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 studentathletes 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.
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Longhorn Network
Big 10 Television
Pac-12 Multimedia
ACC Television Partners
SEC-TV
BIGEAST.tv
NCAA Licensee Contract Agreements
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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
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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
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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®
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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)
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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
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#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
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#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 in Pac - 10 Football
70%
Arizona
62%
60%
Arizona State
Cal
50%
Oregon
40%
Oregon State
39%
38%
34%
30%
27%
26% 26%
20%
Stanford
19% 18%
10%
28%
21%
UCLA*
USC(a)**
USC(b)**
Washington
Washington State
0%
Clustering (25% or greater)
Cal
Clustered major = American Studies
Football
38%
Student Body
1%
2009-10 Academic Majors of Cal Football
MINORITY Upperclassmen (n = 16)
6%
Ethnic Studies
12%
Interdisciplinary Studies
19%
19%
Social Welfare
American Studies
25%
19%
African-American Studies
Legal Studies
2009-10 Academic Majors of Cal Football Caucasian
Upperclassmen (n = 14)
7%
Social Welfare
7% 7%
American Studies
7%
Political Science
Sociology
7%
15%
50%
Mechanical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Business Administration
UCLA
Clustered major = History
Football
62%
Student Body
5%
2009-10 Academic Majors of UCLA Football
MINORITY Upperclassmen (n = 20)
Sociology
5% 5%
5%
20%
History
Economics
65%
English
Mathematics/Applied
Science
2009-10 Academic Majors of UCLA Football
Caucasian Upperclassmen (n = 21)
Sociology
5% 5%
History
5%
9%
Political Science
19%
Economics
57%
History and (or) Political
Science*
History and (or) Economics^
UCLA
• “Major” did not match with “Career Goal”
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M – History – Civil Engineer
M – History – Computer Designer
M – History – TV Sports Announcer
M – Sociology – Architectural Engineer
USC
Clustered major (a) = Sociology
Clustered major (b) = Public Policy, Management & Planning
Football
(a) 34%
(b) 27%
Student Body
1.6%
3%
2009-10 Academic Majors of USC Football
MINORITY Upperclassmen (n = 29)
Sociology
7%
3%
American Studies & Ethnicity
7%
45%
Public Policy, Management &
Planning
Social Science
28%
Political Science
10%
Economics
Pac - 10 Clustered Areas of Academic Study
(n = 25)
4% 4%
Social & Behavioral
Sciences
Communications
Business
92%
Does the current state of “big-time” college sport represent the
triumph of commercialism over education?
Academic Primacy
(The Drake Group Proposals)
Academic Transparency
Ensure 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 Priority
Require 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 Participation
Replace 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)