A Philosophy Conflicted:

The NCAA, Its Member Institutions & Their Principles

Kadie Otto, Ph. D.Associate Professor

Western Carolina University

Entertainment U.

• American universities are discovering their “latest and growing responsibility—namely to provide public entertainment.”

• “…Of all the instrumentalities which universities have for entertaining the public, the most effective is athletics.”

Former president of the University of New Hampshire and LSU, Harold W. Stoke, wrote the above in the Atlantic Monthly (in French, 2004).

NCAA Bylaws

1.3.1 - Fundamental Policy A basic purpose of the NCAA is to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational program and the athlete as an integral part of the student body, and by so doing, retain a clear line of demarcation between intercollegiate athletics and professional sports.

2.9 - The Principle of Amateurism Student-athletes shall be amateurs in an intercollegiate sport, and their participation should be motivated primarily by education and by the physical, mental and social benefits to be derived. Student participation in intercollegiate athletics is an avocation, and student-athletes should be protected from exploitation by professional and commercial enterprises.

Brand (2006)

“…‘Amateur’ defines the participants, not the enterprise. We should not be ambivalent

about doing the business of college sports.”

H.R. Otto (2010)

Professor Brand assumed the ordinary definition of “amateur”, which defines an “amateur” as one who gets no share of any financial return produced by one’s activity.

Benefits of Brand’s Definition

• TV Contracts & Networks

– NCAA DI Men’s Basketball Tourney with CBS & Turner Broadcasting$10.8 billion, 14 yrs. = $771 million p/yr.

• Longhorn Network• Big 10 Television• Pac-12 Multimedia• ACC Television Partners• SEC-TV• BIGEAST.tv

NCAA Licensee Contract Agreements• 5th & Ocean Clothing• Action Images• Action Performance• Berry Plastics• Brine• Champion Products• The Cotton Exchange• Cutter & Buck• EA Sports Basketball• EA Sports Football• K2• The Game• Gear for Sports• Haddad Apparel Group• Huffy Sports• Hunter Manufacturing• JanSport, Inc.• Jostens• Lands’ End• Main Event Apparel• Majestic Athletic

• New Era Cap Company• Nike• Peter David, Inc.• Prairie Graphics• Rawlings Sporting Goods• Schutt Sports Group• Sega Basketball and Football• Snap TV Games• Sony Basketball and Football• Spalding Sports Worldwide• Superior Merchandise• Team Beans, LLC• Top of the World• Tri-Lakes Sportswear• VF Imagewear• Wilson• Wincraft• The Encore Group (Xpres)• Zweigle Advertising

NCAA Trademarks• National Collegiate Athletic Association®• National Collegiate Championships®• National Collegiate Athletic Association® Hall of

Champions™• NCAA Championships™• NCAA Hall of Champions®• National Champion of Champions™• Campus Corner™• NCAA Career Coach™• Final Four® - Division I men’s or women’s basketball

only• The Final Four® - Division I men’s or women’s basketball

only• Final Four Friday™ - Division I men’s or women’s

basketball only• Men’s Final Four™ - Division I men’s basketball only• Men’s Final 4™ - Division I men’s basketball only• Women’s Final Four® - Division I women’s basketball

only• Women’s Final 4® - Division I women’s basketball only• March Madness® - Division I men’s or women’s

basketball championships only• The Big Dance® - Division I basketball only• Men’s Elite Eight®- Division II men’s basketball only• Women’s Elite Eight® - Division II women’s basketball

only• Elite Eight® - Division II basketball onlyElite8®

• NCAA Sweet 16® - Collegiate basketball only• NCAA Sweet Sixteen® - Collegiate basketball only• Men’s College Cup® - Division I men’s soccer only• Women’s College Cup®- Division I women’s soccer only• College Cup® - Division I men’s and women’s soccer only• NCAA College Cup™- Division I men’s and women’s soccer only• Stagg Bowl® - Division III football only• College World Series® - Division I baseball only• Women’s College World Series® - Division I women’s softball only• Frozen Four® - Division I men’s and women’s ice hockey only• Men’s Frozen Four®- Division I men’s ice hockey only• Women’s Frozen Four® - Division I women’s ice hockey only• Hoop City®- For corporate partners involved in Hoop CityIt’s More Than A

Game®• J.J. Jumper® - Collegiate basketball only• NCAA®• NCAA Basketball®• NCAASports.com™• NCAA International™• NCAA Kids™• YES®• NCAA News™• NCAA Photos™If it happens to my team, it happens to me! ®• NCAA Basketball. . . Who’s your team? ®• It’s the Journey®• Road to the Final Four®• The Road to Atlanta™• The Road to Indianapolis™• The Road to Minneapolis™• The Road to New Orleans™• The Road to Omaha®• The Road to St. Louis™• The Road to San Antonio™• The Road to the Final Four®

Cal Corporate Sponsors(A-Z, n = 123)

• AT&T• Atlantis Casino & Resort• All-State• Aflac• Airpark• Airgas• Alaska Airlines• Alliance Roofing• Acco Engineered Systems• Anderson Carpet• Annabelle’s• Bancroft Hotel• Bank of the West• Barney & Barney• Bart• Bay Street • Bear Flag…..• ……Zipcar

Salaries (USA Today)

• A.D.’s (2011) – 6 make $1 million or more– #1 – Vanderbilt, David Williams = $2.5 million– UCLA, Dan Guerrero = $688K– Arizona, Greg Byrne = $602K– Cal, Sandy Barbour = $460K

• Football – Head Coaches (2010) – 25 make $2 million or more– 60 make $1 million or more

• #1 – Alabama, Nick Saban = $6 million• Cal , Jeff Tedford = $2.3 million• Arizona, Mike Stoops = $1.2 million• UCLA, Rick Neuheisel = $1.2 million

Show ME the Money!

• “In 2010, the Texas Longhorns' men's basketball program generated $15.6 million in revenue.”

• “If this were the NBA, in which players get 57 percent of league revenue, the 13 scholarship players on last year's roster would have been paid an average of $684,102 each.”

See Tom Farrey & Paula Lavigne, (March 13, 2011). “Selling the NCAA”.

Marxist View of Capitalism

NCAA

(Human Labor)

Superstructure Athletes (NCAA rules, sanctions,

penalties)

Social Institutions (universities, teams, media, politics)

H.R. Otto (2010)

Brand’s intent is to decouple participants from that in which they participate, so that the status of one does not necessarily apply to the other, and hence, one need not be “ambivalent about doing the business of college sports”.

H. R. Otto (2010)But suppose the product of x’s activity returns a profit received by others. Since it is also commonly understood that exploitation consists in taking the fruits of another person’s efforts, that is:

2) x is exploited if some y other than x receives profit generated by x’s activity,

it follows that although technically x remains an amateur, x is exploited. Yet, NCAA Bylaw 2.9 states explicitly that, “student-athletes should be protected from exploitation…”.

H.R. Otto (2010)In commercial contexts, implications of the common definitions of

“amateur” and “exploitation” run headlong into conflict with Bylaw 2.9! Consequently, professor Brand’s “decoupling principle” does not work.

A more rigorous definition of “amateur” is needed:

x is an amateur if, and only if, no one receives financial benefit from x’s play, performance or talent.

In other words, if x’s playing results in an income, even if x isn’t the recipient of the income, x’s playing –like any other product—is part of a commercial transaction, and, as such, cannot be construed as an amateur activity.

H.R. Otto (2010)In such circumstances, x’s playing is not an amateur activity, nor, therefore, is x an amateur.

Much worse, x is actually a victim of exploitation by the very party—the NCAA—charged with protecting x from exploitation…even as x’s status mutates from amateur to professional, a professional whose income producing ability is being altogether expropriated.

Fame, reputation, adulation, and the like, which accrue of necessity to the player are not remuneration. Although such psychic reward does not militate against x’s status as amateur, profit to the business certainly does.

What About the Academic Cost?(Simon, 2004)

• Do “big-time” intercollegiate athletics actually harm the academic and educational functions of the university?

• If the purpose of athletic participation becomes winning for the sake of external goods, such as visibility and financial support, won’t athletes come to be viewed as mere means to that end rather than as students to be educated?

Athlete-Student?• 65% of athletes believe that their G.P.A. would be

higher if they did not participate in a varsity sport

• When asked to respond to the statement, "I view myself more as an athlete than as a student" 62% of athletes responded that they strongly agreed, agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement

See “Potuto and O’Hanlon (2006) “National Study of Student Athletes Regarding Their Experiences as College Students”

Opportunity to Earn an Education?

• Athletic Financial Aid Contract“University (x) hereby awards you a grant-in-aid to

enable you to further your education…..”

• Academic clustering effectively disables a student from furthering his education

Clustering (25% or greater)0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

26% 26%

38%

19% 18%

39%

62%

34%27%

21%28%

Clustering in Pac - 10 Football

Arizona

Arizona State

Cal

Oregon

Oregon State

Stanford

UCLA*

USC(a)**

USC(b)**

Washington

Washington State

Cal

Clustered major = American Studies

Football Student Body 38% 1%

13%

19%

19%25%

19%

6%

2009-10 Academic Majors of Cal Football MINORITY Upperclassmen (n = 16)

Ethnic Studies

Interdisciplinary Studies

Social Welfare

American Studies

African-American Studies

Legal Studies

7%

50%14%

7%

7%

7%7%

2009-10 Academic Majors of Cal Football Caucasian Upperclassmen (n = 14)

Social Welfare

American Studies

Political Science

Sociology

Mechanical Engineering

Civil Engineering

Business Administration

UCLA

Clustered major = History

Football Student Body 62% 5%

20%

65%

5%5% 5%

2009-10 Academic Majors of UCLA Football MINORITY Upperclassmen (n = 20)

Sociology

History

Economics

English

Mathematics/Applied Science

5%

57%19%

5% 10%

5%

2009-10 Academic Majors of UCLA Football Caucasian Upperclassmen (n = 21)

Sociology

History

Political Science

Economics

History and (or) Political Science*

History and (or) Economics^

UCLA

• “Major” did not match with “Career Goal”

• M – History – Civil Engineer• M – History – Computer Designer• M – History – TV Sports Announcer• M – Sociology – Architectural Engineer

USC

Clustered major (a) = SociologyClustered major (b) = Public Policy, Management & Planning

Football Student Body (a) 34% 1.6% (b) 27% 3%

45%

10%

28%

7%

7% 3%

2009-10 Academic Majors of USC Football MINORITY Upperclassmen (n = 29)

Sociology

American Studies & Ethnicity

Public Policy, Management & Planning

Social Science

Political Science

Economics

92%

4% 4%

Pac - 10 Clustered Areas of Academic Study (n = 25)

Social & Behavioral Sciences

Communications

Business

Does the current state of “big-time” college sport represent the triumph of commercialism over education?

Academic Primacy(The Drake Group Proposals)

Academic TransparencyEnsure that universities provide accountability of trustees, administrators and faculty by public transparency of such things as a student's academic major, academic advisor, courses listed by academic major, general education requirements, electives, course grade point average (GPA) and instructor-without revealing the names of individual students.

Academic PriorityRequire students to maintain a cumulative GPA of 2.0 each semester to continue participation in intercollegiate athletics.

Make the location and control of academic counseling and support services for athletes the same as for all students.

Establish university policies that will ensure that athletic contests and practices do not conflict with scheduled classes.

Academic-Based ParticipationReplace one-year renewable scholarships with need-based financial aid (or) with multi-year athletic scholarships that extend to graduation (five year maximum).

Require one year in residency before an athlete can participate in intercollegiate sport. This rule would apply to transfer students as well as to first year students.

Means of Production Relationship

Bourgeoisie/Owners (NCAA)

Proletariat/Workers (Athletes)(NCPA – National College Players Association)