Today’s student-athletes have to deal with being essentially professional athletes by training and practicing all through the hours of the day in order to refine their skill. But these student-athletes also have to deal with the part of being a student while at college and having to deal with classes and exams that interfere with their day. Both of these roles, student and athlete, are extremely difficult, and time consuming. The demands of academic and athletic life require these student-athletes take part in code-switching, which forces them to act like two different people when interacting with different groups of people. Lauren Lyons brings up the idea of code-switching in her blog post, The Curious Conundrum of the Code-switching Token Teacher. Lyons had to deal with living in compton, but attending a prestigious private school, therefore she had to deal with changing her identity by “spending that 1.5- to 2-hour bus commute to school transitioning from the girl from Compton, into the girl who lied about where she grew up, practiced removing the ‘urban’ words and inflections from her lexicon” . These student-athletes have to go through the same trials and tribulations as Lyons by practicing their sport every day throughout all hours of the day then transitioning to a student and attending all of their classes in the day. Because the schools are using these athletes for their own personal gain, the question comes up if college athletes should be paid? This debate has been up for discussion recently because many students are getting frustrated with their school work and the possible financial rewards they are missing out on.

The NCAA is a regulatory body that oversees college athletics as a whole. The NCAA, or National Collegiate Athletic Association, was organized to monitor collegiate sports and maintain a safe, fair and amateur environment for student athletes. Amateurism is the engagement in a pursuit without monetary gain. While the purpose of college sports is to allow students to engage in competition while maintaining an amateur status and attending university, many have argued that student athletes should receive monetary compensation for the profits they generate for their athletic programs. Because college sports are becoming so big, people have argued that athletes are taking the role as professionals instead of amateurs. Each year, as new athletes with amazing skills enter the league, the NCAA begins to make more profit. Although the NCAA was started to organize college sports, it has turned into a corporation. So if the NCAA is using this athletes for personal gain, another question comes up. Should these athletes be given the classification and rewards a professional would receive?