NCAA - Student Aid and the benefit of college athletics for institutions.

National Colligate Athletic Association (NCAA)

According to Derek Bok, former President of Harvard University, the, “first collegiate race was in 1852, between oarsmen from Harvard and Yale on Lake Winnipesaukee” (Bok, 2003, p.35). Although this race was not an officially sanctioned event it started the competitive spirit of collegiate athletics as we see it today (Bok, 2003).  Yet, the structure of collegiate events has changed over time. “In the beginning, colleges didn’t have to have students on the team. It could have been alumni or others” (Bok, 2003, p. 36). Equally, once formal regulations began, alumni were prohibited from playing in sanctioned games. Because the physical nature of these games increased, so too did the injuries; and given that games became violent, “regulations and the NCAA was formed” (p. 37).

The creation of the NCAA is partially credited to United States President Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1904 hosted two White House conferences to encourage athletic reforms (“National Collegiate Athletics Association”). After months of discussion and debate, the NCAA was officially created on March 31, 1906. The presiding purpose of the NCAA is to establish athletic rules and educational policies, which allow member institutions to compete with each other on a level playing field. Currently, the NCAA oversees 89 championships in 23 sports; and there are more than 400,000 student-athletes competing in three divisions at over 1,000 colleges and universities within the NCAA (“National Collegiate Athletics Association”).

Over the past half-century, the NCAA has received substantial criticism, which derived from a perception that athletics pilfers funds from students and faculty uses. In order to educate the public and hopefully change this perception, the NCAA retained Dr. Daniel Fulks. Fulks, a renowned author and researcher of collegiate athletics, conducted research on the financial contributions athletics provides to schools and local communities.

Fulks published a series of reports that provide financial inferences between scholarship contributions and athletic endeavors. The first comprehensive report I discovered was Revenues and Expenses, Profits and Losses of Division I-A Intercollegiate Athletics Programs Aggregated by Conference – 2003 Fiscal Year. This report was created in 2003, and Dr. Fulks highlights the total costs and benefits to conferences because of athletics. However, Dr. Kahn’s (2007), research says the costs of athletics is too expensive and that is does not provide much economic benefit to schools, but that the communities benefit from such events.

            Nevertheless, a financial link has been related to Fulks’ research. Where as thousands of scholarships are created, both directly and indirectly, because of NCAA athletic programs. For example, in division one football each team is allotted eighty-five grant-in-aid assistantships that would not be possible without athletics and the NCAA (Fulks, 2003).  Some might argue that these institutions would be able to give that amount to academically or financially deserving students. Contrary to that argument is the notion that the majority of those eighty-five annual scholarships could not be created without the revenue produced by the sport. Without ticket sales, sponsors, and memorabilia being purchased then institutions would not be capable of providing said scholarships and I tend to agree with that response.

            In Closing, Fulks’ research shows how student aid is increased by athletics. In as much, we can see that the NCAA has holds a strong influence on how student aid is administered throughout the majority of today’s colleges and universities; that is when it comes to the student-athlete.

References:

Bok, D. (2003). Universities in the Marketplace: The commercialization of higher education. Princeton, New Jersey. Princeton University Press.

Fulks, D. (2003). Revenues and Expenses, Profits and Losses of Division I-A Intercollegiate Athletics Programs Aggregated by Conference – 2003 Fiscal Year. Retrieved from National Collegiate Athletics Association website: http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/resources/research/finances+of+intercollegiate+athletics

Kahn, M. (2007). Markets: cartel behavior and amateurism in college sports. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 21(1), pp. 209-226.

National Collegiate Athletics Association. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.ncaa.org