Business Insider notes that colleges benefit greatly from sports, making, in some cases, up to $190 million annually. But, the athletes who create the industry do not receive justifiable benefits.

According to NCAA rules, college athletes are not eligible for participation in a sport if they have ever taken pay for competing in that sport or agreed to compete in professional athletics in that sport. Due to the high risk factor of participating in college sports, the lack of assurance that athletic scholarships provide and the amount of money the NCAA and institutions of higher education make due to sporting events, college athletes should have the ability to receive payment for their talents and reputations.

Because NCAA restrictions attempt to prevent unfair recruitment, college athletes cannot reap the same benefits other students can by using their talents. For instance, some students receive scholarships to play for their school’s marching band, yet they are allowed to play gigs on the side to make money; college athletes should be allowed to benefit from their talents just as students with different abilities are able to.

While many think colleges should pay their athletes, they don’t know how to go about achieving such a goal; Title IX does not allow discrimination on the basis of sex, and since male sports teams typically generate more money than female sports teams, this could create conflict. To avoid this issue, the NCAA should allow athletes to pursue endorsements and sign autographs for pay. This would allow athletes to truly be compensated for their ability to aggrandize a school and generate revenue.

According to the Datalys Center for Sports Injury Research and Prevention, athletes are at risk for many injuries; throughout their careers, 7.4 percent of players will sustain concussions, and 50.4 percent will sustain a lower limb injury.

The NCAA may argue that the athletes consenting to be susceptible to such dangers are compensated through scholarships and the exposure necessary to play at the professional level. However, National College Players Association president Ramogi Huma and Ellen Staurowsky, a sports management professor at Drexel University, say “85 percent of Football Bowl Series (FBS) schools, which claim to extend full scholarships to their athletes, leave their players in poverty,” meaning that scholarships do not entirely cover the cost of college life.

According to the Journal of Economic Perspectives, there is an inequality between the generated revenue of individual FBS universities and the number of athletic scholarships those schools offer. Thus, the money that college athletes bring in for their schools is disproportionately put into the school’s facilities and coaching staff, rather than used for scholarships.

Furthermore, if a player is not performing well or gets injured, their four-year scholarship can be completely taken away, as evidenced by the National Labor Relations Board’s Northwestern University ruling.

In addition to guaranteeing a four-year scholarship for all athletes, colleges should allow their players to make money off of their reputations. With this solution, athletes would be compensated for their endeavors the same as any other scholarship recipient at a college, and colleges would still be able to pay for coaches and new facilities.

College athletes are currently treated as highly profitable machines, sacrificing their health, time and wellbeing for their sport, but colleges must remember they are humans who have needs and abilities, just like every other student on college campuses.