The Pros And Cons Of March Madness

One of the top sporting events in the world is considered to be the NCAA March Madness tournament. This tournament is ranked third just behind the super bowl and FIFA World Cup. It’s unbelievable to think that one of the top sporting events in the world is in college athletics. You have other professional sports like basketball, baseball, hockey and NASCAR, but there championships still don’t compare to the NCAA championship. March madness is so popular that global firms Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc believe that companies are expected to lose about $1.2 billion because of every hour of work that employees are watching games instead of working (Koba, 2014). These employees will spend on average 90 minutes a day at work watching

College athletic programs are among the most popular sporting events in America. With this rise in popularity, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its colleges have also seen a rise in revenue in recent years. In 2014, the NCAA made over 900 million dollars in revenue. Some collegiate coaches, such as Kentucky’s John Calipari, have yearly salaries in the millions, not counting incentives and endorsement deals. While, clearly, money is being made, NCAA regulations ban collegiate athletes from being paid. Many question this rule and argue that athletes at the college level earn and deserve pay for play. The debate to pay or not to pay college athletes rages on despite the latest court ruling supporting NCAA policies. Because colleges and universities earn such a profit from sporting events, many fans feel it is only fair to distribute some of the wealth to the players. Supporters of paying student athletes feel that these young men and women should be fairly compensated for the time demanded of the athletes and the stress put on the athletes, physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. Those in favor of paying college athletes contend that athletic and academic work ethic at both high school and collegiate levels will improve, as well as, fiscal responsibility in these young adults. The NCAA argues that paying athletes would negatively affect their

When it comes to football in the college league, many rules have been changed or new rules have been added to make the game safer for those that play it. The Targeting rule was added going into the 2008 NCAA season of college football for safety reasons. This rule has also introduced a new discussion of whether or not the rule is fair. The rule states that if a player strikes another player in an upward motion, striking with the crown [top] of the helmet, then it is a fifteen-yard penalty, and the player is disqualified from the game. This obviously causes controversy between officials and college football coaches. Many believe that the rule is too harsh and that many calls that are targeting, are not targeting after all. And that it is not fair to eject a player, if the player did not even deserve the call “There are other gripes with the targeting rule. Washington State coach Mike Leach called it ‘micromanaging, for lack of a better word,’ citing too many variables and inconsistent enforcement. Stanford coach David Shaw echoed a sentiment shared by Mora and Pickett: that there should be different levels of targeting penalties corresponding with the severity of the infraction” (qtd in Bolch). NCAA rules states that when the targeting rule is implied, then the officials will review the play, and give a final verdict. However, most of the time the call is not overturned and the player remains disqualified from the game. This new rule has also made it nearly

Although college football is the third-most-popular sport, the majority of schools lose revenue on athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association, also known as the NCAA, is promoting beneficial ideas to help players in need while increasing academic standards. As stated in the article, “On some LSU teams, Martin said, half of the players are “special admits””, which means multitudes of players do not achieve the same levels of academic success as “normal” students. As long as academic budgets are miniscule compared to athletic budgets, there will always be controversy. This tension increased when “legendary head coach” Joe Paterno, along with Jerry Sandusky, were fired for being involved in a sex-abuse scandal with a minor.

In The Cartel: Inside the Rise and Imminent fall of the NCAA, Taylor Branch is piecing together pieces of evidence and information about scandals that arose both the NCAA’s perspective as well as his own perspective to show contrast in the controversial findings within the NCAA concerning athletes and leadership. Throughout the entirety of the book, the picture that is being painted by Branch is that the NCAA as well as the institutions are reaping the benefits of intercollegiate athletics. While the "big men” are reaping the benefits of the skill and hard work of the college athletes. The information in Branch’s work not only presents the documents of scandals, but also presents his argument and proof for greed that is overtaking humanity, as well as athletics. The main focus is on the underlying theme of greed.

The role of college football negatively influenced the American culture between the 1890s and the 1930s. The players, coaches, universities and fans blew the game of college football way out of proportion. There was an enormous wave of investment for big stadiums in the 1920s, otherwise known as the Golden Age of sports. Many universities built large stadiums for their football program so they could be nationally recognized as a major academic institution and so they could also compete against the other well known universities during the time. Such as Ohio State, when they built Ohio Stadium in 1920s. Ohio State built Ohio Stadium so they could boost their national reputation and also so they could peer match Michigan’s stadium, also known as, “The Big House”.

In monumental clashes for the ages, both collegiate men and women’s NCAA March Madness tournaments have provided countless matches, unprecedented athleticism, and glorious victories paired with heartbreaking defeats. Yet despite their similar structures, the two tournaments have attained vastly different levels of recognition in the United States. With men’s basketball, thousands of Americans tune in every year to watch the upsets and Final Four games, drooling over perennial powerhouses such as Duke University, University of Kentucky, and University of Kansas and unknown underdogs like Butler University, Wichita State University, and Virginia Commonwealth University as they all compete in titanic battles. Everyone from retirees to college students fill out fantasy brackets yearly in volumes reaching millions, praying to have that lucky year where they predict the tournament correctly. However, on the female side of the sport, audiences are

Big conference schools that have successful seasons are all but assured a spot in the tournament. Committee members discuss strength of schedule statistics, wins against highly ranked opponents and simple human feelings about which teams are more deserving.

As winter comes to an end and spring approaches, so does the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) March Madness frenzy. Since it's inception in 1939 this tournament has gained increased popularity among gamblers and fans alike to become the second most popular tournament in the US after American football's Super Bowl. Every year the madness begins the second week of March and ends the first week of April. Millions of fans across the states eagerly watch as 68 teams race to win college basketball’s biggest prize. This paper will look closely at two of NCAA Division I teams, the Oklahoma University (OU) Sooners men’s, and the Texas Longhorns (TL) women’s programs. It will first break down the tournament revenue brought in to the

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, also known as the NCAA, was founded in 1906 for the purpose of protecting young athletes from the dangers of the games that they partake in. There are also many reports that also say that the main reason that the NCAA was founded was due to the fact that football was starting to die out because of how physical and demanding the sport is. The president at the time was Theodore Roosevelt, who was a huge fan of the game, took action to protect the sport that he loved. President Roosevelt gathered thirteen football representatives to come to the White House and discuss with them what the sport needs. From these meetings, the president and the representatives agreed on reforms to improve the safety of the players who are participating in football. This agreement between these members thus create a group there to protect and serve the student athletes, later entitled the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Now over 100 years later, this group has expanded to over 1200 schools and institutions nationwide (“Editors of Encyclopedia 1”). This group has run into a bit of controversy throughout their years though. With having to deal with cheating scandals to rape and murder. The NCAA is one of the biggest money makers in the sports business by bringing in over 871 million dollars. The NCAA is such a controversial group because of how strict they are with how they deal with their student athletes. So many of these students do so

When you here the phrase “March Madness” what comes to mind? To millions of fans, March Madness is three weeks of intense basketball, played at a premier level, where anyone can be a fan. March Madness is the NCAA men’s basketball tournament that consists of 68 teams from around the country that are selected to participate in one of the worlds most celebrated sporting events.

Throughout the existence of the NCAA and the realm of intercollegiate competition, one of the largest topics of debate has been the idea to compensate athletes based on athletic performance above any scholarships awarded. Mark Emmert, president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, has previously said “We can never move to a place where we are paying players to play sports for us” (Garcia, 2010, para.9). This statement by Emmert has again sparked several conversations concerning the specifics of what defines amateurism and the exploitation of our young student athletes. The awarding of a salary to athletes is both heavily supported and strongly opposed by players, spectators, coaches, and collegiate

The former Southeastern Conference Commissioner, Mike Slive, spoke to an audience in Graves Hall 118 at The University of Alabama on Thursday, Aug. 27. The lecture hall appeared to be filled with students aspiring to work within the business aspect of sports, current professors and possible sports journalists.

The first almost massive upset occurred between “the one-seed Georgetown Hoyas and the sixteen-seed Princeton Tigers” (Gregory and Wolff, “The Game That Saved March Madness”). Coming into the game, “Georgetown was a national championship favorite, who featured one of the best players in the country in Alonzo Mourning. Small schools such as Princeton had been clobbered for years by teams like Georgetown, which resulted in many fans and NCAA officials wondering if these small schools belonged in the tournament in the first place” (Gregory and Wolff, “The Game That Saved March Madness”). Princeton’s players gave the effort of their lives, as they battled and fought with heavyweight Georgetown up until the last shot. Despite the fact that “Bob Scrabis’ game winning shot was blocked by Mourning”, Princeton had proven to the critics that it was possible for an unthinkable upset of this magnitude to materialize. Fast forward twenty-four years, and a new small conference underdog, the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles, became the talk of the entire country after “they became the lowest seeded team to win two NCAA Tournament games and make it all the way to the Sweet 16” (O’Halloran, “Cinderella Story Florida Gulf Coast Has Its Shining Stars”). No one could have predicted that this unknown school that “had never even made it to the NCAA

As a nonprofit the NCAA is often not compared to large companies even it makes comparable revenue. All television and video game revenue, as well as ticket, jersey, and souvenir sales made from college athletics all go to the NCAA, the conferences, the athletic departments, and the coaches. In fact, one study suggests, “Men’s basketball and football combine for $6 billion alone” (Mondello, Piquero, Piquero, Gertz & Bratton, 2013). None of that revenue goes directly to the student athlete even though the NCAA surely has enough money to do so if it chooses. USA Today writer Bruce Horovitz states in his article, March Madness Evokes Marketer Madness that, “The NCAA men’s basketball tournament generated $1.15 billion in television ads in 2013, well beyond the revenue generated by the NFL and NBA playoffs, according to ESPN” (Horovitz, 2014). Marc Edelman, a professor at City University of New York takes it a bit farther in his article The Case for Paying College Athletes, and claims, “The college sports industry generates $11 billion in annual revenues. Fifty colleges report annual revenues that exceed $50 million. Meanwhile, five colleges report annual revenues that exceed $100 million” (Edelman, 2014). In contrast, during the 2014-2015 season the NBA grossed about $5.18 billion in revenues according to Forbes Magazine, which was a league record high. The NCAA revenue money is also not evenly distributed among the schools, as top tiered athletic programs tend to make more money