CSUN On Point

­­Whether or not college athletes should get paid has become a controversial topic in sports in recent years.

College sports as a whole pull in about twelve billion dollars annually from television, marketing, school ticket sales and student fees, but NCAA players get none of it.

Ninety-six percent of the money the NCAA generates is used to build stadiums and sports facilities, pay staff, coaches and to buy sports equipment.

“I don’t think we should have an actual income for playing,” said CSUN baseball player and starting pitcher Conner O’Neil. “However, I don’t think we should have to pay to go to school either.”

It’s no secret that being a college-student athlete is hard work and takes outstanding time management and balancing skills, but along with that comes many positive benefits and potentially life-changing opportunities.

“I think besides those being on scholarship or getting a free education, they have access to strength and conditioning coaches, sports psychologists, facilities, good coaching,” said CSUN Kinesiology Professor and expert in sports psychology Dr. Jacob Jensen. “I feel like all of that adds up to thousands and thousands of dollars, and I don’t see that they need to be getting paid more than that.”

Electronic Arts’ most popular video games were NCAA Football and NCAA Basketball, but EA Sports has discontinued its college video game series amid lawsuits raised by former players seeking compensation against the NCAA. The students sued the NCAA claiming that the organization had violated US antitrust laws, by prohibiting the athletes from receiving any of the revenue the NCAA earned by selling their likenesses.

Although this topic has been an ongoing debate, what separates professionals from amateurs is the ‘business aspect’ of sports, and that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon.

Moderator: Kiesha Phillips

Anchor: Celene Zavala

Producer: Jordan Williams

Social Media Editor: Delmy Moran

Reporters: Delmy Moran, Brittni Perez, Kiesha Phillips, Daniel Saad, Jordan Williams, Celene Zavala

San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Colin Kaepernick re-ignited athlete-driven protests with his stand against police brutality, and he’s empowered many other athletes to speak out.

In 2015, The Washington Post documented close to a thousand fatal shootings by police, ninety-three of which involved people who were unarmed. Black men accounted for about forty percent of the unarmed people fatally shot by police, and were seven times as likely as unarmed white men to die from police gunfire.

Now the argument over whether or not professional and collegiate athletes should be able to use their platform as a personal means of expression has become a large national issue.

This isn’t a new movement. Athletes like Mohammed Ali and 1968 Olympic Medalist Tommie Smith are known for making athlete-driven statements decades ago.

Since athletes are technically at work when they decide to make these protests, the debate stems from whether or not they should be penalized for doing so.

“Some of them may feel they are not at that level to take that risk,” CSUN Africana Studies Professor David Horne said. “[Their employers might say] ‘we expect you to not conduct yourself in a way that would embarrass the team or the business’.”

But athletes have only their professional platforms to make a statement. Whether they are in an interview or on the field, they have a limited amount of airtime, but they often have a large following.

“It’s their right to do so,” said Reverend Jewett Walker, President of 100 Black Men of Los Angeles. “If someone chooses to do that, I think we should embrace that, honor that, and respect it.”

Many athletes have messages that aren’t meant to start controversy.

“My responsibility was to be an example,” said CSUN Women’s Basketball Coach, and former college basketball player, Jason Flowers, “so somebody that had the same background as me could look [at me] … and say ‘that person was able to succeed, and I’m capable of it too’.”

Moderator: Jordan Williams

Anchor: Kiesha Phillips

Producer: Daniel Saad

Social Media Editors: Delmy Moran and Celene Zavala

Reporters: Delmy Moran, Brittni Perez, Kiesha Phillips, Daniel Saad, Jordan Williams and Celene Zavala