, risk giving up their career due to injury. and also giving up X years worth of salary. Let us say we have a hot shot basketball star like Lebron. He is putting up amazing numbers and points, and is ready to go to the NBA. At this point he is not allowed to now. He must go to college. If he is injured in his time in college, and can not recover he has lost his career and everything he was worked for and will not be reimbursed for this. If college athletes were paid, at least he would get one year worth of salary to compensate him for the risk he took. One I might add that made him lose his future Job. This happens a lot in basketball and more in football. To be fair to the players, I highly believe they should be paid in case of injury or any other issues that can occur in college that could cost them their career.http://espn.go.com... http://espn.go.com...http://leanblitz.net...Some may argue that they need an education. Remember anyone who plans on going Pro is planning on making that their career. That is their primary reason in college. The pay cap could be established by performance. The bigger the star the more they get paid, and this even gives college players who do not want to go pro a way to make extra money as well. It could help prove them rent, food, and other living expenses. Just the NCAA itself generated 845 billion dollars. It is not as if they can not afford to pay them. In addition to athletes not being paid the Coaches are paid. This is not a logical step. They see their athletes as professionals. They market them on TV, and people pay to watch them play. Yet the coaches and the people running the business are the only ones who make money when in fact the ones putting their futures at risk are the athletes. http://elitedaily.com... I would urge you to think if this was yourself. If you were putting your career at risk for 1 to 4 years with no promise of not being injured and were to risk giving up your career. Would it not be a viable option to compensate them in some way. I could argue how we could pay them, whether it be by a contract or by performance, but that is not the issue at hand. The issue is whether we should. In any other type of situation, the answer would be yes. I think it is moral responsibility of us to make sure they are taken care of, if we are forcing them to stick it our for the allotted years. I turn the floor back to my adversary.