College athletics is one of the biggest-money businesses generating 11 billion dollars in annual revenue, yet the athletes responsible for it all go unpaid.  This needs to change.

There are 27 universities that make at least $100 million annually from their athletic department, according to Business Insider. Their athletes’ faces, pictures, and names are plastered all over the advertising that brings in so much money, yet they go uncompensated for their involvement.

Overall, the average Division I player is worth $170,098 per year to his/her university. These athletes are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars but are not paid for their efforts. While the pay of these athletes may need to depend on their division and how successful the team is, the highest ranking basketball and football teams bring in millions for their schools but athletes do not receive any share of the money.

Some may say that their scholarships are the athletes’ form of pay, but their scholarship doesn’t account for the time they spend working out, training, and traveling for games. While they have their education paid for or partially paid for, they have no time for an actual paid job with their 24/7 commitment to athletics.

While coaching staff and others involved in college athletics for a career get paid a rightfully large sum, it is not fair that the players who are just as responsible for a team’s success do not get paid at all. These athletes are just involved as their coaches, but do not get compensated for their hard efforts.

Student athletes do not need to be paid as heavily as coaches; instead they may just receive some money relative to how much the program brings in overall. Coaches are paid upwards of 100,000 dollars, and the coaches of the most successful teams are paid millions. These coaches are already paid thousands to millions and then receive bonuses on top of that based off of their success. Even if the student athletes aren’t paid a flat rate, they should at least still receive bonuses for their hard work as their coaches do.

College athletics is a time and effort consuming job and the athletes behind it all deserve to be paid for their labor and contribution to the revenue. Even if the athletes’ pay is little compared to their coaches and superiors, their time, work, and dedication to their team should be compensated for with some amount of pay.

While the answer may not be simple, contact your congressional representatives and tell them to push for pay for the hard-working athletes in college.