College Athletics And The Creation Of The Ncaa

Do student athletes make the most of their opportunity to obtain a post-secondary education? Do they have the same academic success as those students that are not athletes? Are student athletes just “dumb jocks?” The answers to these questions might surprise you. Much research has been done to dispel the myth that athletes going to college are only there to play sports with little regard to their education. Programs have been created to assure that colleges and universities hold athletes to the same standards as the everyday student. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has decided that the “magic number” to put the “student” back into “student-athlete” is 925 (Hamilton).

In his article “The Shame of College Sports,” Taylor Branch (2011) describes how universities are focused on advancing and receiving money from major athletics and having star athletes, but how the universities are not caring for the “student athlete.” The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has made college sports into an unmerited business. However, as years progress more athletes are getting smart and are taking the NCAA to court. The more students that challenges the rules by the NCAA and take them to court, the secrets and undermining values of the NCAA come out and the closer the NCAA comes to an end.

Sports have always been a hot topic in the academic world. They are seen as a great extracurricular activity that creates a sense of community between players. On the other hand, sports are viewed as a distraction from school. Everyone can agree that sports have become the focal point at many schools leading teachers to feel academics have become secondary. The seemingly endless debate is addressed by Dr. Mark Edmundson in an article of his that was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The NCAA believes “that a student-athlete is a student first and athlete second.” Student-athletes benefit more than from playing a sport that they love. The graduation rate is higher among the student athletes than the general student body. “NCAA studies show that student-athletes enjoy high levels of engagement in academics, athletics and community: have positive feeling about their overall athletics and academic experiences: attribute invaluable life skills to being a student-athlete: and are more likely to earn similar or higher wages after college than non-student athletes.”

For many students, the college experience is measured by the success of their NCAA-sanctioned athletic programs. Without the experience and athletic performance the student athlete brings, most colleges would not reap the benefit of these significant revenue-generating activities. At best, current NCAA regulations need to be revisited to ensure all avenues are addressed to enable the success of athletic students both in the classroom and on the field or court of play. As stated previously, even though students receive full and partial scholarships determined by their athletic performance, in both instances

The impact of college athletic programs on academics has always been a controversial and contentious topic. It seems that athletic programs have some contemplative effects on academics of colleges and universities. Different people have different ideas about how college athletic programs should be carried on. College presidents, administrations, student athletes, parents of students, and athletic trainers are along with these people who point out different facts about the fallouts of athletics on academics. A bunch of people suggest that athletic programs should be dropped from college system, while another group suggests that athletic programs should be taken care with more advertence. An analysis on the effects of college athletics on

480,000 athletes; 19,000 teams; 3 divisions; 1 association (NCAA, n.d.) This is a description of the NCAA today. In the early 1900’s, President Roosevelt got together with Harvard, Princeton and Yale to ban the flying wedge (a very dangerous play in football that caused 18 deaths the previous year.) (Demars, 2016). This was the commencement of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, formally known as the NCAA. The NCAA is an organization that was created to improve collegiate sports, and while it has expanded and done so, there have been challenges and controversy along the way.

The NCAA has relied heavily on the age-old characterization of college athletes as “amateurs” who are first and foremost “student-athletes” (Sanderson and Siegfried). Because they are considered students and

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is charged with the regulation of athletes, and all athletic programs in affiliated universities and colleges across the United States. The N.C.A.A. is the association charged with developing and implementing policies regarding athletics in colleges and universities. With such a role, the association is mandated to specify the minimum academic requirements for a student to participate in any sporting activity. The association claims that it aims at creating a balance between sport and education. The heart of the association 's mission is student-athlete success in classroom and on the field. N.C.A.A. comes up with policies that provide a student-athlete with the opportunity to learn through sporting activities. This is a noble endeavor, but some institutions as presented in the article by Sarah Lyall (1) have misused it. In the article, one can see that the University of North Carolina denied some of its student-athletes the learning opportunity envisioned by the N.C.A.A. Sarah Lyall (1). By offering the students free grades, U.N.C. was doing the students a great disservice, which only served the interests of the university.

They view participation in sport as an aspect that goes along with one’s studies. This mindset is symbolic of collegiate authorities from the late 19th century who strongly worked towards maintaining the academic integrity of the institution that they were a part of. One of the things that makes this topic so special is the fact that millions of dollars are made every second off of collegiate competitions and days continue to pass where a solution is not found to make this fair for everyone.

Athletic programs in college have grown tremendously since they first began years ago, and now some believe that collegiate athletics have no place in higher education. Contrary to this, if one takes a closer look they see that college athletics do play a valuable role in higher education and should continue to play a part in the college experience. Students who participate in college athletics help carry out their school’s traditions, and by competing at such a high level they have the chance to put their school on the map. While competing, these people handle the load of a full-time college student and learn to be responsible and reliable. Some see college athletics as just a business, but truly they provide an opportunity for young adults to compete in the sport that they love, while getting an education and learning lessons that will last a lifetime.

Across the nation, these sponsors uniformly regarded sport as an educational and developmental undertaking (Hearn, Thomas K.). The main premier sports for men are football, basketball, and baseball. These sports help teach teamwork and let people interact with others. This change in the culture of sport is destructive of the aims of athletics as part of the mission of the university (Hearn, Thomas K.). Sports weren’t this advanced when they first started the game.

Intercollegiate athletics in America got its start as student-run activity clubs loosely organized for competition against other local clubs. Eventually these clubs were taken over by college administrators looking to control what was perceived as a less-than desirable aspect of the college experience. Faculty sought control of athletics in order to regulate dangerous events, promote events that would interest alumni, and utilize athletics as a vehicle to promote culture at their colleges.

This article takes a look into how to change the perception of college athletics by making universities realign their athletic department to the university’s mission of academics. Gordon Gee is spearheading this reform throughout the NCAA and started this by moving Vanderbilt’s athletic department into their Division of Student Life department. This is just one of the ways he believes universities can reform their athletic department. Many believe that athletes take easy classes in order to keep their GPA up so they remain eligible for their sports , which in some cases are true as mentioned in $chooled: The price of College Sports (2013) a documentary that looked into the world of college sports. They discussed that some students were taking

There has been amplified debate on the treatment, education, training of the college athlete. To avoid exploitation of athletes, “The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), formed in 1905, set bylaws requiring college student-athletes to be amateurs in order to be eligible for intercollegiate athletics competition” (Schneider n.p.). Intercollegiate athletics have dramatically changed over the last several decades. Currently, intercollegiate athletics generate tremendous amounts of revenue, remarkably in football and basketball. College sports in America is a