Last updated on October 1, 2025
Superficially, college sports are nothing but a classic American past-time. However, what started out as college students playing the sports they love has become a multi-billion dollar industry where athletes are nothing more than an unpaid workforce whose only job is to fill the endless pockets of the exploitative and selfish NCAA.
Indeed, college sports programs across the nation produce $15.8 billion in revenue and students don’t get their share. Rather, the majority of that money goes towards paying exorbitant salaries for coaches and allocated to building extraordinarily lavish facilities and constantly updating them—completely unnecessary investments that could so easily be redistributed.
In fact, most college coaches, even the highest paid like Nick Saban from Alabama, have repeatedly gone on record arguing for athletes to get their fair share, even acknowledging that it may take away their own salary. Coaches know colleges are spending unnecessarily exorbitantly and are not only willing to see change, but know it’s feasible.
It’s time student athletes get paid as employees of their educational institution.
Being a college-athlete athlete means essentially having two-full time jobs: student and athlete. In fact, collegiate student athletes commit 60 hours a week to school and sports, leaving them with no time for anything else like a job.
If that wasn’t enough financial pressure, 90% of college athletes have been injured whilst playing, and more than 54% have continued playing after injury, further exacerbating their pain. Tragically, many injured college athletes may be forced to drop out of school because they can not afford crazy medical expenses with money they don’t have time to make.
Thus, considering both of those ideas, the financial stress is unimaginable, so much so that athletes are more likely to experience mental exhaustion, anxiety, depression, stress, substance abuse, and eating disorders. In fact, a staggering 90% of athletes have high stress levels compared to just 52% of non-athletes.
Thus, with absolutely NO time to actually make money, overwhelming medical bills, and constantly deteriorating mental health, it’s unfortunately no surprise that 86 percent of college athletes live in poverty.
Further, by no means do students escape their financial woes after graduating. Collegiate student-athletes are more likely to take the least time consuming majors—and thus the least paying—than the average student in order to make time for sports, ultimately leading them to lose out on lucrative career paths in the long-term.
This is especially prominent as only 2% of college athletes ever play in the pros at all, meaning most will be forced to find a new career path—one that they weren’t able to fully develop in college and one they have no money to build off from.
That’s why ultimately, less than 1% of collegiate athletes have long, financially lucrative careers.
Fortunately, by making student athletes employees, they get at the very least a minimum wage salary and employee benefits like health care and insurance which can cover injuries.
Thus, even a minimum wage salary from employment is enough to lift the majority of the 86% or 447,000 impoverished student athletes out of poverty — improving the quality of life and mental health for hundreds of thousands of hardworking young adults across the nation.
Further, giving students financial stability in college, allows them to establish a firm base to build off of in exploring their careers. Student athletes will likely always choose less time-consuming and less profitable majors, so the very least we can do is give them the financial support to make it work and build off from.
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