Should College Student - Athletes Receive Payment?

This has been a controversial topic for a long while here in the United States. As college football teams such as Alabama and LSU rain in the big bucks for the school, with their very successful programs, all of the money goes into the facilities or the school in general. Some believe that some of the money should be going to the players responsible for the teams' success.

Along with the winning teams and programs, there are still plenty of other programs that don't do as well and yet still make profits for the school through sponsorships and selling jerseys. The students that are involved in these programs that bring in the big money normally are athletes first and students second, which can be a major problem. Kids should be at college to learn first and foremost but at some places, the sport they participate in is their full-time job, and don't have time to get a part-time job for a few extra bucks. Some of the best athletes in the country, unfortunately, come from poverty-ridden areas and situations where if they didn't have a scholarship they wouldn't be at the school. This is where the controversy starts.

I believe that if the athlete is attending the school on a full-ride scholarship, but his/her family comes from an unfortunate situation then they should have the ability to be put up for a steady stream of income from the school to help pay for necessities for the student such as food and clothing. Now people will come in and say that it's not fair that some players may get it and some won't and that is the major issue. What is fair in today's world? I support players receiving compensation simply because it will take the stress off of their shoulders about money a little bit, their family could benefit from it, and also it would look great for the schools' programs.

I have read through stories and have watched shows of kids that are playing sports full time for their college and they can't even afford to feed themselves because of the commitment. It is heartbreaking because you can tell that they really care about the game and are good kids but were dealt a bad hand with the situation. If the NCAA will help out these kinds of kids I think it will have a positive impact on the sport as a whole and will definitely give NCAA a better image to the public after some blunders with the basketball tournament going on right now.