This document discusses the debate around whether or not NCAA college athletes should be paid. The author analyzed several sources on this topic, including articles, newspapers and magazines. The sources discussed how college sports generate billions in revenue but athletes are not paid, and some judges have ruled athletes should receive compensation. The author also evaluated the credibility of these sources based on the authors' qualifications and experience, as well as whether they were properly published and reviewed. Overall, the author had a neutral perspective on this complex issue with reasonable arguments on both sides.
1. Tyesha Bohanna
FYS
9/17/14
Information Literacy
In the Newsday “A rim-rattling ruling in college sports: Athletes aren’t blind to the
billions they earn for the NCAA. Change is coming…” by Michael Dobie states that the main
argument is whether or not the NCAA should pay college athletes. Michael Dobie supports the
argument. He is all for the NCAA paying student athletes. The main argument reinforces that
student athletes should get paid for their likenesses and any other injury that occurs when playing
these sports. In my paper, I plan to discuss my opinion and judgment about the overall topic, talk
about the information I received from reading articles, a newspaper, and a journal and tell why it
applies to the topic, how the authors’ makes the resources credible and if he/she has wrote
anything else to back up their sources, and talk about the evaluation of my sources.
There are several factors that I looked at when forming my opinion and overall judgment
of the topic. Those factors are the article itself and my perspective of the article. I’m forming my
opinion and overall judgment based on the information I received from the articles, a newspaper,
a journal, and magazine that I read. My opinion and judgment over the overall topic is neutral.
On one side I think that college athletes should get paid for any revenue that they are bringing to
the table. I also feel like they should get paid for any injury that occurs while playing these
sports. The reason I feel that way id because an injury can affect the rest of their career, their life,
and can affect any part of their body depending on how serious the injury is. I also feel like dome
college athlete should receive a full-ride scholarship and money. I believe some should receive
2. both because there are some athletes there are raised in a lower income family who can’t pay
their college tuition and some don’t have money to live off of while staying on campus.
Although, I do feel like other students athletes should get either a scholarship or money. I feel
like they should get one or the other if they’re doing well academically and contributing to the
field physically. I believe the athletes that the NCAA should recognize and give scholarships to
are track and field, baseball, softball, and soccer. I think those sports are a major influence for
bringing money to the universities.
However, there are negative components that come into play when you give any student
athlete money. They can spend the money on something wasteful and irrelevant. Basically, they
can blow it all down the drain.one way to prevent that problem would be to put it in a trust fund
so that they wouldn’t have easy access to it. That’s why you would have to be careful to who you
give the money to. Even though I think that most student athletes should receive a scholarship. I
do think that if a problem occurs with a student athlete then the scholarship should be taken
away. Another negative component that comes into play is that you never know who is sliding
money under the table to a student athlete.
There is a lot of information that I received while reading these articles that I think
applies to the topic. One of the articles that I read up on is called “Should College Athletes Be
Paid to Play?” In this article, Robert McCormick says “In our judgment young men playing
major football and basketball games are not there primarily for an education. They’re there to
win football and basketball games and perform well” (COOPER, KENNETH J. "Should College
Athletes Be Paid to Play?" Diverse: Issues in Higher Education 28.10 (2011): 12-13. Academic
Search Alumni Edition. Web.17 Sept. 2014). I feel like this applies to the topic very well because
in our mindset that’s what we look at football and basketball teams doing. We depend on these
3. two sports more than any other sport. I feel like this is why football and basketball players get
paid twice as more than most sports.
I also read the article “The Money Game in College Sports”. In this article, it talks about
how “The development of radio and television increased the potential foe revenues and led to the
exponential growth in the economies of collegiate sports “Issitt, Micah. “The Money Game in
College Sports." Points Of View: Reference Shelf- Sports Culture (2014): 1. Points of View
Reference Center. Web. 30 Sept. 2014). This applies to this topic because without people who
are fans of football and basketball tuning in to watch them play they wouldn’t have no source of
income coming in. it also talks about how the cost of college and tuition is increasing because of
college sports, this is going to have a major impact on non-student athletes.it is going to be a
downfall to the University.
I looked over the newspaper “Fairness for college athletes”. In this newspaper, I learned
that U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, stepped up to help student athletes with the cost of their
attendance. She also helped them gain any interest from any revenue that they benefited from.
She also had the NCAA give back any claim they had to the revenues of the student athletes.
This definitely applies to this topic. The reason being is because student athletes usually struggle
with the cost of their overall attendance so, if they gain the interest back from any revenue they
benefited from, then they are less likely to worry about the cost of anything.
Furthermore, in the magazine “Congress hears concerns about student-athletes’ moves to
unionization “. I was well informed how Congress felt about student-athletes unionizing.
Congress felt uneasy about it. According to the magazine, the committee’s chairman, which is
U.S. Representative John Kline is two sided. On one hand he feels that it will bring some type of
risk to colleges and universities. On the other hand he kind of wants to examine how the colleges
4. are going to respond to the students concerns. This is very effective because it seems like the
NCAA and NLRB are trying to make student-athletes struggle by giving them no source of
income to survive on. It seems like all the NLRB and NCAA is worried about is trying to uphold
their organizations. It’s like they are only worried about how they are going to benefit off of the
student-athletes. It’s like if it’s not beneficial to them or helping them in some sort of way then
they more than likely don’t care.
The article “The Money Game in College Sports “is credible. It’s credible because the
author is a freelance writer and researcher. The organization is well known and trusted. The
organization does have a positive purpose in providing the information. It’s because the author is
a researcher and freelance writer so, everything that researches and write about has to be true.
The source contains a bibliography page to show the source of information. This source has been
through a formal publication process and has been reviewed and edited by an expert. This site
does not contain any sort of bias. It is up to date and is important/appropriate for my topic.
The article “Should College Athletes Be Paid to Play?” is credible. The author does have
the proper experience and qualifications to provide this information. The author is an editor,
contributing writer, independent journalist, and scholar. This source does contain a bibliography
page to show the source of the information. This source has been through a formal publication
process, but has not been edited or reviewed by an expert. This site does not contain any bias. It
is up to date and is important/appropriate for my topic.
The newspaper “Fairness in College Athletes” is also credible. The author does have the
proper experience and qualifications to provide this information. It’s because she is a U.S.
District Judge. The organization is well known and trusted. The organization does have a
positive purpose in providing this information. This source does not contain a bibliography page
5. or any other references to show the source of the information. This source has been through a
formal publication process and has been edited and reviewed by an expert. This site does not
contain any bias information. It is up to day and is important/appropriate for my topic.
The magazine “Congress hears concerns about student-athletes’ moves to unionization”
is credible. The author does have the proper experience and qualifications to provide this
information. The author is a veteran writer and editor for magazines. The source does contain
other references to show the source of the information. It has been through a formal publication
process. It has not been edited or reviewed by an expert. This site does not contain any bias
information. It is up to date and it is important/appropriate for my topic. The information about
the author that I think would build credibility is how experienced the author is, and what the
author is qualified in.
To build credibility you must start off by building character. The nest thing you do is
develop knowledge in a particular field. Then, you should become self-evident and
unmistakable. You also have to make sure your communication skills are clear. The last thing
you have to do to build credibility is to become a professional.
Misinformation can be spread by someone who is biased, ignorance, and competition.
For example, you can be listening to someone’s conversation and only here part of the
conversation, but you decide to take that little information you received and run with it to tell the
next person. Misinformation is fueled by false and inaccurate information. You can do several
things to prevent the use of misinformation. You can search the topic yourself. You can also read
the article or information all the way through to see if there are any false information in there.
You can also take your time to find accurate information or go to the library.
6. Works Cited Page
COOPER, KENNETH J. "Should College Athletes Be Paid To Play?" Diverse: Issues in Higher Education 28.10
(2011): 12-13. Academic Search Alumni Edition. Web. 30 Sept. 2014.
Issitt, Micah. "The Money Game in College Sports." Points Of View: Reference Shelf- Sports Culture (2014): 1. Points
of View Reference Center. Web. 30 Sept. 2014
Silvers tein, Ed. “Congres s hears about s tudent-athletes’ moves to unionization” Company Profiles and Directories;
US Law Reviews and Journals, Combined; Federal & State Court Case…