...Genetic Testing and College Athletes On April 13, 2010, the NCAA made tests for Sickle Cell Trait (SCT) mandatory, effective in August 2010. SCT is a condition where the blood cells are elongated and potentially block blood flow and resist bonding to oxygen. The trait is generally benign but becomes active under extreme physical stress. For athletes, when performing strenuous activities, the trait is sometimes triggered and can potentially cause death. The statute states “student-athletes must be tested for sickle cell trait, show proof of a prior test or sign a waiver releasing an institution from liability if they decline to be tested.”(Brutlag, 2010) SCT genetic testing and NCAA regulations were implemented in order to protect student athletes, but the testing raises questions of who should receive the test results, the use of the results in discrimination against affected athletes and its potential to be cascade towards excessive genetic testing. In the current legislation, the results from an athletes test are given to the school, the coach and the athlete. This disclosure policy has the potential to be used to discriminate against those who are afflicted with SCT. Although the athlete has the option to opt out of testing initially once they have the test, the disclosure to the school and coaching staff is automatic. The test results should be first given to the student, and then they should have the option to waive liability and not disclose to the university...
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...college athletes?” Whether or not to pay college athletes has been in debate for a number of years. No one seems to be able to decide whether or not these “students” deserve to be compensated for their actions on the gridiron, or whether they should be treated just like every other student at the school. The fact of the matter is that these athletes are not actually like every other average student. These athletes for some of these big name schools aren’t just helping the NCAA rake in small chunks of money; in fact they are helping the NCAA make billions of dollars every single year. It seems like only the NCAA is benefiting from the money who are the people in charge, and the workers, the athletes, are working for such a large profit, with no compensation towards them. To some this is the way it should be, but to others, they feels as if the athletes are being abused in a way that they are unable to fight back about. Therefore, do scholarships and free-living expenses make up for the billions of dollars these top tier athletes are bringing in? Or are these college athletes being abused by the billion-dollar industry that they help fuel? Some people view college sports as students at a school, representing their school through the act of a sport. However, the truth is that these college students fuel a billion dollar business that has no income for the actual “employees.” In Taylor Branch’s article, “The Shame of College Sports”, he continuously shows how these students are...
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...College athletes are held to a high standard, to act, perform and live like professionals. Why not pay them like professionals to? Sure you don’t have to pay them as much as professional athletes but there are a lot of reasons why student athletes should get paid rather than just the scholarship itself. When fans watch these student athletes play there is a major profit in money that the NCAA gets from the millions of people watching. Also, the students are the one playing the sport; so paying them would seem reasonable. To make it fair there are multiple ways that students could get paid and the NCAA could regulate the amount each student gets paid. Student athletes deserved to be paid in some way because the NCAA gets large amounts of money from fans watching it, it would cut down on players receiving improper benefits, and there are multiple ways that every student athlete could get paid fairly. The NCAA earns too much money from fans watching the sports that they need to pay athletes. March Madness, Bowl Games, and other events in college sports generate millions of dollars that go straight to the NCAA and its universities. According to Michael Wilbon, an ESPN expert, the NCAA has a contract with CBS and Turner Sports that pays them 10.8 billion dollars through 2024 for March Madness alone. That being the tournament in men’s college basketball in March with 64 teams competing on the biggest stage. Wilbon has always stated that he strongly regrets college athletes getting...
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...Thomas Bessinger Professor Hortman February 18, 2014 Should Student-Athletes get paid? A very popular question that has been lingering around the sports world for sometime now is whether or not student-athletes should get paid. There are a lot of different opinions about this topic. The NCAA does not allow student-athletes to receive any type of benefits of any kind from the university; if the student-athlete does, he is no longer an amateur athlete and can no longer compete at the college level. This problem has been common over the past years and is causing athletes and universities to be penalized. If the NCAA would allow student-athletes to receive some benefits this would not be as common. Therefore, student-athletes should get paid because they are making money for their university, many student-athletes cannot have a job, and it is unfair for the NCAA to profit off of student-athletes. This reasoning has led many people to try and incorporate change in the collegiate world. Student-athletes, particularly at “big time” schools, have been bringing in millions of dollars in for their universities. The universities are selling jerseys that have the athletes’ names on the back, but the student-athletes are not receiving anything from that (Chen, 2013). Student-athletes are not even allowed to sell their jerseys or other apparel that is given to them by the university. In 2010 the NCAA did an investigation and found out that AJ Green sold one of his jerseys for $1000...
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...College Athletes Be Paid In 2013 the NCAA made 912.8 million and 85% of that came from the division I men’s basketball tournament as you can see college sports is very popular in the United States but who really wins? The average division I football player spend about 44 hours per week to football with practice and other sport related activity now mind you this is a college student. College student across the country are given homework and are expected to study for test and be prepared for class when need be so as you can see the athlete doesn’t have lots of time to spare for like working a job. Teams travel to different parts of the country to play sports against others college teams and we all know how hard travel time can be now if I’m not mistaken in this country you have to have some kind of income to make ends meet. The NCAA make all this money while the athletes in which they make the money off of has to travel and dedicate most of all their time to the sport they play. If a student can’t work a job how are they supposed to take care of themselves many student go without eating a hardy meal or having the basic needs to survive yes they may have a dorm room and a cafeteria lunch but your taking about athletes most of which are big human beings that need to eat. The NCAA make money off these kids’ jerseys, video games and autographs but the student is not allowed to take money or profit off anything while not working a job. Many people say well the athlete get a...
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...Should Student Athletes be Paid? Should the student-athlete receive pay for his athletic performance for the school? This argument has been the topic of debate for many years. Some argue that the student-athlete receives a full scholarship, and this should be his total pay. After all, receiving a college degree should be the player’s primary concern. The point has to be made, however, that the scholarship does not cover all of the student-athletes’ living expenses (Meshefejian). When the student cannot pay his extra expenses, they either chose to leave college or move on to professional sports. Leaving school for any reason eliminates the whole purpose of attending college, which is to receive a degree. The college and the NCAA receive enormous amounts of money from the student-athlete’s sports ability. Because the student-athlete provides the college with such a large sum of income, the student-athletes should be given enough scholarship funds to pay the total cost of attending the school which would provide the student-athlete with a diploma and a degree. The college, as well as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), earns substantial amounts of money from the sports programs at most colleges. In the 2013-2014 basketball season, NCAA received over $1.15 billion dollars just from advertising sales during the tournament(Benedykcik). Mike Benedykcik further reports in his article, The Blue Line: College Athletes Should be Paid that the University of...
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...(Cassavaugh). Athletes can lose scholarship money because of an injury, poor play or misconduct. There has been controversy that student athletes should be paid. How does one determine who should be paid, how much and where does this money come from? Athletes are amateurs who should concentrate on their education. How does one determine if an athlete is an amateur or a professional? An amateur is one who cannot receive money in the form of salaries or endorsements. They play a sport for the love and desire of it. A professional on 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...
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...Derek Layton Professor Bird EN 300 11/18/14 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...
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...was to say that many people across the nation believe that a form of slavery still exists in our country today? As shocking as it sounds, there is support of the belief that the NCAA is profiting off of “slave labor” in the form of its student athletes. A relatively recent college football controversy involving former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel has served as an ideal platform for people to make their case for whether or not college athletes should receive compensation. It’s a debate that’s been up in the air for decades but has now really heated up in the aftermath of the Manziel controversy. The best way to put it is that when the NCAA issued a one game suspension for receiving money in exchange for autographs, the NCAA also sparked a possible revolution upon itself. In the summer of 2013, one of the biggest stories in sports was the Johnny Manziel autograph scandal. Manziel had been accused of receiving a five-figure payment for autographed jersey’s, pictures and memorabilia (Manfred). On the surface, people might not even flinch at the sound of that. A star athlete selling autographs, no big deal, right? Well the “big deal” was that he was a collegiate, not professional, athlete. By NCAA rules and regulations a student-athlete cannot profit off of their name. In other words, this is hypocrisy at its finest. By signing to play football at Texas A&M, Manziel’s name now belonged to Texas A&M until the day he leaves the school. So basically they have the...
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...December 2014 Should College Athletes Be Paid? College sports is one of America’s biggest industries. It is an industry that brings in almost 4 billion dollars every year to the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association). The NCAA is not the only one profiting from this large industry. TV networks like ESPN and CBS, retailers, and of course universities make millions each year because of the work of college athletes. It seems that everyone is profiting off the college sports industry except for the ones who are actually performing. College athletes are not being compensated for their hard work and diligence in this highly profitable market industry. While some college athletes get scholarships, which are renewed each year depending on the athlete’s performance and usefulness to the team, that is still not enough to meet the needs of the athletes. Also these college athletes cannot profit off their marketability and their name. College athletes are not allowed to receive anything of monetary value in exchanged for autographs or memorabilia. Every year, thousands of student athletes across America sign the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Form 08-3a, the “Student-Athlete” form, waiving their right to receive payment for the use of their name and image (Infante et al). However, retailers and college universities make millions off these athletes with university apparel with the athlete’s number on the merchandise. College athletes also bring a lot of interest...
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...of income, and they attract students to their institutions. Universities depend on their athletes to produce and maintain the popularity of their school's name. According to NCAA rules, “You are not eligible for participation in a sport if you have ever: Taken pay, or the promise of pay, for competing in that sport” (NCAA Regulations 1).Even though the athletes are the one making the money for the college the students are not paid for their time spent playing sports. The NCAA has the capabilities to pay the students but it has not happen yet. The college athletes have no incentive to stay in college and finish their degrees, as many cannot afford to pay for the increasingly expensive college...
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...Would you work for free? How would you feel if you had devoted thousands of hours while attending college and thousands of hours prior to attending to college to receive no compensation for your efforts. This is the exact situation that student athletes in the NCAA are faced with. The NCAA, the National Collegiate Athletic Association is one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the world today with revenues exceeding twelve billion dollars a year. This money comes from ticket sales, marketing and fees for the use of the athletes likenesses across a variety of media. It all directly financially benefits the universities with the student athletes not getting even a bite of that pie. It is surprising that even though student athletes are the most easily identifiable figures in college sports and often the driving force behind this...
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...Abstract This paper explores a social psychology study that reports on results from research conducted on negative stereotypes and the effects it has on certain types of people. The study focuses on the phenomenon social psychologist call the “stereotype threat” or the concern of being at risk of confirming a negative stereotype about one’s social group (Stone et al., 1999). Similar studies have shown that when people are confronted with negative stereotypes about their social identity they tend to perform poorly on a task. On the other hand people tend to do well on tasks when the threat to their social identity is not present. This paper examines Stone’s, Sjomeling’s, Lynch’s and Darley’s experiment focused on whether traditionally non-stigmatized groups such as white college students would also experience distress when their social identity is threatened. Stereotype Threat The anxiety or concern of confirming negative stereotypes about one’s social group in any situation is referred to as the stereotype threat by social psychologist. Ever since it was first introduce by psychologist Claude Steele, the stereotype threat has become one of the most researched topics in the field of psychology, academics, and recently in athletics. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to critically analyze the study: “Stereotype Threat Effects on Black and White Athletic Performance,” conducted by Jeff Stone, Mike Sjomeling, Christian Lynch, and John Darley....
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...College athletes are under a huge amount of stress from balancing school, their sport and their health. Athletes self-identity usually revolves around being an athlete and this can have negative consequences even before they graduate college. “However, through self-affirmation exercises, athletes can feel better about themselves, and be more willing to accept criticism” therefore they will be more prepared to deal with stress (Harrison and Rasmussen, p. 81). When an athlete is told they fall short academically, whether it is true or not, they begin to develop a negative self-identity. Take for example, about a week ago my Sociology professor asked the class about things we do to “cheat” the system. A classmate said that athletes do it all the time because they take easier classes and get special treatment for being an athlete. There are a few athletes in my class and I could tell this really bothered them. Now we can try to change the stereotype that athletes are stupid or get better treatment, but honestly there will always be people out there who believe the stereotypes. The best thing we can do is teach athletes how to deal with these stereotypes through self-affirmation exercises. The truth is the athletes are the only ones effected by these negative comments about athletes,...
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... The text gives a good example based on their research stating that “when young black men were in the honors program and played on a school team, other students and teachers identified them as athletes rather than honor students…and white students in the honors program and on school teams were clearly identified as honor students rather than athletes” (Coakley, 226). This illustrates the specific social identities black males have. I thought to myself, why is this so? Why is it that African American males are viewed to exceed in athletic ability, rather than intelligence, and vice versa for white males. The problem is stereotypes in sports, which often lead to other general stereotypes. These stereotypes begin to imply that certain races have certain characteristics. I believe these stereotypes need to stop, and black male’s social identities need to expand beyond being athletic. These athletic stereotypes can play a negative impact in the real world. For instance, when trying to find a job, employers are not interested in their applicant’s athleticism, but rather their hard work and intelligence in the field. Therefore, this illustrates that such stereotypes of African-American’s athletic superiority has a negative effect in their future. This is why society needs to realize and be educated about the effects of stereotypes. During our group discussion, it would be interesting to hear about personal stories regarding their experiences with...
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