College Sports in America Good, Bad, and Ugly

College Sport: Student Organizations 1843: Yale starts the first boat club in US 1852: Yale vs. Harvard- 1 st college athletic event

WVU Football: The first Team (1891)

College Athletics : college football major revenue producer, second only to student tuition and fees Early Reform: Carnegie Foundation Report (football organized commercial enterprise) : Changes- professional gambling, recruiting irregularities

1929: Carnegie Foundation Report College Sports: Commercial Enterprise Football: Growth of Professionalism in college sports College athlete begins career before college A special dinner table is provided Athletes work under a professional coach

Sanity Code July, 1946: Conference Reps. Met in Chicago to draft: “Principles of Conduct of Intercollegiate Athletics”: Sanity Code 1948: code permitted extension of scholarships and jobs to athletes ( awarded solely on demonstrated financial need). Code repeal: 1951

Student Athlete: Definition 1953 football case (University of Denver): player injured in practice Courts found athlete was eligible to receive workman’s compensation The term student-athlete was instituted to prevent additional litigation in this area

College Sport Cartel:NCAA Cartel,” a group o independent firms attempting, via collusive agreement to behavior as a collective monopoly.” NCAA: 1) Sets input prices that can be paid for student-athletes. 2) Regulates the usage of those student- athletes in terms of duration and intensity. 3) Regulates number and length of athletic contest.

Cartel (Cont.) 4) Occasionally, pools and distributes the profits of the cartel earned from activities such as T.V. football revenue. 5) Disseminates information, market conditions, and business accounts. 6) Polices the behavior of Cartel members and levies penalties for infractions

Reason for Concept in Sport Cheap Labor Positions of Power and control that offer significant rewards to those who hold them

Social Movement to Formal Organization Social Movements: “Collectivities” acting with some continuity to promote or resist change in society. Social Movement Life Cycle 1) Unrest- Something is wrong and must be rectified (ie. Violent nature of college football- early 1900’s 18 football were killed)

Social Movement (Cont.) 2) Excitement- Conditions are identified and specific action taken (ie reps. of 62 colleges meet to consider course(s) of action) 3) Formalization formation of Intercollegiate Athletic Association, forerunner to NCAA. 4) Institutionalization- Formal organization with structure, specific rules, division of labor.

Social Movement (Cont.) 5) Dissolution- Organization develop intolerable internal fissures and stresses.

College Athletics: Current Issues Alumni support: Support for Athletics Grad rates: Normal Progress (APR) Academic majors: Clustering? Reform: Knight Report, Drake Group Gambling

College Sport Inc. : Murray Sperber Myths 1) College sports are part of the educational mission 2) Alumni support tied to athletic program success 3) Schools receive millions of dollars when their teams play in football bowl games

College Sport Inc. (Cont.) 5) Money earned from college sports helps other parts of the University 6) Coaches are hired to be fired 7) College athletes are amateurs.

College Sports: Bigger Isn’t Better (Aug.14, 2003) Spending is up: Athletic operating expenses in NCAA 1-A rose 62% from to , compared with 39% increase in the general university. Of the 117 NCAA 1-A programs, 40% reported an operating profit in But without state support, only 6% made money.

Do Athletes tend to cluster by academic major? Most popular major for football players: business, communications, criminal justice, sociology, sport management (Jan. 2003) Georgia Tech.: 56% football players major in: Management University of Iowa: 20% of football players major in: Business

Jock Majors: Football Bowl Teams (Suggs,2003) Texas A&M: About 25% of the players study agriculture development or Agr. And life Sciences Georgia Institute of Technology: 56 % major in management(11% 0f the University major in this field) WVU: 18% ACE WVU: 8% Sport Management What are the Issues?

March Madness(2004) 326 NCAA 1 Basketball Programs 54 never played in the NCAA tournament since it started in 1939 Northwestern never made an appearance Most invitations: Kentucky(44), UCLA(36), North Carolina(35).

College Athletics and Alumni Giving ( Shulman and Brown,2001) Are former athletes more likely to give than other alumni? Do gifts to athletics cannibalize funds that would have been allocated to other institutional purposes? Do winning teams sports programs generate more alumni giving than non winning programs?

Athlete’s support Measured donor participation among alumni who had been a college athlete Looked at differences of giving rates for: entering classes of 1951, 1976 or 1989 Level of institution :Division 1-A Private, Ivy League, Coed Liberal arts, and women only Type of sport played: high profile or low profile

Major Finding Researchers found no relationship between won-lost record and the rate of giving to general university at either I-A private universities or Ivies Division III coed liberal colleges: a relationship was found between winning and giving

Vanderbilt Sports: Abolition Of Athletic Dept.?(Oct., 2003) Subcontract athletic dept. operations: Media Relations report to Vice Chancellor for P.R., Scheduling of practice fields report to Office of Facilities, Athletic Program report to Vice chancellor

Top 20 NCAA 1 Graduation Rates (2002) Vanderbilt 100% Syracuse 95% Oregon 88% Penn State 88% Virginia 88% Wake Forrest 88% Notre Dame 87% Northwestern 85%

Bottom 20: Graduation Rate(2002) Arkansas 5% Oklahoma 6% Tennessee 8% Kentucky 18% San Jose State 21%

NCAA Football Bowl Season 41% of bowl teams don’t meet academic mark (USA Today, tues., Dec. 6, 23005) NCAA academic bench mark: 50% graduation rate ( cutoff score- 925) Starting 2006: Schools falling below 925 can lose scholarships, face recruiting restrictions, and miss postseason play. Note: Big East and ACC met APR of 925 or higher

College Athletics Reform Needed?

Governance of NCAA: 1 plus 3 plan for reform Knight Report (1991): President control, academic integrity, financial integrity Power shift in the NCAA: Total control over their own money and rules ( Division I-A- new system effect August, 1997) Each of the NCAA’s 3 Divisions have separate rule making mechanism and puts college presidents in charge

1991 Reform Chief Executive Officers as the primary decision makers in the NCAA Ex. Committee made up of 16 CEO’s: oversee budget, evaluation, other matters

The Drake Group Retire the term “student-athlete” Location and control of academic counseling and support services for athletes the same as for all students Class attendance policy Replace one-year renewable scholarships with need-based financial aid Students maintain overall gpa of at least 2.0 each semester

NCAA Self-Study: 1999, 2009 Fiscal Integrity Academic Integrity Equity, Welfare and Sportsmanship Governance and Commitment

10 Best College Sport Books Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer: A Journey Into the Heart of a Fan The Perfect Mile: Three Athletes. One Goal, and Less Than Four Minutes to Achieve it The Game of Life: College Sports and Educational Values A Season on the Brink End Zone My Losing Season I Am Charlotte Simmons Transition Game: How Hoosiers Went Hip-Hop King Football: Sport and Spectacle in the Golden Age-Radio They Call Me Coach