Lit Review

citation: Weaver, Karen. "A Game Change: Paying For Big-Time College Sports." Change 43.1 (2011): 14-21. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

Summary: The article gives information about how much money college athletics earns and how college sports are paid for. 

Author: Karen Weaver 

Key terms include: college athletics, students athletes, big ten, money 

Quote:  "The Big Ten Network provides a revenue stream of almost $9 million dollars per year to each member. All told, the Big Ten Conference members stand to reap a minimum of $2.8 billion over the next 20 years" (1).

"The second warning sign is runaway coaching salaries. The belief that, in order to win, an institution must hire a “name” coach is pervasive in the mid-majors. One only has to look at Rutgers, which, in trying to elevate its national profile, has spent over $2 million dollars annually on head coach Greg Schiano’s salary and in 2008 added $250,000 to it from an out- side source without disclosing the supplement to the general public" (1).

"In fact, so many have applied for re-classification from Division II to Division I that the NCAA has implemented a four-year mora- torium for new Division I members. According to USA Today, the new membership re-classification fee for schools that join Division I when the moratorium is lifted may approach $1.3 million" (2).

value: I used this article to support college athletics, as it gives details on how much college sports make. However, I think I will use it to help support some facts I have about student fees and the affects they have on nonathletic students.

Counter Argument

The counterargument for my paper is probably that college athletics brings in a significant profit for the university, and that it is a necessary evil due to privatization. The main source I have for this argument is the pieces of opposing arguments he has in how book. I also have some numbers from Karen Weaver which show that the Big Ten does bring in a pretty particular sum.

I want to find a better source, however. Something which has a more solid argument with better points. I'm thinking of using the autobiography with McCormick.

Interview

I'm not quite sure what I'll use as my primary source yet. I am thinking of creating a poll to see how university students feel about rutgers having such high sports subsidies, but as the past few days have taught me it is apparently very difficult to get people to take a poll. I can also try interviewing a student, but I feel like interviewing only one student and using their singular opinion about rutgers spending isn't very impactful.

Alternatively, I can use an autobiographical source, but I'm not sure how I want to work something like that into my paper.

My Case

Cheslock and Knight describe a pattern of economic imbalance present in a number of athletic programs at universities. Such universities seem to directly prove my belief that college athletics do not actually produce significant revenue. Dowling also provides a description of New Mexico State, which struggled with both academic decline and athletics related legal scandals.
Finally, while I was not able to find many scholarly articles on the topic, the article by Lavigne describes cases like Chris Rainey’s where athletes were able to escape crime charges. I was also able to find an article in the Sociology of Sports Journal which claims that athletes are less likely to be convicted of sexual assault.  I will attempt to find more article supporting this idea.

Cheslock, John J., and David B. Knight. "Diverging Revenues, Cascading Expenditures, And Ensuing Subsidies: The Unbalanced And Growing Financial Strain Of Intercollegiate Dowling, William C. Confessions of a Spoilsport: My Life and Hard times Fighting Sports Corruption at an Old Eastern University. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2007. Print.

Lavigne, Paula. "Lawyers, Status, Public Backlash Aid College Athletes Accused of Crimes." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 15 June 2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

WOLVERTON, BRAD. "NCAA Says It's Investigating Academic Fraud At 20 Colleges." Chronicle Of Higher Education 61.20 (2015): A13. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Benedict, Jeffrey, and Alan Klein. "Arrest And Conviction Rates For Athletes Accused Of Sexual Assault." Sociology Of Sport Journal 14.1 (1997): 86-94. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Lit review 4

Citation: Kamusoko, Sibongile D., and Cynthia Lee A. Pemberton. "Student-Athlete Wellbeing And Persistence: An In-Depth Look At Student-Athlete Perceptions." Online Submission (2012): ERIC. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.

Summary: The article gives information about NCAA regulations put in place in order to raise academic standards for student athletes, and the effects such regulations have 

Author: Sibongile D. Kamusok and Cynthia Lee A. Pemberton

Key terms include: college athletics, students athletes, NCAA

Quote:  "Intercollegiate athletics has gone through a number of restructuring periods associated with the challenges of balancing athletic and academic excellence (Ferris, Finster, & McDonald, 2004; Sack & Staurowsky, 1998; Thelin, 1994; Zimbalist, 1999)" (3).

"Savage’s study confirmed anomalies and inconsistencies associated with intercollegiate athletics and the role and mission of colleges/universities in terms of their core business that is, educating students (Thelin, 1994)" (3). 

"Despite NCAA legislative measures and requirements, recent literature confirms that student-athletes still confront conflicting roles associated with education and athletics (Hyatt, 2003; Nordeen, 2005; Suggs, 2003; Suggs, 2005; Wolverton, 2008). In addition, cases of academic fraud, in the form of altering athlete transcripts, acceptance of lower admission standards, awarding grades for classes that athletes had not attended, dishonesty, unethical practices, use of improper incentives from alumni, smear campaigns and attacking programs at other institutions persist (Ferris, et al., 2004; Kelo, 2005; KFCIA, 1991, 2001, 2010; Maxcy, 2004; Thelin, 2004; Zimbalist, 1999)"(5).

value: this article will give me the information I need to connect academic dishonesty and academic decline as a result of college sports .

Sources

Works Cited

Benedict, Jeffrey, and Alan Klein. "Arrest And Conviction Rates For Athletes Accused Of Sexual Assault." Sociology Of Sport Journal 14.1 (1997): 86-94. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Cheslock, John J., and David B. Knight. "Diverging Revenues, Cascading Expenditures, And Ensuing Subsidies: The Unbalanced And Growing Financial Strain Of Intercollegiate Athletics On Universities And Their Students." Journal Of Higher Education 86.3 (2015): 417-447. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.

Dowling, William C. Confessions of a Spoilsport: My Life and Hard times Fighting Sports Corruption at an Old Eastern University. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2007. Print.

Lavigne, Paula. "Lawyers, Status, Public Backlash Aid College Athletes Accused of Crimes." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 15 June 2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

WOLVERTON, BRAD. "NCAA Says It's Investigating Academic Fraud At 20 Colleges." Chronicle Of Higher Education 61.20 (2015): A13. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Lit review 3

Citation: Benedict, Jeffrey, and Alan Klein. "Arrest And Conviction Rates For Athletes Accused Of Sexual Assault." Sociology Of Sport Journal 14.1 (1997): 86-94. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Summary: The article gives information about athletes and how they seem to be more likely to get away with rape. 

Author: Jeffery Benedict 

Key terms include: college athletics, corruption, rape

Quote: "In studyingjudicial affairs data and police records at 30 Division I universi- ties, they found that a significantly higher percentage of the reported incidents of sexual assault to judicial affairs offices are committed by male student-athletes" pg 87

"Rather than try to determine the likelihood of athletes committing sex crimes, we approached a re- lated topic: whether athletes already accused of rape receive preferential treatment in the criminaljustice system" (88).

"Figure 1,we note that of the 217 official police complaintslodged against athletes, 45 (21%) resulted in no formal action being taken" (89).

value: this article gives me a lot of statistics and information about preferential treatment of college athletes. It also gives me evidence about how athletics seems to promote rape culture.

Lit Review 2

Citation: Dowling, William C. Confessions of a Spoilsport: My Life and Hard times Fighting Sports Corruption at an Old Eastern University. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2007. Print.

Summary: The book is pretty pretentious honestly, but it does discuss how athletics leads to academic decline and legal scandals, and how universities should probably stop prioritizing college athletics.

Author: William C. Dowling

Key terms include: college athletics, corruption, scandals, academics

Quote: "now and then in our recruitment of athletes, in order to get the type of athlete we need, football, basketball, whatever, at the university of new mexico, to make that program good, to make that properly fill the seats, to make that program pay the bills of the university, we will go find a downtrodden young man, and some of my best friends, some of the best people I know, have come from down in the gutter someplace" (24).

"No college or university can be better than its students" (27).

Francis Lawrence was a tireless advocate of big-time college sports, able to recite readily and with evident conviction the list of reasons typically given for trying to produce winning teams in football and basketball:  stronger support from state legislature, increased alumni donations, and revenue from gate receipts..."  (37).

Value: This book has already helped me to orient my thoughts and provide an argument against college athletics, specifically with the argument that athletics is bad for academics and leads to legal scandals.

Research Proposal

Working Title: College Athletic Programs Do More Harm than Good (terrible title will fix)

Topic

            A decrease in public funding has forced many universities to privatize. As a result, such universities actively seek out new ways to generate revenue. One of the most popular methods has been the development of college athletics. According to many proponents of college sports, athletics can lead to stronger support from state legislature, increased alumni donations, and revenue from admissions (Dowling 37). While this is true for the most part, college athletics also has many negative effects on a university. For example, the profit generated from athletics may be eclipsed by the cost of supporting an athletic team. Furthermore, strong support of sports teams may lead to a decrease in academics as universities begin to make exceptions for promising athletes whom may not be up to academic standards. Lastly, college athletics may lead to legal scandals ranging from forging transcripts to covering up rape accusations. With these issues in mind, one must ask themselves whether or not benefits of college sports are outweighed by the costs.

Research Question

            My research question will be: Does college athletics actually generate any real revenue, and are the legal issues and decrease in academic prestige worth it? It seems possible to answer, and I will attempt to research each point individually. Overall, the topic is very controversial. Crime specifically is very controversial, as not everyone agrees that college athletes are able to get away with crimes any more than their peers.

Theoretical Frame and Case

            To support the idea that the revenue generated by athletics may not be significant, I will use Cheslock and Knight’s article, which outlines a pattern where intercollegiate athletics programs become trapped and forced into constantly increasing their spending, thereby promoting financial strain and imbalance. To begin, Cheslock and Knight consider how some top athletics programs are able to generate revenue through a number of external sources, such as admissions or television.  However, they soon realize that the expenditures of those leading programs increase as revenue from external sources increases, thereby forcing lesser programs to increase their own expenditures in order to keep up. Lastly, when such lesser programs can’t keep up, they resort to institutional subsidies or student fees. The result is an imbalanced program where the revenue is very unreliable.

            In order to support the idea of academic decline resulting from athletic programs, I will use the ideas mentioned by Dowling. In order to build their athletic programs, many universities will go through great lengths to admit students who are athletically talented, yet academically lacking. While this may be good for the sports teams, lowering the bar for these students will lead to an overall drop in the academic quality of the university. Smart students do not want to go to a university where their peers are in need of remediation, and talented professors do not want to be teaching remedial classes. As a result, such students and professors will go out of their way to avoid attending these universities, resulting in academic decline.

            There are many academic scandals resulting from college athletics programs. I will use the article from the Chronicle of Higher Education to describe the volume of such scandals. Dowling also describes one scandal involving the forgery of academic transcripts at the University of New Mexico (22). My overall point will be that athletics leads to crime, which takes its own toll on a university as people typically do not want to attend a college which supports fraud.

            Colleges may also cover up crimes committed by athletes in order to save their own sports programs. One article in the Sociology of Sport Journal describes how athletes are significantly less likely to be convicted of sexual assault. Another article by Lavigne in ESPN describes athletes such as Chris Rainey who committed numerous crimes, but were able to get away with no charges or very limited charges. I will try to prove whether or not these statements are entirely true and if they are a direct result of athletic programs turning a blind eye.       

Case

            As mentioned above, Cheslock and Knight describe a pattern of economic imbalance present in a number of athletic programs at universities. Such universities seem to directly prove my belief that college athletics do not actually produce significant revenue. Dowling also provides a description of New Mexico State, which struggled with both academic decline and athletics related legal scandals.

Finally, while I was not able to find many scholarly articles on the topic, the article ny Lavigne describes cases like Chris Rainey’s where athletes were able to escape crime charges. I was also able to find an article in the Sociology of Sports Journal which claims that athletes are less likely to be convicted of sexual assault.  I will attempt to find more article supporting this idea.

Works Cited

Benedict, Jeffrey, and Alan Klein. "Arrest And Conviction Rates For Athletes Accused Of Sexual Assault." Sociology Of Sport Journal 14.1 (1997): 86-94. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Cheslock, John J., and David B. Knight. "Diverging Revenues, Cascading Expenditures, And Ensuing Subsidies: The Unbalanced And Growing Financial Strain Of Intercollegiate Athletics On Universities And Their Students." Journal Of Higher Education 86.3 (2015): 417-447. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.

Dowling, William C. Confessions of a Spoilsport: My Life and Hard times Fighting Sports Corruption at an Old Eastern University. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 2007. Print.

Lavigne, Paula. "Lawyers, Status, Public Backlash Aid College Athletes Accused of Crimes." ESPN. ESPN Internet Ventures, 15 June 2015. Web. 20 Oct. 2015.

WOLVERTON, BRAD. "NCAA Says It's Investigating Academic Fraud At 20 Colleges." Chronicle Of Higher Education 61.20 (2015): A13. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Lit Review

Unfortunately, the two books I wanted to read for this paper are not yet in the library. So, I'll have to use one of the articles I found instead.

This graph is from the article "Diverging Revenues, Cascading Expenditures, and Ensuing Subsidies: The Unbalanced and Growing Financial Strain of Intercollegiate Athletics on Universities and Their Students," and ti shows the external revenue generated by college athletics.

Citation: Cheslock, John J., and David B. Knight. "Diverging Revenues, Cascading Expenditures, And Ensuing Subsidies: The Unbalanced And Growing Financial Strain Of Intercollegiate Athletics On Universities And Their Students." Journal Of Higher Education 86.3 (2015): 417-447. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Oct. 2015.

Summary: The article discusses the cascading effects of college athletics and how the effort put into athletic programs outweighs any benefits. It talks about a vicious cycle, where colleges will expend more and more money for athletics hoping to generate a worthwhile profit, leading to overall financial unsustainability.

Authors: John J. Cheslock and David B. Knight

Key terms include: revenue divergence, expenditures cascades, subsidies, college, athletics, and apparently economics of higher education, intercollegiate athletics, and organizational theory

Quote: "A major question underlying our model is the sustainability of the intercollegiate Unbalanced and Growing Financial Strain of Athletics 419 athletics system, as the subsidies required to support less prominent athletic programs are large and growing. As we reveal in this article, student fees and institutional subsidies can sometimes exceed $1,000 per student. If these subsidies continue to grow and/or the financial situations of these institutions and their students deteriorate, substantial resistance to these subsidies may build" (419) pertaining to one aspect of athletics which is unsustainable

"The growing affluence within the United States, especially among the wealthiest members of society, in combination with new revenue generating strategies employed by athletic programs, also led to major revenue gains. Premium seats at sporting events were increasingly provided only to those individuals who donated large sums of money to the athletic program. Especially passionate fans were given the opportunity to donate even more money to receive invitations to banquets and receptions, public recognition in athletic program materials, premier parking for athletic events, and special access to coaches and players, among other incentives (Clotfelter, 2011)" (422) pertaining to the benefits college athletics do generate

"Frank and Cook (1995) note that self-reinforcing processes (i.e. positive feedback loops) are important elements of many winner-take-all markets, and we believe these types of feedback loops are central to the case of intercollegiate athletics" (424) pertaining to how college athletics leads to a vicious cycle of unsustainability

Value: I believe this article will give me the numbers I need and help me outline some of the key issues I want to address in my paper, although I dont think I want to make the entire thing about only the revenue aspect of college athletics. I also want to talk about how college athletics can cause a strain on student athletes academically and mentally/physically and try to link that back to privatization. I'm not sure yet.

Privatization

Privatization connects to my topic because privatization involves a decrease in public funding. As Katharine C. Lyall and Kathleen R. Sell explain, “Public universities that used to cluster around the 50 percent public investment point a decade ago now typically have moved down toward 30 percent or less in public support…” The result is an increased reliance on academic programs, which seem to generate profit for some institutions. I will try to answer whether profit exists, and if it does whether or not it is worth it in the end.

Scouting the territory

I think I'll probably go with the first topic I mentioned (how college sports affect academics and help or harm the school's finances) if only because the other topic I mentioned was too similar to the paper we just wrote.

I found sources mentioning how very few sports programs actually make any money for colleges. The first one I found was this one, as well as this one from investopedia. I also found some articles mentioning how college sports are funded, and how football and men's basketball are the only sports which actually make money. The key terms that were the most useful were "do college sports make money" and "college sports and academics/"

The articles I found all seem pretty useful for my point. I also want to try to use a book we mentioned in class, called Confessions of a Spoilsport, especially since it is about Rutgers and will probably give me a good deal of information on the topic.

There doesn't really seem to be much controversy on the topic. The universities which seem to support sports look like they do it because they think it will generate money, which the facts seem to be that it either generates no gains or very minimal gains. I'm not sure what I'll uncover in further research, but I think I will probably see that the cost of college sports pretty much outweigh the benefits.

Topic ideas

I am thinking about a few topic ideas right now. One that I like a lot and would probably be able to find a lot of information on is the effects college sports have on academics, including both financial effects and intellectual effects. I could probably interview just about anyone in this school.

Another topic I'm looking at is how privatization of higher education reinforces inequality and essentially kills the American Dream. I'm sure it would be easy to find someone to interview on this topic as well.