If you ' re refering to NCAA athletes , they shouldn ' t be paid . They are students playing for a school team . This is what the NCAA preaches . Students can in fact hold jobs while in school . They even have these things called work studies where they get paid . And no the value of that education is diminished when the requirements to maintain it end up putting students on easy A courses with weak degrees . The majority of NCAA athletes don ' t make it pro , so acting as if their sport is going to pay their bills when it won ' t after they graduate is just setting people up for failure . Also , they technically are being paid the agreement was you play for us , we give you free education . Then the NCAA should not be allowed to make one cent profit , after all , they ' re not a pro league . Right ? Bye bye to over a billion dollars revenue . Oh and coaches especially right ? No more multimillion dollar salaries ? Seriously do you fucking work for the NCAA or something cause you sure are parroting their lines word for word . They ' re adults , this is the real world , there is no hand holding . Actually no until you ' re 18 you are in fact not an adult .