Corruption in College Sports

Corruption in Collegiate Athletics

Collegiate athletics in the United States, in particular N.C.A.A. (National Collegiate Athletic Association) Division I basketball and football, have become one of the most prominent forms of sports entertainment today. Like their professional counterparts, the economic stability of many university and college sports programs relies on the success of its teams. As a result, coaches and team officials have been subject to a great deal of criticism, as many have been using improper methods to recruit athletes for their teams. In the past half century, the NCAA, an amateur organization, has been no stranger to its share of corruption and scandal. The NCAA’s constitution states that “An amateur sportsman is one who engages in sports for the physical, mental or social benefits he derives therefrom, and to whom the sport is an avocation. Any college athlete who takes pay for participation in athletics does not meet this definition of amateurism.” (from In Praise of ‘Student-Athletes’: the NCAA is Haunted by its past, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 8 1999) In addition to athletic scholarships, statistics have shown that nearly 50% of college athletes have themselves - or know of - athletes who have received under-the-table-payments for their services. (from Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes, page 63)

Since just after its re-birth after World War II in 1946, the NCAA has been subject to endless controversy. At the time of its re-conception, football coaches in the NCAA were openly recruiting professional players for teams and offering them rewards if they decided to join their squads. In addition, gambling and rumours of fixed games plagued college basketball at that time. NCAA executive Kenneth (Tug) Wilson ordered that teams who broke rules would be penalized by the NCAA. (from In Praise of ‘Student-Athletes’: the NCAA is Haunted by its Past, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 8 1999)

More recently, Mike Rozier, a winner of the prestigious Heisman Trophy, the award given annually to the best college football player in the United States, estimated that he received 1,200 letters while playing football for the Cornhuskers at the University of Nebraska. He commented that: “most of the letters came from people I had never heard of, and who did not know me, or want to know me. All they wanted was to line their pockets with the money that I would soon earn in professional football.