Intercollegiate Athletics

							 Intercollegiate Athletics

The Balance Between Education and
               Sport
                    Overview
• 1. Brief history of Intercollegiate Athletics
• 2. College Sports at Big Business
• 3. Student-Athletes and the NCAA
• 4. Classroom performances of Student-
  Athletes
• 5. Reform
                  Brief History of
               Intercollegiate Sports
•   First contest in 1852
•   First football contest in 1869
•   Initially student run, based on British model
•   Faculty get involved in 1880’s
•   First league formed in 1895 (Big 10)
•   Intercollegiate Athletic Association formed in 1905
    – Later becomes the National Collegiate Athletic Association
      (NCAA) in 1910
• Started as student run activity now a highly
  commercialized entity
                   Abuses in
             Intercollegiate Sports?
• Along with transformation to commercial
  sports model have come many abuses and
  misuses
  –   Illegal recruiting
  –   Altering grades and transcripts
  –   Exploitation of athletes
  –   Pressure to win
  –   Pressure to make money
            College Sports is Big
                  Business
• Difficult to separate the business aspects of IA
  sports with the play on the field aspect
• The Money Orientation of IA sports:
  – NCAA receives an average of $545 Million
    annually for the Final Four Men’s basketball
    tournament each year through 2013.
  – Athletic department annual budgets over $70
    Million
  – Oregon paid $250,000 for a billboard in NYC to
    promote Heisman candidate Joey Harrington in
    2001
               College Sports as Big
                     Business
• Money Orientation (cont.)
  – ABC pays the four Bowl Championship Series (BCS)
    games (football) and the six major Division I-A conferences
    at total of $930 Million. Each team playing in these BCS
    games receives about $13 Million each

  – Head coaches are paid like CEOs of major companies
     • Rick Pitino at Louisville has a $5 Million loyalty bonus
     • ―For those who are interested in numbers, by our count there are 16
       head football coaches in Division I making $2 million a year or
       more, and 41 head basketball coaches making $1 million a year or
       more‖ (Bill Byrne, http://sports.tamu.edu)
                         NCAA Budget




Individual school budgets range from $10 Million per year to over $70 Million per year
                                  at Division IA level
             College Sports as Big
                   Business
• These examples demonstrate clearly that
  college athletic programs go well beyond the
  notion of amateur athletics
• Common held belief that athletic departments
  do very well financially
  – Some do
  – Most do not
     •Only 48 of 976 schools finished with a profit in a recent
      assessment of the economics of college sports (Eitzen &
      Sage, 2003).
                        Big Business or Big
                              Mess?
•Andrew Zimbalist (as cited in Eitzen & Sage, 2003, pp. 112-
  113)
   – ―The most successful programs (perhaps a dozen top schools, such as
     Michigan, Notre Dame, Florida…) are generating real surpluses year after year.
     Another group of programs (perhaps two to three dozen schools) generates an
     occasional surplus when their teams perform well in postseason tournaments.
     The remaining big-time schools lose money. Division I-A schools, which
     support high expenses of football scholarships, large facilities, recruiting,
     travel, etc., but have not enjoyed on-field success, can lose large sums of
     money‖

   – Reasons for the RED INK:
         • FB and MBB are expected to pay for entire program
         • There is an ―arms race‖
              – Coaches salaries are escalating to help with retention
              – Facilities are being upgraded (e.g. OU spend $100 Million upgrading from 2000-2003)
         • Athletic Departments overspend
          So what? Are there consequences
             to this money orientation?

• Serious implications for institutions of higher
  learning if this system creates economic
  imperatives that lead college administrators to
  make business decisions that might supersede
  educational considerations (Eitzen, 2003)
                      Consequences of the
                      Money Orientation
• 1. Lack of funds (at all but 48 schools) may lead to reduction in number of sports
  offered
    – Wrestling, lacrosse, gymnastics, swimming, etc have suffered serious reductions in
      offerings

    Fresno State wrestling survives, as university axes four
      sports to cut costs

    4/21/2003

    Gary Abbott/USA Wrestling
        Today, Fresno State University is holding a press
        conference to announce a decision to cut four sports
        programs from its Div. I athletic department. The
        nationally ranked Bulldog wrestling team is not one of
        them.
        According to reports in the Fresno Bee, the sports to get
        the axe will be men’s soccer, men’s cross country, men’s
        indoor track and women’s swimming. The Bee indicated that
        the cuts would “eliminate six coaches, about 100 athletes
        and, ultimately, 26 scholarships.”
         Consequences (cont.)
• 2. Money has prostituted the university and
  the purpose of sport (Eitzen & Sage, 2003, p.
  113)
  – Purpose of sport is to win, because without
    winning teams do not make millions and coaches
    do not make their paychecks, etc.
          Consequences (cont.)
• 3. Chasing the money
  – Consider scheduling of games
     •On Thanksgiving Day
     •Football on Weekdays in August (and throughout year)
     •Games starting at 10PM to accommodate TV
  – Seats in arenas are made available to boosters and
    not students
     •Univ. of Louisville only allots 10% of its seats for
      basketball to students
     •U. of Arizona holds a lottery
     •Should not school sports be primarily for students?
          Consequences (cont.)
• 4. Cheating
  – As early as 1929 the Carnegie Foundation released
    a report that decried widespread illegalities in
    recruiting
  – Very first yacht race in 1852- athlete that was not a
    student at Harvard
  – Since then, the problem as intensified
     •Consider the examples in the next few slides
                  Scandal #1
• Sports Illustrated letter to University of
  Miami arguing for the dismantling of the
  football program
                    Scandal #2
• University of Minnesota
  – Secretary in Athletic Department completed more
    than 100 class assignments for as many as 20
    basketball players during a five year period
     •Team still had the lowest grades and lowest graduation
      rates of all teams at Univ. of Minn.
              The NCAA and Student
                    Athletes
• The NCAA (NAIA, NJCAA, etc) are necessary
  –   Provides rules
  –   Organizes playoffs
  –   Curbs cheating
  –   Eliminates use of illegal drugs
  –   Etc
• However, the NCAA has emerged as a monopoly
  – ―for the interests of the universities, not the student-
    athletes‖
       • According to Sage & Eitzen (2003) this occurs through the
         enforcement of amateurism and rules that limit athletes’ rights
                   Amateurism
• Schools and the NCAA raise millions of dollars off of
  student-athletes
• They keep overhead down by not paying student-
  athletes…i.e., they claim them to be ―amateurs‖
• Since it is amateur sports, the money they earn is free
  from taxation
• NCAA has argued against workers compensation
  rights for athletes
• NCAA has argued against athletes getting stipends
  beyond room, board, tuition
                       Amateurs?
• Athletes generate the revenue (about $3.5 Billion
  each year)
• NCAA trying to keep athletes pure
• Who gets paid for the walking billboards?
   – Athletes wearing certain shoes, etc.
• Athletes are not paid, per se?
   – What is a scholarship worth exactly?
   – Is this labor exploitation?
   – Can you think of another industry in which the employees
     generating the funds are not paid?
   – How many athletes are even on scholarship?
• Athletes can make money for others, but they can’t
  make any for themselves (Eitzen, 2003)
             Restriction of Athletes’
                     Rights
• Letter of intent is for one school, for four years
   – Must typically sit out a year if switch schools after LOI is
     signed
   – What if a coach leaves?
   – What if the coach is abusive or a racist?
• What is a schools’ commitment to the athlete?
   – One year renewable commitments
   – Coaches have a great deal of power with these annual
     contracts
   – Coaches do not have to sit out a year to leave, why should
     players?
           Educational Performance
             of Student-Athletes
• Do college athletes perform better than non-
  athletes in academic endeavors?
  – Some do
  – Some do not


  – Must also consider majors athletes take (easy
    courses, etc)
  – Tutoring available to athletes
  – Preparation for college/Special Admits
                   SAT, ACT, GPA
• Do athletes get preferential treatment in the
  admissions process?
   – Data suggests that athletes in football and men’s basketball
     are 6 times more likely to receive special treatment in
     admissions process
      • i.e., they are admitted below the standard requirements for their
        university
      • i.e., 27% of athletes in these sports, compared to only 4% of all
        entering freshman, were accepted despite not meeting regular
        standards
   – Schools are willing to take marginal students because of
     athletic prowess
   – Athletes in big programs are more than 200 points behind
     averages on the SAT
               Murray Sperber
• ―Athletes are the only group of students
  recruited for entertainment—not academic–
  purposes, and they are the only students who
  go through school on grants based not on
  educational aptitude, but on their talent and
  potential as commercial entertainers‖

• As cited in Eitzen, p. 111.
             Academic Performance
                After Admission
• Graduation Rates
  –   Commonly used indicator
  –   Allowed 6 years after entering college to graduate
  –   Compare athletes to non-athletes, overall also
  –   Department of Education collects and releases
      data

  – NCAA publishes the data at their website
    annually (by school)
  http://www.ncaa.org/grad_rates/
            National Averages
• Some categories of athletes exceed non-
  athletes in graduation rates nationally
  – Women
  – White athletes
  – Athletes in non-revenue sports
• Some categories of athletes do not exceed non-
  athletes in graduation rates
  – African-American athletes (women and men)
  – Athletes in football and men’s basketball
          Flaws with Graduation
                  Rates
• Data do not take into account athletes who
  transfer schools or leave school to play
  professionally

• Does this occur across similar schools?

• Consider a comparison by schools then
  – Excellence in Athletics Cup data
  – http://lsia.tamu.edu/eacup.html
                    Summary
• Summary of social issues in college sport
  –   Abuses are present
  –   College Sport is Big Business
  –   Student-Athletes abuses and rights
  –   Academic Performance can be sub par

• How do we respond to these issues and
  dilemmas?
  – Ignore them and maintain the shame?
  – Seek true reform?
                    Reform
• Discussed in next section of the course.