Pay for Play Is reduced or free tuition really enough in today’s academic and economic environment? What’s the additional time and effort spent “performing” for your college or university really worth? Student athletes, administrators at institutions of higher learning along with the corporate world hold different opinions to this highly debated and controversial topic. Should college student athletes receive pay for play? Allowing student athletes to profit financially, or receive equitable “pay for play” in line with their performance and contribution is quite reasonable and rules need to change in an effort to limit the scandals and sanctions that continue to sully college sports. It’s the NCAA’s policy that no student athlete shall receive any special benefits or compensation in regard to their status as an athlete of a university. This basically means that no player can accept gifts or services with any special benefits from school or athletic personnel, or receive any benefits for outside entrepreneurship for reasons regarding their play. For example, a student athlete cannot sign a jersey with their number on it and exchange it for any type of compensation. This inequity needs to be investigated and corrected in a way that will allow for college athletes to begin receiving a portion of the funds lining the pockets of other entities. The fact is that college athletics generate on average 10.5 billion dollars of revenue annually, and the NCAA organization alone, about 720 million annually. Of that 720 million that the NCAA accounts for, only 60 percent of that is returned to the Division I universities whose athletics accounted for almost all of it. The rest is dispersed into other funds such as championship games and the national office services, with a small amount being paid to division II and III schools. However, of that 60 percent paid back to the Division I schools, which amounts to approximately 430 million dollars, the majority is spent by the University on salaries, financial aid for student athletes (basically their scholarship), and facility maintenance. Besides the scholarship that is offered, not one single dollar of this money is given back to the student athletes who are responsible for generating it in the first place. It stands to reason that it’s completely unfair to have universities and corporations reap all the financial rewards for revenue generated by athletes. Establishing equity may prove to be the greatest challenge with a new paradigm in college sports, not all athletic programs at a university or college are equally responsible for generating the funds that the NCAA and the Universities cash in on. In fact at most universities only the football team and the Men’s basketball team actually make any money, meaning that these two programs essentially pay for all of the athletic departments costs, including scholarships. According to Michael Wibbon, a columnist and analyst for ESPN, in 2011 the NCAA signed an agreement contract with CBS television worth 10.8 billion dollars for rights to air the March Madness Men’s basketball tournament through the year 2024; a tournament which spans only three weeks per year. Also, College Football’s Bowl Championship Series signed a four year, 500 million dollar contract with ESPN, which in turn has already generated 25 million dollars per game, and the teams still have yet to be decided. So why are these athletes whose images and skills generate the money not allowed to be compensated for it? Many people believe that it should only be the football and basketball players who cash in on the money that they have earned. In the real world, this would be a perfect example of capitalism. Those who make the money deserve to cash in and those who don’t, don’t. Opposing viewers consider this idea unfair to pay only a select number of the student athletes. However, it seems more unfair that college