...Pay to Play: Economic Impact of Paying College Athletes 1. Purpose of Research & Analysis On April 25, 2014, the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., granted Northwestern University's request to review the decision made by the regional office recognizing the school's football players as employees. In mid-April, Northwestern football players voted as a team on whether or not to unionize, but the votes will only be opened if the board ends up siding with the players, which may take at least a couple of months. Ultimately, the Northwestern football players are determining their fate through this secret ballot and their decision to form the first union amongst college athletes—a decision that has the ability to change the landscape of American college sports. If granted the right to unionize, the Northwestern football team will actually have the ability to bargain over their conditions and it is expected that this could ultimately lead to requesting salary compensation for their efforts. In light of these recent historic discussions, it is critical to analyze not only the ethical, but also the economic impact of such potential situations. My research paper has been structured to shed some light into the challenging and complicated discussions that continue to occur around this topic. Specifically, I have broken my research and analysis into three key topics. First, I explore whether or not there is an underlying issue with the current state, from an economic perspective...
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...College sports have always been enjoyable and entertaining to watch. March Madness and the College Football Playoffs are some of the most exciting sports events to view. The Super Bowl and NBA playoffs may be exciting too, but the key difference between professional athletes and collegiate athletes is that college athletes do not get paid. Many professional athletes play for money, so the passion may not be there. College athletes on the other hand, play for pride, their school, and for their team. The passion is obviously there, so it makes the game more intense, more energetic, and more intense. In recent years, a conflict has occurred as in deciding if college athletes should receive a salary or not. College athletes should not get paid...
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...College Athletes Should Be Compensated For many colleges and universities athletics programs are a major source of revenue for its institutions. These institutions rely on their athletes to keep the notoriety and popularity of their institutions name. Since, college’s athletes are supposed to be the best at the sports they play, why are they not being compensated? Some might say a student athlete’s scholarship for a free education is compensation enough. However, there are some that say the amount of money institutions make from its athletes is so great that student athletes should be given a kickback. Student athletes should be compensated for the time and performance they give to help their college and universities uphold their reputations. Certainly, both sides of this debate have made very compelling arguments in support of their views. There are those who believe that college athletes should be compensated somehow or be given a stipend for extra money to cover the costs or living that are not provided with their scholarships (Nocera No pg.). Most college scholarships fall on average about $3,500 short of the total cost of attending college each year (Nocera No pg.). Many student athletes come from low-income families and rely heavily on athletic scholarships to get them into a quality school (Burgett No pg.). Although student athletes are given a full scholarship to their school of choice these scholarships do not provide the money necessary for entertainment, travel expenses...
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...The Power of the NCAA Abstract The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a very powerful entity. The NCAA men’s basketball tournament receives more advertising dollars and has higher ratings then the Super Bowl and the World Series. This paper discusses various other papers all dealing with different aspects of this NCAA entity and the cultural, economic and social impact the NCAA has on the modern education system. These topics include an analysis of NCAA tournament broadcasts and the influence the TV industry has on what people view, the impact of facilities to recruit high quality athletes, as well as a cost-benefit analysis of university’s scholarship system. These issues, among others, affect every college student, not just student-athletes as well as tax-payers, professors and alumni. The Power of the NCAA As a father of a high school student-athlete that is being recruited by Division I universities I felt the need to research the process and the entities involved at a deeper level. The five articles I chose helped me understand the recruitment process and the logic behind it as well as the influence the athletic departments have over every school. Division I athletic departments are either the largest or second largest buildings on each campus as far as operations (Southall et al.). One major concern with the amount of influence the NCAA has in the community is that after their big national tournament in 2006, a representative...
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...Social Responsibility of, “Is it moral for the University of Notre Dame to pay their college football players?” CERTIFICATION OF AUTHORSHIP: I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in the paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used this data, ideas of words, whether quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course. Student Signature: Jill Burgess *************************************************************** Instructor’s Grade on Assignment: Instructor’s Comments: Table of Contents Introduction Many students who are currently active players for their university's football team are struggling to make ends meet. They simply don't have the funds to buy new clothes, tools for education, or even food not supplied by the university. To make matters worse, the NCAA has created policies restricting players from pursuing avenues of being compensated for services. These policies make living situations for many of the players very uncomfortable. In business, there are unions who protect employees from abuse and unfair treatment in the workplace. Unfortunately for the players, there isn't any one privatized union representing the best interest of student-athletes. Private interest groups exercise most efforts toward the rights of players, and player...
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...petition because they believed that due to the amount of time and work that they put in towards their football program they should be compensated for it. However, getting the opportunity to play a sport in college should be a privilege rather than a job, seeing as the sport is almost always one which you love to compete in and enjoy. After all, the only reason that these people are on a team is because their school and coaches offered them the chance to play, so why should they have the opportunity to get paid for it? Because of this, I believe that college athletes should...
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...Play: An Ethical Analysis of the Student-Athlete Compensation Dilemma Group 2: Julie Burnett Christopher Fincham Revati Kailasam Catherine Kondo Teresa Seim Ethics and Professionalism in Accounting Andrew Dill ACG 6835 Fall 2013 Introduction The college sports industry is a large industry in America which is estimated to produce $797 million dollars for the 2012-13 season (NCAA). Of these millions, not one penny will go to any of the 400,000 plus college athletes under NCAA rules (NCAA). This however, was not always the case. Prior to the formation of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1906, student groups frequently hired players without the stipulation that they must also be students at the university (NCAA). Due to these circumstances and poorly regulated play that often led to injuries, the NCAA was established to provide a safe and fair ‘playing field’ for student-athletes. However, today this regulatory board is not seen as beneficial by all members of society, and is especially negatively scrutinized by top performing student-athletes. In 2005, NCAA Football had an estimated total attendance of over 43 million compared to the NFL of over 17 million, while NCAA Basketball had estimated total attendance of over 30 million compared to the NBA of over 21 million (Humphys, 2008). Despite having more viewers, college athletes received no pay while professional players earned millions. This has prompted college athletes to argue that the...
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...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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...Some argue that the scholarships that athletes receive are generous compensation, but as percentage of total revenue their value is paltry. In the ACC and the Pac-12 conferences, total reported scholarship costs averaged only 5.6 percent and 7.3 percent of the school’s football and basketball revenues. In “Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA” Joe Nocera and Ben Strauss quote a wide range of economists and attorneys who agree that the NCAA functions as an economic cartel by colluding to artificially suppress wages for workers. In 2014, football players at Northwestern University organized a strike to illuminate the fact that they regularly worked more than 50 hours per week for their school’s athletic department....
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...Should College Players Get Paid To Play By De’Angelo Beasley Learn Across Life Span Post University Febuaury 25, 2013 The argument that a college athletic scholarship is an equal quid pro quo for a college education has been utilized since athletic scholarships were approved by the NCAA in 1950’s. A college graduate can in fact make a great deal more money over a lifetime when compared to non-graduates. For instance, a “full athletic scholarships” do not provide a “free” education (as it does not cover all costs incurred from matriculation to graduation. In many cases, the university does not live up to its end of the bargain of providing an education; as evidenced by the dismal number in the graduation rates, especially among African Americans. Furthermore, the athletic scholarship is only a one-year (renewable) agreement that can be terminated by the coach or university in any given year for any reason. In debating the pay-for-play issue in college athletics, the history of the governing body (i.e., currently the NCAA), their mission and view of amateurism, the past history of college athletes benefitting financially, and the degree to which athletes benefit from the university experience must all be examined. The counter point section of this paper addresses each point made by my colleague. Using the Eitzen (12) analogy comparing the NCAA and big-time athletic programs to the old southern plantation system will be the underpinning wellspring for the subject...
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...psychological mechanisms of movement. I aspire to be part of a sports team’s medical staff in the future. This is the only thing I see myself doing in the future. I love sports and I am also interested in human anatomy. There is nothing else I am passionate about besides sports. I would prefer to work with an NCAA team. I also plan on minoring in Sports Management. I often think about the worldwide debate, should college athletes be paid? People argue that they are paid through free education, food and a place to stay. Others argue that they should be paid because they...
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...Student Athletes The word student-athlete refers to a student who is playing a sport in college and receiving scholarships in return. On the surface, most people sees great athletes getting a free education, but they deserve more than just free education such as extra rewards and benefits since the college, the conferences and the NCAA are making billions of dollars off of them. To be in a nationally televised game or making deep runs in tournaments can bring in a lot of money for the colleges and universities. But the colleges and the sponsors collect all of the profits and not a single penny goes to the student-athlete and that is unfair. Colleges and the NCAA are making these students basically their unpaid employees. The student-athlete put so much work into the current sport they are playing, in return they get nothing. In my opinion, the student athletes should get a stipend with the scholarship they are getting. The system of college sports is at fault; the student-athletes are making colleges and private companies billions of dollars while not getting anything for themselves. People do not see that the student-athletes have to go practice every day and only have a little time to study. According to Amy McCormick, a law professor at Michigan State, "Athletes don't have free choice of what major they take if the classes conflict with practice schedules. That’s one fact that flies in the face of the idea that they're primarily students and secondarily athletes” (Cooper...
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...SWOT Analysis Lindsay Hartman Indiana Wesleyan University MGT-541 [ February 27, 2012 ] Dr. Janis McFaul SWOT Analysis Nike is a supplier of athletic apparel and footwear. The company sells its products on various platforms including retail stores, Nike owned retail stores, via the internet and other various independent distributors in over 170 countries (NIKE Inc. 2012). The company also sells licensed college and pro teams gear and apparel. The mission of the company is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” (Nike website 2011). Nike is a household name throughout most of the world. The company has celebrity athletes from nearly every sport wearing their gear and promoting their products. It is also one of the most recognized companies in the world. Strengths Nike is a company that has withstood the test of time. It could not have done so without some of its strong points throughout the company. The strong market share due to brand recognition had a great deal to do with Nike’s success (Datamonitor, 2011). Their innovative stance and ever expanding product lines have pushed Nike to the forefront of the athletic wear market. You don’t have to go too far to see the Nike swoosh or the “Just do it” tag line on any athlete, professional or otherwise. In addition, the proficient technical advancement in products developed Nike's aggressive benefit and brand recognition (Datamonitor, 2011). Nike is a company that understands the necessity...
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...wishes, giving women the right to vote. Despite these important steps, women in the United States, a nation founded on the ideals of freedom and equality, continue to battle for equal rights. A key moment in this fight for equality occurred in 1972 with the passage of the Title IX Amendment to the Equal Opportunity in the Education Act. Title IX states: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance" (Sadker par. 2). This piece of legislation has had a profound impact upon college athletics. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has interpreted Title IX as requiring an equal opportunity for male and female athletes at our nation's universities. More specifically, the NCAA has ruled that in order to uphold Title IX, the money spent on male and female sports must be equal, as does the proportion of male to female athletes at an institution. Though on the surface Title IX would seem to guarantee equality between the genders in collegiate athletics, the practical applications of the law have led to the elimination of...
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...Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education By Derek Bok Introduction Universities in the Marketplace is a book written by Derek Bok, former Harvard University President and professor for over fifty years. The author provides a critique and examination of issues surrounding the commercialization of higher education. The book discusses the history of commercialization in higher education and speaks to the many moral dilemmas that higher education institutions face today. In addition to providing a critical examination, Bok raises questions in an effort to help university administrators and board members to distinguish commercialization from privatization. Overview The author provides a simple definition for commercialization in higher education. On page 99, Bok states “Commercialization typically begins when someone in the university finds an opportunity to make money.” The first few chapters of the book discuss the history of universities who have pursued making a profit whether from athletics, education or scientific research. As the shaping of higher education moved from quaint campuses to large universities with beautiful landscapes, stately buildings, and scientific advances, new opportunities to make money appeared. Bok submits that there are numerous elements as the roots of commercialization. University presidents account for and are responsible for the growth of corporate activity. Faced with board members and alumni...
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