The recent college athletic program that is experiencing negative publicity is the firing of the head coach of the University of Louisville men’s basketball Rick Pitino. In past years there has been several account of misconduct from the student athletes with alleged federal bribery and fraud investigation. These charges lead to the firing of Rick Pitino, who claims that he was unaware of the actions taking place. The University and the president Gregory Postel stated “we listened carefully to what they said, we read carefully everything they gave us, but we felt that our initial decision to begin the process if termination for cause was still in the best interest of the University (NPR.org, 2017).” The type of media coverage is television,
In 1986, it was hinted that people were giving money to Southern Methodist University to bolster the football program. After this was confirmed, the NCAA began taking action and started its own investigation into the program. Upon completing their investigation, they found that all prior allegations were true and began sanctioning the program. On February 25, 1987, the SMU football program, already the most penalized program in history, received the harshest sanctions ever hande...
The Southern Methodist University football scandal, also known as Ponygate, was one of the most severe consequences that the NCAA has ever given out to a college or university. In this instance, the Southern Methodist University football program was found to be illegally paying their players after already being in trouble with the NCAA several times. The first time this football program had been caught by the NCAA for not following its rules was in 1985. This was when an incident regarding offensive lineman Sean Stopperich came up. Prior to transferring schools after going through an injury which made him unable to play, he was paid $5,000 by one of the Southern Methodist Universities booster programs to attend the school and play football there. This caused “the NCAA to place SMU on three years of probation in 1985, limit its postseason appearances, ban the boosters involved and strip the football program of 45 scholarships.” This did not show the program or the school a lesson though. Again in 1986 the Southern Methodist University football program was found breaking NCAA rules. This was their seventh time they had broken and been caught breaking NCAA rules. This time it was found that, “an unnamed booster had been found to have paid 13 Mustang players $61,000 from a slush fund with the approval of key members of the SMU athletic staff.” The result of this complication with NCAA rules is what became known as the, “death penalty”. This death penalty declared that there were to be, “no football in '87. only seven games in '88. no television or bowl appearances until 1989 and restrictions on off-campus recruiting and the number of assistant coaches until 1989 SMU which signed no high school players to letters of intent this winter...
With the recent controversy and scandal surrounding the University of Colorado and the college football world, this off season has been one of the busiest ever. College Football has experienced an eye-opening revelation and these experiences call for major changes in the traditional recruiting practices. Last month, stories surfaced about the University of Colorado using sex, alcohol, and parties to lure blue chip recruits to their program. While these types of actions are prevalent at every major football program, this is the first time that they have been officially exposed. This exposure has started a chain-reaction of changes to the recruiting part of college football and has grabbed the attention of the United States Congress. The involvement of the most powerful government in the world shows the seriousness of the present situation and also that these inappropriate recruiting practices are not going to be ignored any longer. The face of college football will change dramatically and the results of this scandal will have a lasting impact for decades to come. For any person who follows college football and has a favorite team, this is an important issue because the traditional way that many of us have come to love, is about to disappear.
Imagine a business that brings in $60 million each year ,and the people fueling that industry receive none of the revenue(Wieberg). These same people work 40 hours in their sport every week, these “people” are college athletes. The NCAA, the governing body for major college sports, is the industry doing this to college athletes(Edelman). This is an issue of exploitation and control by large institutions over primarily poor people, the NCAA is guiding them in directions to make money for everybody while doing everything possible to keep the players out of the money. College Athletes deserve profit because they bring in large revenue into their program, the NCAA, and they invest tons of time into their sport.
Between Grinnell and Newton, there had been 35 meetings between the two schools in high school football between 1950 and 1985. The two towns, which to this day are very stereotypical high school athletics town, formed one of the fiercest rivalry in Iowa sports. This matchup was talked about for months in advance, stores would close, the visiting town would vacate to occupy the hosting one, and even those with no affiliation to either town would show up for the game. If you ask any of the Grinnell players from that era, the greatest part of their career, was playing under the lights for record crowds every time the Newton game came around. After 1985, a redistricting occurred, after which Grinnell and Newton were no longer on each others
The behaviors of the athletic management staff can affect the team performance and temperance. This has been evident in the case scandal of the Baylor university basketball team. However, there is a great need for those in leadership of the universities to evaluate constantly the behaviors of the staff concerned with various games in the school. This will make such cases to be evaded and when problems occur, they can be timely handled.
College athletes are manipulated every day. Student athletes are working day in and day out to meet academic standards and to keep their level of play competitive. These athletes need to be rewarded and credited for their achievements. Not only are these athletes not being rewarded but they are also living with no money. Because the athletes are living off of no money they are very vulnerable to taking money from boosters and others that are willing to help them out. The problem with this is that the athletes are not only getting themselves in trouble but their athletic departments as well.
Professionalism versus commercialism serves a dilemma in this case. Commercialism is winning the war here ousting professionalism from Rick Pitino. Instead of considering the interest of others, he has been caught in an egoistic behavior in the interest of himself. The pressures of gaining top recruits for the basketball program may outweigh his ethical decision making. Rick Pitino and many other college head coaches get paid handsomely for their skills and leadership as a coach. As more schools improve their basketball programs the competition to gain recruits becomes difficult. Coaches are always expected to win, therefore getting the best players at any cost to try and win becomes a wanted priority.
5 a.m.- Anthony Gill wakes up to his IPhone alarm knowing that he better eat something quick so he will not throw up last night’s ramen noodle dinner on the track. The coaches were still mad about some of the other players skipping class the previous day, so the entire team running was the solution. After hitting the showers and grabbing his books, he was off to class. Legs numb he sat through class and was ready to board the bus at 1 p.m. to take off for round one of the NCAA tournament. “March Madness generated upwards of a billion dollars in revenue in 2015”(Huma). “Also the program surpassed previous viewing records and was third watched event in T.V. history behind two super bowls”(Huma). All the athletes receive no monetary compensation.
College recruiting is something that was created for the good of college sports, but is often used for such unethical actions that will make anyone with a soul cringe. In 2004, University of Colorado’s athletic department used alcohol, drugs, and sex to lure recruits during official campus visits (Gerdy). These actions are immoral on a number of levels, and should not be tolerated. If this type of behavior continues to be seen in college sports, then serious changes need to be made. Illegal recruiting that takes place in NCAA athletics is unethical, gives colleges unfair advantages, and jeopardizes player’s eligibility.
College athletes have a goal that they pursue. The jump to the professional sports leagues is an accomplishment that most college athletes wanted to achieve. But most college athletes go to college and forego completing their senior year and don’t get a degree. In basketball most athletes are one and done. This means they go to college for only one year then enter the NBA draft. For the NFL players have to be out of high school for three years and necessarily don’t have to go to college.
In an interview on the Mike Lupica’s radio show Kentucky’s head basketball coach John Calipari said, "All I can tell you is this: if it happens on your campus, and it happens with your assistants and those people, you probably have a pretty good idea of what's going on.” He also says, "If it happens back in their hometown, it happens back with their family or other ways, there's no way you can know. You just don't know. So all I would say is most coaches have an idea if it happened on their campus. You might not be the first to know about it, but you eventually hear about it.” This statement shows how much they really do know about athletes’ actions. If they don’t say anything about what’s going on but they know, that should cause some serious punishment for both school and
College athletes do a lot for their universities, but they do not seem to get much in return. They make millions for the NCAA and the university itself, but they do not get to keep any of the money they make. The best thing a student athlete can get is a full scholarship, which is great, but might not be enough. For many athletes, the ideal situation is to make it big and go professional after college, but that does not happen very often. Even the lucky few who make it, may end up getting screwed since they go from having no money to being rich. That sounds great, but how likely is it that they know how to manage their money so they can stay wealthy? Having an agent or financial advisor in their college days could help, but the NCAA forbids it. The NCAA is a growing program but is has to make some changes if it wants to be fair to the student athletes associated with them. These changes should include granting student athletes stipends, better rules for agents, and clearer scholarships.
College is a time for young people to develop and grow not only in their education, but social aspects as well. One of the biggest social scenes found around college campuses are athletic events, but where would these college sports be without their dedicated athletes? Student athletes get a lot of praise for their achievements on the field, but tend to disregard the work they accomplish in the classroom. Living in a college environment as a student athlete has a great deal of advantages as well as disadvantages that affect education and anti-intellectualism.
For decades there has been a debate on student athletes and their drive to succeed in the classroom. From the very beginning of organized college level athletics, the goal to want to succeed in athletics has forced students to put academics to the back burner. In spite of the goal to want to succeed over a hundred years of attempts to check limits of intercollegiate athletic programs on colleges' academic standards still seems to struggle to this day. This brings to surface one of the most asked questions in sports, “What effect does college sports have on academics and economics?” Herbert D. Simons, Derek Van Rheenen, and Martin V. Covington, authors of “Academic Motivation and the Student Athlete” researched the topic on whether athletics and academics benefit each other. Bryan Flynn, the author of “College Sports vs. Academics” poses the question “Should institutions of higher learning continue to involve themselves in athletic programs that often turn out to be virtual arms races for recruiting talented players who bring big money and prestige, but put academics to the back burner?” Although both authors agree that sports have an impact on an athlete’s academics, the focus of their argument differs.