Byers Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch (2011) describes how universities are focused on advancing and receiving money from major athletics and having star athletes, but how the universities are not caring for the “student athlete.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made college sports into an unmerited business. However, as years progress more athletes are getting smart and are taking the NCAA to court. The more students that challenges the rules by the NCAA and take them to court, the secrets and undermining values of the NCAA come out and the closer the NCAA comes to an end.

The average college scholarship is worth about $25,000 dollars a year which is about $100,000 dollars for a student to go to school for all four year they are eligible(Hartnett). That is a good amount of money but lets face it, rarely does any college athlete stay for their entire four years eligibility. A $25,000 dollar scholarship might seem like a lot of money, but it really only covers basics. It covers thousands of dollars in mysterious, unknown university fees, tuition, housing, a meal-plan and multiple hundred-dollar textbooks. Some players, if they come from a low-income household, get a few hundred dollars each semester from Pell Grants which

Student athletes at the college level are a term used for student who are amateurs, and involved in university level competitive sports and games. These sports require physical skill and rigorous training. The training is done to prepare athletes for competition, and hopefully in the future, the professional leagues. Student athletes that compete at the college level are known as amateurs, because they are not paid for any of their playing time, or any other business transactions that their name is used for. The NCAA was designed to

A college athlete is also known as a student athlete. As a student athlete, the student

In the essay “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch examines the flaws of the National Collegiate Athletic Association in college sports regarding “amateurism” (Branch 227) and the “student-athlete” (227). In doing so, Branch discusses the history of college sports and the National Collegiate Athletic Association while emphasizing certain regulations such as allowing multinational organizations to advertise their brand on athletic gear but athletes cannot use any of their memorabilia to get cash or a free tattoo at a tattoo parlor (227). Branch also argues that athletes are being manipulated for their skills and fame from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and universities and further irritates that they make money off the “unpaid

This paper explores the novel Tainted Glory: Marshall University, the NCAA, and One Man’s Fight for Justice written by B. David Ridpath, who published the novel in March 2012. This novel is about how Ridpath began working in compliance in intercollegiate athletics and his struggles while trying to create a strong and effective program. Under his program, he worked to make sure that the coaches and athletes at Marshall University would follow the compliance rules, but later he learned that many coaches and athletes did not understand or want to follow the rules of the NCAA. This novel recounts the struggles that Ridpath had to endure as he attempted to educate the coaches and athletes about the rules and regulations, but it also shows that some

With the universities pulling in more than twelve billion dollars, the rate of growth for college athletics surpasses companies like McDonalds and Chevron (Finkel, 2013). The athletes claim they are making all the money, but do not see a dime of this revenue. The age-old notion that the collegiate athletes are amateurs and students, binds them into not being paid by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). This pay for play discussion has been talked about since the early 1900s but recently large steps are being made to actually make a change. There are many perspectives on the payment of collegiate student athletes coming from the NCAA, the athletes themselves, and the university officials.

“College Athletes for Hire, The Evolution and Legacy of the NCAA’s Amateur Myth” written by Allen L. Sack and Ellen J. Staurowsky. In their book, the authors enlighten the reader on such issues as athletic scholarships, professionalism in college sports, and favoritism for athletes as well as many more important legal, and ethical issues that we as a country need to address. In this paper I will not do a standard book report by simply regurgitating the information I read in their book.

Robert and Amy McCormick, law professors at Michigan State University, believe that some student-athletes attend college to play sports and that due to scheduling conflicts between class and practices they do not have full choice as to what major they would like to take (Cooper, 12 – 13). “The way football and basketball players in Division I programs manage juggling sport and school, the McCormicks maintain, undermines the NCAA’s contention they are student-athletes.” (Cooper, 12-13).

There is a reality to college athletes participating in men's basketball and football. The reality is these athletes are being exploited, and as argued by Stanley Eitzen, they are being exploited much like slaves during the years of the plantation system. It is an idea created by Eitzen that seams overdrawn, but makes significant parallels to that of the plantation system. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) preserves the plantation system, providing the rules that protect the interests of the individual plantation overseers. The plantations are football and men's basketball factories within the universities with big-time programs. The plantation overseers are college coaches who receive hard labor from their workers. The workers on the plantation are owned by the plantation, they produce riches for their masters while receiving a meager amount of return on the profits of the plantation. Being exploited for their physical abilities is not the only injustice hindering these athletes. They are controlled, managed, and dominated by their superiors. They are restricted in their rights to freedom, and in some cases mistreated physically and mentally (Eitzen).

From the start of his article, Berry appeals to logos by using a quote from George Bernard Shaw, famous Irish playwright and critic, indicating “Progress is impossible without change” (552). Throughout the rest of the introduction, he gave the reader advantages and disadvantages on the current standing the NCAA has on the compensation of student-athletes. The argument he makes for both sides is sincere, and with every claim given there is a logical reason proceeding it. For example, he explains the current model “compromises the quality and scope” of student-athlete education by correlating it to the clustering of majors, where large quantity of athletes ascribe to the same major (Berry 555). The terminology in the introduction is simple and does not pertain to an audience only focused in law. The author then follows the intro with his first main point of defining amateurism. He defines amateurism figuratively at first as “for the love the game” before using historical context to explain amateurism in England during the nineteenth century (Berry 557, 558). The author illustrates during the next couple of pages the evolution of the official NCAA definition of amateurism from the early twentieth century to the mid-twentieth century. For an article in the field of law, not much jargon

The “contradiction at the heart of big-time college football,” as Michael Oriard describes it, is the competing demands of marketing and education. The 1890s proved to university administrators that there was an enormous market for collegiate football, which postulated opportunities for university building. Since this ubiquitous realization, there has coincided this blatant, yet unchanging contradiction that academic institutions are permitted to profit off of the services provided by its student-athletes while the athletes must idly accept that they are amateurs, donating their efforts to their respective schools. The schools then direct this revenue toward strengthening their athletic departments, and thus continues this seemingly endless growth of big-time college sports, all while athletes remain uncompensated and academics continue to take a backseat.

"Be a sport," young people are admonished. "Play fair." "Play by the rules." Everywhere in the developed world, sports are raised high up on social pedestals as redeeming activities that characterize the best of the human spirit, fair competition, and physical achievement. Society welcomes athleticism due largely to anticipation of the wholesome and upstanding values with which it is associated. Character is said to be built through participation in sports. While certainly there are elements of these high expectations and standards for athletes, there too has been a steady erosion of these traditional foundations and nowhere is this more evident than in collegiate sports. Intercollege sports are big business, and those associated with it take a very business-like attitude toward the games (Eitzen & Sage, 1978). The driver in intercollegiate sports is competition, just as it is in business (Eitzen & Sage, 1978). And, as in business, unfair advantage is translated into competitive edge. Responsibility morphs into power. In such an environment, the notion of cheating becomes blurred (Eitzen & Sage, 1978). Recruitment of college athletes commonly means looking the other way when rules are broken. Athletes are paid under the table, and are admitted according to a separate set of rules than those

The NCAA’s greatest fear about paying student athletes is the money itself. They worry it will be spread thin between all the sports departments, but with all the money circulating around the college sports industry, they should not have any concerns. The two most popular college sports, football and men’s basketball, generate over $6 billion in annual revenue combined; more than the amount the National

There has been amplified debate on the treatment, education, training of the college athlete. To avoid exploitation of athletes, “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), formed in 1905, set bylaws requiring college student-athletes to be amateurs in order to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics competition” (Schneider n.p.). Intercollegiate athletics have dramatically changed over the last several decades. Currently, intercollegiate athletics generate tremendous amounts of revenue, remarkably in football and basketball. College sports in America is a