...Michael P. Murphy How Recruiting Violations and Academic Misconduct have effectively marred the Amateurism of College Athletics and a Proposal for a Local Solution IDST J497 Professor Timothy C. Williams November 30, 2012 Fall 2012 Recruiting Violations and Academic Misconduct in College Athletics Michael P. Murphy IDST J497 Williams The issues of recruiting violations, academic misconduct, administrative negligence, illegal booster involvement, and a general lack of University oversight are all problems that continue to mar the once highly regarded reputations of academic institutions across America. These transgressions, which occur at shockingly consistent rates around campuses nationwide, (committed by faculty, coaches, players, administrators, and alumni), are effectively compromising the sacred amateurism college athletics has maintained to define its culture and provide credence for its illustrious traditions for over a century. Ethical questions of this magnitude have been pondered by academics and legal stalwarts alike with great depth both at the local and global level for years. Several studies reflect that a substantial percentage of the “major” NCAA recruiting violations and cases of egregious academic misconduct occur typically at institutions where local administrators and financiers have created a “win at all costs” culture pertaining to BCS (Bowl Championship Series) football and the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. A handful of local schools...
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...Mississippi Mayhem In the world of college football, Mississippi State fans are not used to having such great success on the field. Every year Mississippi State experiences a mediocre season at best, mainly due to the daunting SEC West division. Over the past century, Mississippi State has never experienced a championship season. It has been a hundred years of heart break and disappointment for the bulldogs. This season Mississippi State is 9-1, and is actually relevant in the College Football Playoff discussion. What caused this miraculous season was a progress that started with unorthodox recruiting, development of players, and Heisman Candidate Dak Prescott. The past five years, Mississippi State has had an average recruiting rank of twelfth in the SEC. Those underrated recruiting classes have played in four consecutive bowl games, and a current 9-1 season. The coaching staff prides themselves on finding talent that has been overlooked by the rest of the SEC, especially in state talent. Sixty percent of Mississippi State’s current roster consists of athletes from the state of Mississippi. What the recruiting rankings do not show are how well the underrated prospects develop into star athletes....
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...Abstract College football has become a major money making event. Major college schools can bring in well over one hundred million dollars over a season. In 2008 Texas brought in $120,288,370 for the school that also help fund other sports throughout the university. (Robbins, 2009) This is due to the major network deals, sponsorships, donations from boosters, attending major college bowls, and many other benefits of being a major college program. These programs are expected to compete for a championship each and every year and are expected to fill the seats that normally average between eighty thousand to one hundred thousand seats. In order to do this there is high competition to get the very best players all around the country and the NCAA has very strict guidelines on what colleges can do to persuade the players to come play there. This isn’t a new problem but with modern technology the problem has become very visible because NCAA officials and competing schools are able to trace the exact moves that teams are doing for the players. Also players are being offered money and benefits that seventeen and eighteen year old kids have never seen before in their life. Penalties are becoming harsher every year and coaches and schools are starting to really suffer but what there is a fine line to walk between cheating and just putting your best effort towards getting the player. Process of Investigating Illegal Recruiting The NCAA has broken the process of investigations...
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...SPM 210 Why should College Athletes Get Paid? By Calvin Mainor E013280 11/20/2013 Under current NCAA regulations, "all student athletes are prohibited from receiving any payment for their efforts". Exploited athletes generate millions of dollars for their schools, and never see a dime. Is this fair? The universities, coaches, boosters, scouts for recruiting purpose are all getting paid off the players. But the major reasons why the stadiums and arenas are filled up are because of the players but they don’t see a penny of the money. Some universities build academic buildings on campus with the money that the players make for the school. Some coaches even get a percentage of the tickets revenue from the home games the players get nothing. The school pays coaches millions of dollars to coach the player who do the work. The college athletes are slaves to the schools and the coaches. The coaches treat the players as workhorses; the student-athletes can’t even choose their own major sometimes. The student-athletes can’t have a job so where are they supposed to get money from. People say that student-athletes get four-year scholarship, or a free education, but that is not true. Student-athletes only get a year to year scholarship which they can be dropped from the scholarship for a number of reasons. The idea of college athletes being slaves have to get settled for the greater good of athletes and institutions graduation rates. College sports are big business...
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...The NCAA(National Collegiate Athletic Association) is not paying college athletes, which will become a problem sooner or later if the NCAA does not pay college athletes. Many people think that paying college athletes will bring some problems to universities/colleges, such as offering players more money.However it would be unfair for less appealing and wealthy schools because they do not have as much power or money to recruit the best players. Though people do not understand that college football is for stronger players compared to weaker ones. If the players are dedicated to playing for their future, then paying college athletes would prepare them for the NFL(National Football League) and the players who don’t make it still help their team get better. Although most players in college do not make it to the NFL, every player on their teams help win and helps other players get better so everyone should receive a piece of the action....
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...Matt Miller COM 210-003 Persuasive Speech 4/4/12 Topic: Should college athletes be paid to play sports? Specific Purpose: To persuade the audience why collegiate athletes should not be paid to play. Introduction Opening Comment: Image that you just scored the game-winning basket in the NCAA basketball tournament championship. Your shot just helped the school get tens of millions of dollars. Now by a show of hands, how many of you think that you should earn a share of that money? Central Idea: One of the most controversial and prominent topics in sports today is whether or not schools should pay their student-athletes to play their sports. I am going to argue as to why they should not be paid to play. Preview of Main Points: I will talk about five key reasons as to why collegiate athletes do not deserve to be paid to play. These are because of already established scholarships, would lead to decreased competition, the fact that there isn’t enough money for schools to give out already, a removal of innocence would occur, and recruiting would suffer among schools. Transition: First, I will explain why collegiate athletes already receive enough money from scholarships and free tuition. Body I. Tuition and the “Student” A. Already receiving thousands of dollars from athletic scholarships 1. According to a Parade Magazine article, Division I student athletes can receive between $20,000 and $50,000 per year. 2. A study done by...
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...champion. In spite of the athletes and coaches that get highly recognize for prevailing to be the Super Bowl champs, I acknowledge John Schneider the most, who is the team general manager, for building a top-notch football team. Schneider's profession is one of the most complex and burdensome career. Before Schneider was hired as sports general manager, the Seattle Seahawks were an abysmal team. The Seattle Seahawks organization expected Schneider from the get-go to convert the franchise in to a top-notch; also, that...
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...Television Business Taking Over College Athletics College Athletics have always been a form of entertainment for many Americans and people around the world, but with the continued evolution of technology is has become a business for television companies. Major television networks like ESPN, Fox, CBS Sports, and Turner Broadcasting Systems have made college athletics a profit machine. Each company sign big contracts with the NCAA and each conference to gain the rights to broadcast the athletic events of the institutions. The conference then distribute that money evenly through its’ members. For the television networks, The “Big Five” Conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) are the ones that will bring the most ratings and result in...
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...the next level. For most athletes, the process is normal, following the rules to a “T”, but for other, more sought after athletes many coaches are willing to do anything and everything to get that player to come to their school and into their program. This even includes violating the NCAA recruiting rules and policies. While it is true that many of these violations go unpunished or even unnoticed by the NCAA, the truth is that recruiting violations are becoming more and more predominant in recent years thanks in part to social networks and other forms of communication. Most violations are on the men’s side of athletics, mainly in basketball and football. This does not mean that there is a lack of violations on the women’s side though. Violations have begun to occur more regularly in women’s athletics in recent years. Due to the recent frequency of recruiting scandals being brought to public attention thanks in part to media, NCAA recruiting violation scandals are the topic of conversation for many households, especially those who have young athletes who are wanting to be recruited by their favorite schools. NCAA Definition of “Recruiting” and Their Position The NCAA defines “recruiting” as “any solicitation of prospective student-athletes or their parents by an institutional staff member or by a representative of the institution’s athletics interests for the purpose of securing a prospective student-athlete’s enrollment and ultimate participation in the institution’s intercollegiate...
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...Bowers v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, 118 F.2d 494 (D.N.J. 2007) I. Background and Purpose In the case of Bowers v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, Bowers filed a suit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association under Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA defines a qualified individual with disabilities as a person who meets genuine skill, education, experience, or other requirements of a job that the person holds or seeks, and they can perform the "essential functions" of the position with or without reasonable accommodations. In this case, Bowers argues that he is a qualified individual in the field of education. Bowers was looking to be recruited by University for football, under the NCAA. Bowers was found unqualified because he did not complete the required “core...
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...Alabama lie two powerhouse football programs that have coexisted for the past century. The University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has showcased its football program at a very high level. Their cross-state rival, Auburn University, is located in Auburn, Alabama. With a recent National Championship win in 2010, Auburn University was ready to be a formidable opponent to the University of Alabama in the next few years. However, in the 2012 season the University of Alabama overpowered Auburn University in every aspect of the game. In the 2012 football season, the Alabama Crimson Tide fished the season number one in the AP poll and came home with a National Championship. The Crimson Tide ended the season with an almost perfect 13-1 record (7-1 in the SEC). The Tide’s only loss that season came to Texas A&M, a top SEC team led by their Heisman quarterback. The University of Alabama had nine players selected in the NFL draft with three players coming in the first round after the 2012 season. Alabama kept all of its coaches from this previous season. Nick Saban returned to the Tide in 2012 for his sixth season and finished with his third national championship. The recruiting class for Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide ranked number one in the nation in 2012. The class had a total of 13 players recruited in the ESPNU 150 which 3 would start for Alabama. The Auburn Tigers, Alabama’s most hated rival, on the other hand ended the 2012 football season in embarrassment to...
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...Are College Athletes Going to be Paid? The NCAA is one of the top organizations in the world that brings in billions of dollars in revenue on college athletics alone most notably with college football and college basketball. Yes some of these athletes do get compensated with some sort of scholarship which does help out with their expenses but the chances of an athlete receiving an athletic scholarship that is worth anything meaningful is less than 2%. A full ride scholarship might as well be compared to as finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In cases that an athlete does receive a scholarship this does not come close to covering the expenses of tuition yet alone all of the other expense such has room and board, food and everything else a human being needs to survive. Playing a colligate sport is just as demanding as a full time job and according to a survey done by “[1] The NCAA in 2011 playing football required 43.3 hours per week; college baseball, 42.1 hours; men's basketball, 39.2 hours; and women's basketball, 37.6 hours.” So these athletes have no time with school and their respective sport to find a job to help them with other expenses so they have to rely on student loans, grants or their parents to help them get through school. This also makes it much more difficult for a student athlete to pursue a more rigorous degree such as sciences and engineering. One problem that I have with the NCAA is all the restrictions that they put on recruiting and...
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...the ground as if I had been shot, I had completely torn my hamstring. I was in complete shock as I lay on the ground. As the pain set in, a million thoughts were running through my head. It was my senior year, my last hurrah, and possibly the last time I would ever play football. It was at this moment that I realized I had no idea about my future and where I was going with my life. Sitting on the sidelines while I watched my team lose was one of the hardest experiences I have ever had to endure. I was helpless, and utterly disappointed that this is how my football career would end. The simplest of questions lack the simplest of answers as I asked myself, “Now what?” Up until this point in my life, it had all been so simple, go to school and play football. It was this simplicity that seemed to have hypnotized me into thinking life would continue on like this forever. But, in an instant everything changed and I realized I had no idea what I was going to do. I was as helpless in my life as I was in the game that I had just watched. I felt alone, and scared of the uncertainty of my future that seemed to have crept up on me. I had not applied to a single school and didn’t know if I would even be going to college. Around this time my uncle took me on a camping...
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...There is a huge amount of money being made off college sports and has led to some questions to whether or not student-athletes should be paid for their efforts. As Forbes' Chris Smith wrote, CBS and Turner Broadcasting make more than $1 billion off the games, "thanks in part to a $700,000 ad rate for a 30-second spot during the Final Four." Athletic conferences receive millions of dollars in payouts from the NCAA when their teams advance deep into the tournament. Ditto for the coaches of the final squads standing. (US News and World Report, 2014) Unfortunately, the players don’t ever get to see any of that money, even though they risk career-ending injuries each time they step out onto the court, field or rink. In March of last year, Louisville Cardinals Kevin Ware suffered a gruesome broken leg, he successfully had surgery but it is still uncertain whether or not he will return. A group of former players filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging that student athletes should be entitled to some of the money the NCAA makes off of using their names and likenesses on merchandise such as jerseys, video games, Ads. Etc. If college athletes were allowed to accept money it would encourage good grades, make a good incentive program, and help with recruitment of players. Up until now the debate over whether a college athlete should be compensated during their sports career was just a debate; this has recently turned into more than that. In my opinion compensating the players would encourage...
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...the other hand gets paid a salary or money for endorsements. Professionals are also more skilled and concentrate one hundred percent on their sport. Amateurs do not have the time to only commit to a sport since they have to attend classes or work to support themselves. If student Athletes did get paid, college sports would lose their competitive hype. Let’s look at football on a college level compared to the pros. Athletes playing on a college level (amateur) give every play their all trying to do whatever it takes to win with hopes of someday be picked to go pro. Pro football players on the other hand, do not give every play one hundred percent. They are afraid of being hurt and know regardless of the game’s outcome they will still get paid. What if the athlete does not make it to the professional level? These student athletes need to make sure they have an education they can fall back on. These student athletes are students first before the athlete. In the classroom, they are students just like everyone else. None of them are paid for getting an A on a test or for the semester. College is a place to mature and learn how to manage one’s life. When one graduates from college, they are supposed to get a job, support themselves, and...
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