College Athletes and their "just" pay

As of August of 2015, I've been a full time college student at our dear old Nebraska U. From attending classes, to participating within the many organizations that I currently am a part of, or I had previously affiliated myself with. All through the while, however, money was constantly quite a great difficulty. Not being the quite the braniac that I, nor my parents, hoped I would be, loans had quickly become the primary means of covering my expenses; from pencils to some extravagant student fees. Through thick and thin I know, at some point, I'll make a hefty semi-annual payment upon my bill in order to continue on within my schooling.

Take a walk, (or a commute for that matter), to our campus and we are able to see the complete 180 degree turn on my situation with students who have been given free and reduced tuition for athletic ability. As a disclaimer before continuing I have no qualms with student athletes, as more of the situation deals with the minute percentile of student athletes who feel payment on top of tuition is their just due, due to their athletic ability. For starters, student athletes, as according the National Collegiate Athletic Association, states their status of athlete as "amateur", as in they are doing the sport either as a hobby or an extracurricular. The only time an athlete is considered a professional is during the time that they sign a contract or reach some form of agreement with a sponsor or organization that pays them for their services. Furthermore, and tying the loose ends, no where does a scholarship coincide with true payment, as a stipulation is that the necessary needs for the student are met under stipulations of their scholarship.

Yet, many a student athlete still feels they are entitled to a fee, no matter the size, due to their ability and "status". One example of this can be seen within the discontinuation of any college sports video games produced by two of the largest sports video gaming companies out there: 2K entertainment and Electronic Arts (EA for short). In many a separate incident, athletes by the names of Sam Keller, former Nebraska and Arizona quarterback, along with former University of California-Los Angeles basketball star Ed O'Bannon, both filed, and later received, payment for their likeness within a copies of EA sports long time and critically acclaimed NCAA football and NCAA basketball games of the like. Yet, one of the greatest cases can be seen all the way back to the 70's all the way through to 1986. In the transpiration of the Southern Methodist University case, and its cessation and execution in the years of '86 and '87, a sixteen year run of literally handing out payments to players had occurred. Most of these payments came during their playing time, in an effort to keep them from transferring to the bigger and better universities, but more tragically... many of these players were offered money just to show up for a gosh darned campus visit! At the end of this travesty, a once great up-and-coming program was then forced to not only severely limit their allotted number of recruiters to a recruits house, but their amount of scholarships they were allowed to receive as a whole. Going further within their punishment, the NCAA then cancelled their next season, and a suggested penalty of a ban of televised games until 1990 was also brought forth.

In both examples of over opulence, and a need for pay, we see just how far not only student athletes are to get paid, but the extent that their potential coaches would go in order just to sign the potential athlete. As a result, scholarships and books could and should be considered more than enough for a student athlete to commit to a school. And as for me... the headache of even trying to make a quick buck from selling cheesy greeting cards is too much. Oh well, may I take your order?