Reflecting on the Shame of College Sports: Should NCAA Div 1 Basketball & Football players get paid?

The argument for whether Division one basketball and football players should get paid could go either way. Both of these sports popularity have grown larger throughout the years. They bring in millions of dollars a year through ticket sales, booster donations, and cable deals as one of the articles stated (NYT Sports Economy 3). These universities also pay millions of dollars for the best coach. For example Ohio State pays their football coach $4million a year (4). So the question is if these universities are making large amounts of money, and can afford to pay their coaches millions of dollars, why not pay the athletes? The athletes are the ones that cause the wins, and sacrifice their bodies to play. However, the counter argument for this is that college athletes are at the university to get an education as well, but most player's don't tend to think this way. Studies have shown the better the team is doing the more the student athlete's study less, they consume more alcohol, and party more. They are not focused on their academics, and by paying them could just cause this to worsen. I think that people tend to forget the real reason athletes go to college and play is to get an education, so that way if they don't make it to the pros they have something to fall back on. However, at the same time college sports brings school spirit amongst the students, and becomes a big part of college. So maybe the athletes should get rewarded by all that they do for the university. Like I said the argument can go either way; there are pros and cons on both sides.