I have always been very passionate about whether division I athletes should get paid or not. My reasons were pretty valid and some of the points I still stand by today. Yes, I still believe that paying athletes could potentially blur the lines between professional and college, making the education aspect null and void. Education is very important and should be the most valued selling point of the experience for college athletes being that most of the sports in question for being paid are going to these prestigious universities for free. However, the recent incident at Hofstra University proved to debunk my opinion in a way that has caused me to go back to the drawing board.

The reality is that most of these athletes are only allowed to make a total of $1,000 for the entire year, should they have the time and ability to hold down a job, classes and a demanding schedule for their sport. When the figure is broken down to the year, athletes are only allowed to make $83 a month, or $27 a week, according to the NCAA. Meanwhile, their likeness is being used by the association who brings in over $700 million a year from March Madness alone. So when the story of how four Hofstra basketball players were arrested in relation to a string of dorm thefts between Oct. 4 and Nov. 5, wherein iPods, laptops, cash, headphones and iPads were stolen and sold on Craigslist, I hung my head in disappointment until I read the statement from one of the players.

According to lead scorer for the Pride, freshman Jimmy Hall, he stole the laptops because he needed to pay his $350 phone bill and needed money for food. Not only was this the most practical excuse for such a grave offense that could cost him a $200,000 scholarship and his college career, but this could have all been solved should he have had the chance to make more than what the NCAA allowed, and had the time to work. The reality is that while these athletes are essentially going to school free of charge, what they have to sacrifice for that luxury is not equal in value at all. What we have seen these players resort to is petty theft, illegal betting and exchanging contracts with dirty agents should they make it into the draft.

A reality I am fully aware of is that these players are coming from single parent homes, with less than a glamorous upbringing that encouraged the “by any means necessary” attitude that made education the least of their priorities. Getting out of their respective environments was the mission, and getting into college only to find that you are financially suffering just as bad with parents who are more than likely still stuck in the situation you left is not appeasing at all. I’m not excusing what they did, or saying that all players in protest to the NCAA should steal from other students.

What I am saying is that there needs to be a program of sort in place for student-athletes that allows them to not have to resort to such a desperate means of making money to do what their fellow classmates are doing. If they are to be seen as students first, than they should be treated to the same standard as students and given the same priority list as students. If the emphasis is always on the sport by subconsciously encouraging this state of mind with long practices, hectic game schedules that leave little room for homework and often result in missed practices than how do they expect the student-athletes to see themselves as students when they are not living like one?