Some of you may know what Pay 4 Play is in College sports, but some of you may not. Read here to take an in depth look at what is really means to be in a Pay 4 Play system.

Student athletes are not allowed to be given money nor are they able to receive incentives to play for a college or university. These rules apply for high school students as well. They are allowed to receive scholarships though, which pays for their tuition, room and board or whatever their scholarship may apply to. This is where confusion comes into play. Why should student athletes not be able to receive money or incentives for playing sports but they can receive money in the form of scholarships? To me these things sound very similar and it should be allowed. The crazy thing is, is it still happens behind closed doors. Students are still getting paid whether it is in cash or different forms of cash like gifts such as cars, televisions and so on. Students and agents continue getting caught, but there are many who aren’t. A decision needs to be made by college officials, and many believe that student athletes should begin getting paid

Many schools especially lower division schools are not allowed to give athletic scholarships out. Guess what happens when they can’t give out athletic scholarships? They find themselves giving academic scholarships to athletes. That is something that can be investigated but I assume that higher ups in colleges don’t find it effective, or even worth it to investigate.

LeBron James is somebody who didn’t even attend college and was thrashed for driving a Hummer. Many say he was receiving these incentives during high school which is also illegal. Many found it hard to believe that this very phenom, who had been living like a normal teenager, was seen out of nowhere driving a Hummer. Tyrell Pryor of Ohio State University was another one. He was actually caught by Ohio State University and the higher ups of receiving these incentives and ended up paying the price. Reggie Bush, former USC running back, and current Miami Dolphins running back just recently sent his Heisman Trophy that he received in 2005 because of sanctions that he was found guilty of. Cam Newton, Eric Dickerson, and AJ Green are just a few others who were accused with pay for play accusations during their college careers.

In my opinion, I believe that student athletes should be paid to play. I simply do not see why not. The fact is that these schools are making profits on concessions; commissioners of conferences are making money off of new television deals, and tons of other ways they are making money. The thing here is who makes them this money? It’s the players who are working their tails off to one day become professional, but yet they cannot get any compensation? This is a tough decision that I’m sure is brought up several times, and I’m positive one day a deal will be made in which the student athletes who put in all this work will be compensated as they should.