Division I college athletes should be paid a stipend.

Responses 1.they are already paid -i agree completely that they do indeed receive academic scholarship, however that isnt an argument as to why they shouldn't receive stipends. You say that they are lucky to recieve these scholarships, but so are the students who recieve full rides for academic reasons, the only difference is that the latter can also recieve stipends. The reason that they are getting scholarships is because they extremely talented in a skill that can provide for their future. 2. That is an opinion and completely unvalidated, if you can show some evidence first off, and then show me how this viewpoint is negative to society then only will this argument hold any validity 3. If they start paying them, there is no need for the departments to go under, there is an extreme amount of money available to them, and not all schools would have to pay stipends, were just seeing whether it is right, not whether they have to. The money could come from a variety of places like television contracts. Even before todays humongous pupularity enjoyed by college sports, in 1991 CBS "pay $1 billion for the right to broadcast the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament as part of an exclusive seven-year package beginning in 1991." (http://query.nytimes.com...) And that is just for one tournament, not for all the other games. to keep this interesting ill give my own arguments as well 1. My third contention is that it is unfair to deny athletes stipends because plenty of students receive stipends for educational reasons. Many schools give out educational stipends such as Colorado state, university of Tennessee, university of Arizona, Texas Tech University, and others. In fact Florida Atlantic University gave out thousands of Stipends ranging from an average 2000 to 18000 dollars. Our society has determined that it is fine for students to receive stipends for educational reasons but why is it wrong for athletes to receive stipends for doing what they're good at. It isn't and by keeping it so we demean the value of what these kids are good at. This negatively reflects on the U.S. because it shows that we do not treat everyone equally. 2. My second contention is that providing the athletes with stipends will motivate them to stay in school. In 1998 only 54% of the population of football players graduated according to a study done by the Chronicle of Higher Education . According to the same study 66% of all student athletes graduated. The rate is almost at about half of all them are not graduating. Stipends would encourage them to stay because it allow for them to do many things that are hard to do under current NCAA job rules, such as have pocket spending money. This will help many find the motivation to stay in school, because without jobs they don't have the money for common spending such as movies, music, and parties. By giving them stipends we allow them to live normal lives and not encourage them to drop out do to stress or offers of money from the pros. We an help give an education to more of our youth. 3. In Fab Five, Mitch Albom's documentary style book about the University of Michigan basketball program, star forward Chris Webber stops by a take-out place for lunch in 1992. He cannot afford his original order, though, after counting the last of his change. Back out on the street, he nods at a replica of his jersey hanging in a store window. Webber knows he will never see a cent from its sale. My first contention is that stipends help support basic needs. Chris is just one example of a talented basketball player who is suffering because he couldn't receive a stipend. The NCAA's current rules do not allow for athletes under scholarship to work or have a paying job. As a result many athletes like Chris have difficulty supporting themselves. Of the 506,000 college athletes counted by the Chronicle of Higher Education, only 126,000 - or one in four - had scholarships from an NCAA college. This means that a large amount of these athletes aren't able to work to support themselves. They should be allowed stipends because otherwise many of these students will not be able to support themselves.