College Athletes: Students or Meal Tickets. The essay is to be 5 pages with three to five sources, with in-text citations and a reference page.Come game night, these same individuals flock to the stadium, the gym, the court, or whatever appropriate playing field in question and purchase tickets to attend the game, programs that feature information about their favorite players, snacks and drinks served by the sports booster club and specialized gear to help them show their support such as giant foam fingers or colored and stamped handkerchiefs. When they go home, they tuck their children into bed with stuffed figures of the team’s mascot, wearing, of course, the star player’s number and decorate their rooms with images of the same sports team that college athletes have worked so hard to make popular. All this goes to show that colleges sometimes exploit the talents of their student athletes for the university’s financial gain.It goes without saying that student athletes who participate in the more popular sports earn millions of dollars for the university that other students and others are able to benefit from. The NCAA alone makes more than $200 million each winter on the bowl games that follow the regular football season, an amount that doesn’t count the dividends the individual conferences enjoy. In addition to this spectacular number, this is only a fraction of the proceeds that are generated through ticket and concession proceeds, corporate sponsorships and money gained from merchandise sales. The athletes themselves know that they generate literally many billions of dollars for their school. While their ‘jobs’ are considered to be the team, giving their all, sometimes even their lifetime health, for the team, they are not allowed to earn even pocket change while at school. This demonstrates the degree to which they are expected to dedicate themselves to the school effort. Despite their investment, athletes are allowed only the most