“ This could be a very reckless idea”, says the NCAA president Mark A. Emmert to CNN, admitting to the idea of paying college athletes. When somebody thinks of paying an athlete, they think of NFL, MLB, NBA, or any other professional sports that requires even more heart and dedication. College is not a place to be paid in any way, shape, or form. The students are there to achieve academic success. Sports is a small portion of what college is about. In this essay, I will explain why college athletes should not be paid by showing that they are not ready for the spotlight, that it is unfair to the other unpopular sports, and who will have to come up and try to pay for them.

Unlike professional athletes that are usually in their early to mid twenties when they start out in a league, these athletes are around their late teens to their very early twenties. “When somebody is that young, they are bound to make mistakes with anything and adding money, fame, and pressure would never improve the situation”, says the NBA all-star Isaiah Thomas to ESPN2. My point is that a college athlete’s plate is full. They need to only worry about the important things such as school work, getting a job, and overall getting prepared for life. There was a instance at Texas A&M University where this promising, young quarterback,by the name of Johnny Manziel, was signing autographs and was reportedly selling some of his autographs for profit. When this word got out that he did this, Johnny was in for the long run. His social, athletic, and academic life went down the drain. His draft pick for his pro career dropped all the way to the second round reported Bleacher Report. Being paid as a college athlete can be a very reckless thing to do. These are just teenagers right out of their prime.How does anybody expect a teenager to perform at his/her highest level athletically and academically with the image of money on their mind? If the athletes were to be paid, they would be paid approximately 50,00 to 125,000 dollars Forbes analysed. That is absurd because this money can used to help the colleges in so many other ways. College athletes cannot handle the fame which is a bad thing, but being unfair to the other, less popular sports is unheard of.

When somebody thinks of a college sport, they usually think of football, basketball, and baseball. There has been a 45.6% increase in watching college football and basketball on T.V. as CNN’s Carl Azuz reports. If colleges started paying their athletes, colleges would have to pick only top three or four sports that bring in the most money. What would happen to those other sports? Many would probably be cut off from the budget because they were not bringing in enough money to pay the athletes, give to charities, and pay for their equipment. This will not only upset the athletes that play the sport, but the fans who watch it, too. If that happens then college sports would go on a downward tumble and it’d be the same sports every year. After that, fans would just then complain about the athletes being paid. Paying college athletes has many downfall. No one wants that to happen, but then there is another issue: who will pay the athletes.

Many colleges are already struggling with money issues. So why would the NCAA want to be even harder on the colleges budget? It is just a very crazy, out of this world thing to do. There are many problems facing the colleges will face if they pay these athletes. First, colleges would have to hire even more people to pay these athletes. Like I said in my last paragraph, this would be a downward spiral. Colleges then would have to pay these people who pay the athletes and it becomes a big mess. Colleges would be better off not even paying these athletes.

In this essay, I have explained why colleges should not pay their athletes. These people are way too young, many less popular sports would be let go, and there are way too many people to pay off if they really want to pay these athletes. The NCAA president is absolutely right about not paying college athletes. In the long run, this idea will not only hurt the college athletes, but will also hurt everyone and thing around them. They only need to worry about their regular lives, not their star-filled life.