How to Solve the Problem of Unpaid College Baseball Athletes

    The debate over if college athletes should be paid for their performances has been a topic of discussion for years. Much of the focus of this discussion is typically for basketball and football players getting paid. However, this issue is relevant for athletes in other college sports as well. College baseball isn't usually one of the top sports in the argument for paying college athletes. Despite this, college baseball players dedicate a substantial amount of their time and focus to make them better. Sometimes their time commitment comes at the cost of their personal life, work, or even education. College baseball players and teams generate revenue for the colleges they attend and generate revenue for conferences and the NCAA. All that money generated for the players to still remain unpaid.

    Not paying college baseball players when they clearly bring in money for colleges and tournaments raises questions regarding to fairness and equity. In this article, I will explore the current state of college athletics, challenges for getting paid for baseball players, and I will then go over a few key solutions I believe can work or at the very least get the wheels in motion to get college baseball athletes paid.

    College athletes that compete at all levels face the challenge of balancing their social life, work, education, and athletics. College baseball can be a very demanding and tiresome sport at times. Schedules can be very grueling, the travel for games can be tiresome, and if your team goes far, the season will be long. Many college baseball players do receive scholarships that help with these things, but these scholarships usually don't cover the full cost of attendance. Sometimes this means players are worrying about their financial situation, despite the fact that their athletic performance is bringing in a lot of money for their college. 

    When compared to a college sport like basketball or football, baseball doesn't generate as much of a revenue as the other two. This disparity is often used at the argument as to why college baseball players don't deserve to be paid for their performances. It's argued that college baseball doesn't generate nearly enough money to justify paying its players. However, when you break down the broad system of college sports, baseball still brings in a sizeable revenue for both the college and the tournament they play in. College baseball programs also attract a lot of local support, and like any team, their success in a season or tournament means increased fan engagement or even increased enrollment. This makes college baseball an integral part of a colleges overall brand. I think these facts more than justify college baseball players not being ignored when discussions about paying college athletes come up.

    There are many ways to approach and implement solutions to get college baseball players paid. The first one I propose is to implement a revenue sharing from NCAA tournaments. I think this is one of the fairest plans since when NCAA tournaments make money, it's from the players. Spectators pay to see their friends and family play, or just to go watch an important baseball game from their college. Currently, the NCAA College World Series is the biggest event in college baseball, which generates a generous sum of revenue. This revenue can be divided up amongst the players as a form of compensation for making the NCAA a lot of money. This could be further structured so that teams that go farther in the tournaments, get paid more as a reward of their competitiveness. This model would function as an incentive for players to perform at their absolute best while also ensuring players are properly compensated for their contributions to their teams. 

    Another solution for the problem of unpaid college baseball athletes are post-graduation compensation packages. Once a player graduates from their college, athletes could receive a nice payment or annuity which would be based on how much revenue was generated by baseball during their time on the team. Adopting this approach would help to balance player compensation from their contributions, and the ability to maintain amateurism within the sport. This is a bit of a loophole since by delaying compensation to when the players graduate, colleges don't have to worry about the legal complexities of paying athletes when they're still attending their college. This way, athletes can leave college with a comfortable cushion of money as they make the transition to the real-world workforce.

    A third solution I'm proposing is increasing scholarships for college baseball athletes. Many college baseball players receive scholarships to play in college, but these scholarships don't cover the full cost of attendance or cost of living as mentioned previously. Students often still have to pay for textbooks, rent, living expenses, and travel costs. If colleges increase scholarships to cover the full cost of attendance, it is essentially paying them fully for attending college. While they won't be walking away with paychecks or an amount of money after graduation, the college paying for everything that pertains to the player allows them to save their own money in college. 

    In addition to increasing scholarships, colleges could utilize a cost-of-attendance stipend that would directly pay athletes. This way it acts like the first two solutions I proposed, where if the team goes further in their tournaments, more people will attend, thus paying them more in the process. These stipends could also cover the players cost of living or other necessities. 

    The problem of unpaid college baseball athletes is a complex issue. However, this problem is possible to solve. By implementing increased scholarships, revenue-sharing models, and graduation compensation packages, colleges can begin to pay college baseball athletes. College baseball players deserve to be paid like all student athletes. They put in the same amount of time and work as players from other college sports, and baseball players bring value to any college they play at. Solving this issue requires fairness, equity, and the realization how important college baseball players are to and university. I believe colleges would actually benefit more from paying their baseball players, since it would show professionalism from them. Bottom line, college baseball players deserve to be paid.