Colleges are leaving athletes across the country struggling, and overworked. You see this guy? While we might all think he is living his best life while playing for his favorite college team, his long hours dedicated to football leave him feeling drained, and unable to work a part time job.  Tickets to a college football game range from $60 to as much as $300. So now, let me ask you, if universities are gaining so much money from what these athletes do, why are they not giving their athletes at least the minimum wage. Ladies and gentlemen, my name is sofia machado and I am going to explain why universities need to start paying their athletes. 

TIME COMMITMENT

The time commitment for college sports alone surpasses the amount of time a regular college student would spend at work. College athletes are left with only 40 hours of free time per week, leaving them little to no time to work a part time job and earn money. While athletic scholarships do pay for their sport needs, these athletes have other needs and personal lifes meaning, leaving them no time to make cash for their personal needs leaves them struggling to support themselves. 

BIG BUSINESS
College athletics are clearly big business, showing that universities have more than enough money to pay their athletes a salary. The claim that universities don’t have enough money to be able to pay their athletes is actually quite false. During 2014 alone, the NCAA made about 989 million dollars in revenue and had 908.6 million in expenses. This large amount of money going to colleges should be more than enough to pay their athletes. In fact the college football coach is one of the highest paid public employees in 40 out of 50 states, showing that with this much money, why are the athletes not rewarded with a salary for helping universities foster such big business. 

SCHOLARSHIPS DON’T HELP SUPPORT THEM 

Scholarships are currently one of the main forms of how athletes are getting “paid”. Although scholarships provide them with an advantage in receiving an education, they are actually not what they are hyped up to be. The average scholarship actually covers less than half of a yearly tuition, while for an average student it is an extremely generous amount of money, D1 athletic hours don't allow them to make any other source of income, leaving most college athletes struggling and in debt.

CALL TO ACTION

Now, ladies and gentleman, let me ask you, would you be able to juggle 40 hours per week dedicated to a sport as well as having enough time to hold a job?  Athletes aren't left with enough time to hold a job and support themselves, and with all the money they bring to universities it should be required these athletes are paid. Sign my petition so we can end the exploitation of athletes.