I believe athletes should be paid at minimum or more if they come from a low class family. The question that has emerged recently in the sports media is should college athletes be paid for the play on the field, court, and pool. Hundreds of people have had various debates on this topic many being viewed on different various networks such as ESPN, CBS, and Fox Sports. The debate between both sides is the question of what it means to be a “student-athlete”. There are two sides of the debate such as College basketball analyst Seth Davis’s, which says that the full athletic scholarship is enough for college athletes. On the other hand, Civil Rights author Taylor Branch says that these schools, coaches and the NCAA are making too much money off of these kids and they should be paid for their efforts. This is a debate that nobody will ever be satisfied with at the end. In the area of college sports, the two major money generating sports are football and men’s basketball. Some major football arenas can hold as many people as an NFL stadium. These games are sometimes sold out. Teams like the VCU men’s basketball team made hundreds of thousands of dollars for their school after their run to the Final Four two years ago. People are now catching on. Recently the NCAA agreed to a deal with CBS and Turner Sports for $10.8 billion from 2011 to 2024. (Daugherty) People may ask where all this money goes. This money goes to various schools to make up for the amount of money all the other sports lose towards the school because they do not generate money. This topic has become very important because people are starting to realize how much money is being thrown around without the players seeing any of it. There are more and more contracts that are being agreed to with shoe, television, soda, and many other sponsorships, and the amount of money accumulated does not add up for these student athletes not to see any of it. On the other side of the heated debate individuals are saying these are student-athletes first and in the college setting they shouldn’t be paid because a full scholarship is more than enough for anyone. There are also things such as federal Pell Grants that help these student-athletes out as well. Taylor Branch a very well-known historian but has a sports background. Branch grew up playing football in Atlanta, Georgia and turned down a scholarship to Georgia Tech. He is most known for his three books on Martin Luther King called America in the King Years. Branch has written another e-book on the topic of the NCAA called The Cartel, written about Division three and Title IX. The title of the article I revolved my essay around is “The Shame of College Sports”. The article caused a lot of controversy to not only the media but especially sports writers. Someone who isn’t a major contributor to the subject comes in and writes such compassionate written article. Although Taylor Branch isn’t in the sports field, the way he writes the article gives him credibility because it is so well written. Kevin A Doran is not your typical well known author. He has not written any books but has written a well thought out essay about why student athletes should not be paid. He is not an author but he is a former basketball player. He graduated and played college basketball at Christian Brothers University where he was on a full scholarship. He has an article in the popular magazine and website SLAM. After graduating college he went on to work for the Hargrave Military School post graduate team in Virginia, where he was a mentor. Most people may not say that Doran is credible but somebody who has gone through four years of college sports has firsthand experience and knowledge of all that happen in the college world. Having someone who has gone through the grind