Abuses in Intercollegiate Sports
There is a Violation on the Play
By: Brandon Akins
In class on October 2, 2012 we learned about the abuses within' big-time division 1 programs. When you step back and think about the information i am going to provide you with it is quite disturbing because these are the programs that millions of people are infatuated with, little do they know about the dirty behind the clean face. First subject I want to touch on is illegal recruitment. This is all to present in college sports mostly in the men's basketball and football the two primary focuses of college sports because the potential revenue they can generate for schools, and they are the most popular because they are heavily televised. Coaches in recent years have been accused of illegal recruitment such as Lane Kiffin (USC), Urban Mayer (OSU), and many other well known D-1 coaches. USC being one of the most prestigious schools in the nation is seemingly the one with the most scandals of illegal infractions. Illegal recruitment consist of contacting players during grace periods or before they are allowed to due to ageand also recruiting players from other schools. It also includes promising recruits and there parents added external incentives other than the opportunity to play for there program (money, houses, cars, and other items). The second subject I want to talk about is the altering of grades for student-athletes and having other people do there work for them. Meredith Galante published an article "The 10 Biggest College Cheating Scandals" that highlighted the 10 biggest college cheating scandals within' colleges. Three out of the 10 biggest "cheating" scandals in college history involved college athletes in major D-1programs (use link to see the other seven). Programs such as Duke, Minnesota, and Florida State were the one's who made the cut. Now to say these are the only schools that are doing this type of thing would be outlanish, because coaches and college programs will do ANYTHING to keep there star players and most likely have the mindstate of its only cheating if you get caught. In the long run it hurts the athletes because they recieve a degree that they didnt earn which leaves them uneducated in their field. As for athletes that leave early and have to go back they are not athletes anymore so they have to do the solely by themselves and they aren't educated enough because they weren't doing there work in the first place. Now-a-days colleges sports are so glorified and revenue based it is almost like they are professionals and that is the only reason they are there. It's kinda sad when put into perspective because they really don't can about you just what you do/can for them. The last subject is the exploitation of athletes which is an extreme no-no in the world of college sports. This is because it ultimately gets the player and the school itself in a lot of trouble. If you can remember a few years back USC got hit hard in several sports within' several years for the exploitation of student athletes. Two of the more noteable figures of the scandals are Reggie Bush arguebly the greatest college football player ever and OJ Mayo a one and done superstar of the men's basketball team. Madison Gray does more in-depth about the situations in her article "USC Trojans Get Black Eye Over Reggie Bush Scandal". On page 502 of the text Coakley makes a great point when says basketball players on big-time teams are classified as amateurs as they devote most of their college lives to their sport for scholarships fo $4000 to $25,000 per year. He then goes on to say how coaches how salary packages that average over $1 million a year and how coaches, AD's, and NCAA officials become wealthy from the loabr of these amateurs. The strongest part of his information is when he states that this hypocrisy intensifies the expectation of privilege among many athletes, which leads to them getting in trouble. Does this change your out look of your favorite collegiate sports teams?
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