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College Athletes For Hire Essays

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In the area of collegiate sports, there have been numerous heated debates about the integrity of many things concerning the NCAA and how it handles legal and ethical issues. Two well renowned scholars tackle this issue in their co-authored book entitled
“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. …show more content…

Devastated, Joe returns to his dorm room and finds a letter from the university, informing him that he no longer has his full ride scholarship and must begin paying for his own room and board. Not able to pay for the $15,000 a year to attend the University, and his parents also unable to pay, Joe drops out of school and becomes a male dancer at the day and night dance club. Now the same thing would happen if Joe simply decided to no longer play for U. of A. in order to concentrate on his studies. Where’s the problem in this? Well, according to the NCAA’s rules, no athlete may be a professional and receive payment while in college and playing college sports. But doesn’t that sound like employment to you? Wasn’t Joe just fired from his job of Basketball? Wasn’t that athletic scholarship his salary? Look at the quote at the beginning of this paragraph and marinate on that for a minute, meanwhile I’ll discuss the issue of professionalism in sports.


“Schools that offer athletic scholarships have embraced a form of professionalism, and have made a conscious decision to use paid performers to attract revenue and/or publicity to their schools,” (p.4). The main problem with professionalism in college sport is that what began as amateurs’ competing for the pure fun and pleasure of it, with a little bit of school rivalry, has turned into a multi-million dollar business. No longer is the focus on higher education, the focus is now on whether or

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