Corbin+D+-POSITION+PAPER

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and universities should work together to develop meaningful new rules that will help universities succeed in educating student athletes.

** What is the impact of money on college sports? **  In the past decade college sports have become big business. But at the same time college sports are out of control. Last year in college football the Ohio State University and the University of Miami (The U) broke multiple rules and received sanctions from the NCAA. “Yet the shameful reputation of big-time college football didn't dampen the fans' enthusiasm or hurt its finances.” (Jones) This week the nation watched the March Madness Final Four basketball tournament. “But beneath the glam and glitz lies a problem the NCAA would rather leave unnoticed: the dismal classroom performance of its student athletes.” (Miller) This year the University of Kentucky won the tournament. However, “only 8 percent of [Kentucky] men’s basketball players who entered the school in 1997 had graduated by 2003.” (James) With Kentucky basketball this year they have a potential to lose six under graduate players to the National Basketball Association (NBA). This is a huge problem for graduation rates, because these “students athletes” are not even “athlete students”. In the old days student athletes played sports for fun and competition. Now these athletes play for themselves and money.

__Essential Question: __ What is the impact of money on college sports?

__Thesis Statement: __ The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and universities should work together to develop meaningful new rules that will help universities succeed in educating student athletes.  In the past decade, college sports has become big business. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been at the point of this revolution. “In effect, the government subsidized NCAA manages minor league teams for the NFL and the NBA – supplying a stream of professional-level athletes for their respective drafts.” (Splitt) Universities earn a lot of money from their sports’ programs. In last year’s NCAA March Madness tournament, “the NCAA distributed $478 million to conferences and member institutions. (Jessop). Universities have been impacted by this revolution. They are now dependent on this money from athletics, but many college sports programs are out of control. Last year in college football the Ohio State University and the University of Miami (The U) broke multiple rules and received sanctions from the NCAA. “Yet the shameful reputation of big-time college football didn't dampen the fans' enthusiasm or hurt its finances.” (Jones) Universities will break rules, hire questionable coaches and recruit unqualified students to keep their sports programs on top. Also, the Ohio State University hired a new football coach, Urban Myer, last year. The university agreed to pay him over $3 million per year. This is three times as much as the university pays its president, Dr. Gordon Gee. Student athletes have also been impacted by this revolution. Last month we all watched the March Madness Final Four basketball tournament. “But beneath the glam and glitz lies a problem the NCAA would rather leave unnoticed: the dismal classroom performance of its student athletes.” (Miller) This year the University of Kentucky won the tournament. However, “only 8 percent of [Kentucky] men’s basketball players who entered the school in 1997 had graduated by 2003.” (James) With Kentucky basketball this year they have a potential to lose six under graduate players to the National Basketball Association (NBA). This is a huge problem for graduation rates, because these “students athletes” are not even “athlete students”. Now these athletes play for themselves and money. Unfortunately, many will not earn an education.

In the past money wasn’t as important in college sports. In the old days student athletes played sports for fun and competition. Now they are playing for themselves and money. In 1978, the head football coach of the Ohio State University, Woody Hayes, made $43,000. However today the head football coach at the Ohio State University, Urban Meyer, makes over $4,000,000. This is four times as much money as the president of the university, Dr. Gordon Gee, makes. “between 1985 and 2010, average salaries at public universities rose 32 percent for full professors, 90 percent for presidents and 650 percent for football coaches.” (Pappano) More and more college sporting events are being televised and are being watched by millions of viewers. “In the last 10 years, the number of college football and basketball games on ESPN channels rose to 1,320 from 491.” (Pappano) A change in 1984 was a ruling from the supreme court that the NCAA could no longer control TV deals for college football. “The victory opened the door for conferences and universities to negotiate their own television deals.” (Hogan) Before this teams could only appear six times in a two-year span. Today Ohio State football games are being televised every saturday. The program makes 50 million dollars a year for the university.

Money is polluting the college sporting world. Division I schools they are producing more money then anyone could have imagined. Through TV contracts the NCAA is making 784 million dollars (Staurowsky 1). If you want to watch a Big Ten football or basketball game you’ll turn to either ESPN [Entertainment and Sports Programing Network] or BTN [The Big Ten Network]. Through both of these Networks the conference is making 146 million dollars. This is a big business in the sporting world. A lot of this money isn’t really going to the players. Most of the money that the schools make through athletics goes back into coaches salaries. Through college basketball the National Champions this year were coached by John Calipari who’s salary was 5.3 million dollars (Schnaars). Life is good when your coaching a Division I National Champion team and sending dozens of players to the NBA [National Basketball Association]. On the other hand Sean Woods coach of Mississippi Valley State only makes 87 thousand dollars. Mississippi Valley State had a record of 21-12 and made it to the first round of the NCAA tournament but lost to Western Kentucky. The difference between Kentucky and MVS and money made by the universities are television exposure. Kentucky in their 40 games played were on a large television network 34 out of the 40 games played in the 2011-2012 season. Mississippi Valley State out of their 33 games played were on a large television network 6 times. More and more colleges want to become more like Kentucky.

Many solutions in the past to solve these money problems have failed. The NCAA has handed down suspensions, fines, and other penalties. However these have not worked. Last year the NCAA made 770 million dollars (Staurowsky 1). The NCAA wants to keep the money flowing and has not passed major rules to change this. “When crises happen many exacerbate and become completely out of control because so many presidents and chancellors in higher education, like their CEO counterparts in the private sector, are in denial that they will ever have a crisis. They are either unprepared or underprepared and too slow to respond.” (Henry) Until the NCAA and universities admit there is a problem and change their ways they will still have a major money problem through college sports.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and universities should work together to develop meaningful new rules that will help universities succeed in educating student athletes. Today a revolution of big money has corrupted college sports (Henry). The NCAA, coaches, and athletic directors are part of the problem. They are willing to look the other way to keep money coming into the programs. Real rules with real enforcement could help the problem with money poisoning college sports. This is consistent with the Knight Commission. "The 21-year-old reform-minded commission undertook an 18-month study of athletics finances, and its report outlines several recommendations it hopes will lead to more fiscal responsibility." (Carey) The NCAA and colleges should make a rule that will limit the amount of money colleges can spend on sports. Eighty percent of the money should go for education and twenty percent should be spent on college sports. This would reduce the amount of money colleges spend on coaches salaries, new stadiums, and athletic departments. Now more of the money would be spent on teachers, computers, lab equipment, and other ways to educate students. This would send an important message that student athletes are students first. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">

<span style="color: #080707; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 17px; text-align: justify;">The NCAA and colleges should make a second rule that will show the money flow through college sports at each university. "Requiring that financial reports be public and transparent." (Knight) With this rule the public will see where the money is going. It will also help ensure that eighty percent of the money is going to education from the first rule. This should apply to even private schools such as the University of Southern California (USC). <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">

<span style="color: #080707; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 17px; text-align: justify;">The NCAA and colleges should make a third rule that will be an “enforcement rule” that will give us a strong leader in the NCAA. This new leader will have strong enforcement powers. The new leader will punish schools and athletes that don’t follow the rules. Schools that don't graduate students consistently will be banned from post season play. (Miller) This will show that the NCAA is serious about these college programs following all rules. If they don’t follow these rules there will be ramifications that could be severe. Colleges that test or lie to the NCAA will banned from sports for at least one year. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">The National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Football League (NFL) object to creating rules that change college sports. They believe that the college sports system is fine and they are making billions of dollars. They want college athletes to leave school early and play professional sports. Changing the system by requiring students to graduate will hurt the NBA. The Commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, recently said, “I'm not concerned about NCAA, and our rules are not social programs. We don't think it's appropriate for us to lecture kids as to whether they should or shouldn't go to school.” (Cherner) Student athletes are not slaves, they have choices. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">Commissioner Stern is right that student athletes should have choices, but he is shortsighted in his views. Student athletes should be focused on getting an education, before going to the NBA. The NBA and NFL will still have great drafts, but each player will now have a college degree. Rules that limit the amount of money that colleges can spend on sports will not hurt college sports. College sports will still thrive and student athletes will get an education. This education will be with them for the rest of their lives. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">Universities and their athletic directors will object to having to make their finances public, especially if it is a private school. This is an invasion of our rights. We do not need to explain how much money we are receiving from our television sport’s contracts or how much we pay for our coaches. The system is working fine. Gene Smith, the Athletic Director of OSU, thinks the current system works. He recently said, “We continue to operate in the black (financially) and provide financial support to the institution. I feel real comfortable with the progress we’ve made.” (Ludlow)

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">Gene Smith is right that Ohio State’s sports program pays for itself, but he is wrong that the system is fine. The system is broken and to fix it we need to follow the money. Where is the money coming from and where is it going. Most universities do not break even on their sports programs. For example the athletic department at Michigan State paid the head basketball coach, Tom Izzo, $3 million last year. However, it needed $3.7 million in university subsidies. (Upton) This is true at most universities. This is money that could be used for professor’s salaries and student scholarships and changing it would not harm the sports program. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;">

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify;">There is growing support to change college sports for the better by paying the student athletes. “College sports will become more honest once players are paid, and more honorable. Fans will be able to enjoy football and men’s basketball without having to avert their eyes from the scandals and the hypocrisy.” (Nocera). We don’t need stronger NCAA rules. We already have too many rules. Coaches, boosters, players and agents all find a way to work around the rules. The basketball and football players have become employees of the universities and as much as they are students. These are employees with no pay. By paying the student athletes we will avoid the need to create more rules and penalties.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Joe Nocera’s view that paying student athletes will eliminate the scandals is interesting and also unrealistic. First, paying student athletes will change their status from amateur athletes to semi-professional athletes. This will bring more greed and money into the system. We would then have bidding wars for the best high school athletes. Also, if we pay the basketball players do we also pay the lacrosse players? How will the university afford this? It will have to raise tuition or cut costs elsewhere. This is a very short sided idea. We need a solution of tougher rules and penalties from the NCAA and universities. Paying student athletes will just make the problem worse. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 20.8px; text-align: center;"> Works Cited Carey, Jack. “Knight Commission: Athletics vs. academic spending too unbalanced.” //USAToday//. N.p., 18 June 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. <[|http://www.usatoday.com]>. This web article is a primary source written by Jack Carey, a writer for the Knights Commission. In this article Carey addresses the differences in spending between athletics and academics in large division I schools. This source is being used for my project because I need to know where the money is going with in academics and athletics of large division I schools.

Fineman, Alex. “Hayes swings away.” //ESPN Classic//. N.p., 19 Nov. 2003. Web. 14 Apr. 2012. <[|http://espn.go.com]>. This web article is a primary source written by Alex Fineman, a senior writer on college football on ESPN.com. In this article, Fineman is talking about coach Woody Hayes, a head football coach at the Ohio State University and all of his achievements. This reason I used this article for my project was because I need some facts on coaching back in the 1970s and 80s.

Henry, Rene A. “COMMENTARY: Will Greed and Money Kill College Sports?” //huningtonnews//. N.p., 14 Nov. 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2012. <[|http://www.huntingtonnews.net]>.

This web article is a primary source written by Rene A. Henry, a senior sports columnist for the Huntington News, in West Virginia. In this article, Henry talks about Money with in college sports and if the schools that take the money are really benefiting the school. I used this article for my project because I need to have as many opinions on the effect of money in the sporting and academic worlds.

Hogan, Nakia. “1984 antitrust ruling changed the landscape of college football .” //NOLA//. N.p., 6 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2012. <[|http://www.nola.com]>.

James, Ben. “Six Billion Reasons College Sports Won’t Change.” //NYU Livewire//. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. <[]‌publishing/‌archives/‌livewire/‌archived/‌six_billion_reasons_college_sp/‌index.html>.

Jessop, Alicia. “How Much Money Do Conferences Earn From March Madness?” //The Business of College Sports//. N.p., 2 Mar. 2012. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. <[]‌2012/‌03/‌02/‌how-much-money-do-conferences-earn-from-march-madness/>.

Jones, Brent. “Reward college athletes, with an education.” //USA Today//. N.p., 12 Jan. 2012. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. <[]‌news/‌opinion/‌editorials/‌story/‌2012-01-12/‌NCAA-student-athletes-college/‌52524454/‌1>.

Knight, John S., and James L. Knight. “ June 17, 2010 - Knight Commission Calls for College Sports Reform, Recommends Public Transparency of Finances and New Financial Incentives.” //Knight Commission On Intercollegiate Athletics//. N.p., 17 June 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2012. <[|http://www.knightcommission.org]>.

Miller, Ben. “NCAA Should Bar Low Graduation Rate Schools From March Madness.” //USNews//. N.p., 15 Mar. 2010. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. <[]‌opinion/‌articles/‌2010/‌03/‌15/‌ncaa-should-bar-low-graduation-rate-schools-from-march-madness>.

Pappano, Laura. “How Big- Time Sports Ate College Life.” //New York Times//. N.p., 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2012. <[]>.

Schnaars, Christopher. “NCAA college basketball coaches’ salary database.” //USAToday//. N.p., 28 Mar. 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2012. <[|http://www.usatoday.com]>.

Splitt, Frank G. “Are Big-Time College Sports Good for America?” //The Drake Group// 2005: n. pag. //The Drake Group//. Web. 10 Apr. 2012. <[]‌Splitt_Good_for_America.pdf>.

Staurowsky, Ellen J. “TV Money Windfall in Big TIme College Sports.” //Assets//. N.p., 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2012.[|http://assets.usw.org]. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">