Should Scholarship Athletes Work? :: essays research papers

Should Scholarship Athletes Work?     Should college athletes on full ride scholarships be able to hold a jobduring the school year? strong up until Monday, January 12, 1997, fullscholarship athletes were forbidden to hold jobs during the school year. Forthe last five years this has been a very controversial issue in the matterCollegiate Athletic Association, known as the NCAA. Imagine being from a poorfamily and going to college on a full-ride scholarship for basketball. Underthe old canon, that shammer is not allowed to work or receive cash fromthe school. In turn the player cannot afford to even travel home over theholidays to be with his family. Athletes should be able to hold a job duringthe school year in order to get the valuable experience of working and make bountiful money to cover living expenses and traveling costs.     Under the new legislation, which was passed at the NCAA Convention,Division I athletes on full scholarship w ill be allowed to earn enough money tomatch the full cost of attending school. Athletic scholarships typically coverroom, board, books and tuition, but do not cover costs for trips home, gas,laundry and other(a) items. The determination of how much money covers those thingsis made by each schools financial aid office most administrators haveestimated the costs to be between $2,000 and $3,000 a year. Athletes who chooseto work, and their employers, will be required to sign an affidavit that saysthe athletes have not been hired on the basis of their athletic ability or attitude and that they will be compensated only for the work they perform at arate commensurate with the local rate of pay for such work.     Critics of the legislation that passed said it opens the door for thevery problems that originally sparked the regulation, athletes being paid formenial labor, and that keeping track of how much money athletes are earning willbe difficult. hardly according to Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, "Sure therewill be bogus jobs, he said. "Itll open up a can of worms, but I think wehave to start living with cans of worms and let the presidents, athleticdirectors, and board of trustees handle it. It makes more sense to have theschools required to enforce the new regulations problematical than it does to ask theNCAA to handle it. The schools have first hand account o f all the players attheir school, therefore they are in the best smudge to enforce the newlegislations requirements.     On the job experience is essential when looking for a job after college.