IMRaD Report: Should College Athletes be Paid

Abstract

For years there has been an ongoing debate between the NCAA and College Athletes over whether or not the players should receive a salary for their play. One side that is always left out of the argument is how the general population of college students would react to athletes at their schools receiving salaries. A study was conducted at the University of Louisville to examine how the students felt about paying their college athletes. A total of 40 students filled out this survey. To keep results relevant the participants included 20 male students (10 of which were athletes) and 20 female students (10 of which were athletes). The study confirmed that nearly all of the athletes believed they deserved a salary. It was also concluded that the male population on a college campus were much more open to paying players than the female population. The NCAA should hold surveys like this one nation wide at all the Division I sports schools to assist them in making a decision of whether they should begin paying collegiate athletes or not.

Introduction

Research has been done over the years by professionals in the sports field as well as by NCAA representatives. There has definitely been evidence that the NCAA and certain sports professionals have considered paying college athletes. The problem is, they are not looking at the big picture. Both sides of the argument have numerous reasons that support why their claim is correct. For example people on the side of not paying college athletes may say: They are going to school for free (free degrees), room and board is covered, athletes have the opportunity to be drafted, and that the players are still amateurs. On the flip side, those who think athletes should be paid plead their case based on these arguments: Athletes have no time in their schedules to get jobs and make additional money, it is unethical for the NCAA to make money on their name and image without players seeing any of that money, Coaches at the collegiate level make, in some cases, more money than their professional counterparts, and Collegiate sport is a business where the players make up a large majority of the “employees”.

Some will try to argue that non-athletes at college would be offended if the athletes were paid. However there has never actually been a nationwide study conducted to see if this is true. In any given situation there will be two sides. Some people will be opposed to the idea but that does not mean that they are necessarily a majority or correct. In a lot of arguments there isn’t a definitve right or wrong answer, decisions have to be made based on what will be best for the majority not the few. A nationwide study to see how students feel about paying their athletes would give a much different outlook on the whole situation for both the athletes and the NCAA. It is a necessary side of this argument that has been collectively neglected thus far.

Method

Participants:

This study was conducted through a survey. 40 students at the University of Louisville took the survey. The age ranged from freshman to seniors at the school and diversity varied as well amongst the participants. The groups were separated into 20 males and 20 females to keep the results consistent. Within each group were sub groups that were divided into athletes and non-athletes. There were 10 athletes and 10 non-athletes within the male and female groups.

Procedures:

The students were each given a short survey made up of 8 questions. These questions were made to gain a better understanding of why students thought athletes should or shouldn’t be paid. Some questions required participants to think critically about their side of the argument and even offered some alternative ways to pay the athletes in an attempt to direct the main idea of this survey to the salary itself. For example one question asked students if they would feel better about paying athletes if they were to receive smaller salaries of $10,000-20,000 a year (almost like a stipend). It was aimed to reassure students that the athletes would not be making millions of dollars a year like professionals. If the salary was more of a stipend the NCAA would be able to uphold their argument that the players are still amateurs.

Data Analysis:

The survey was anonymous so students did not have to worry about their answers being shared. This was important because students would feel more inclined to answer honestly if they knew nobody would be sure of exactly who was giving which answer. The survey results were put into a number of tables, charts, and graphs to represent how students felt about paying college athletes and why they felt this way.

Results

Graph 1 shows what was found in the different participant groups. Out of the 20 males that were interviewed a total of 17 said that they believed college athletes should be paid. All 10 of the athletes voted yes to getting paid and 7 of the 10 non-athletes agreed that the athletes should receive some sort of salary. The female results greatly differed from that of the men. Of the 20 females surveyed a total of 10 said that they believed athletes should be paid. Again the athletes were in the majority, 8 of the 10 female athletes said that they should receive a salary where only 2 of the 10 female non-athletes believed the players should get paid. It is clear that men feel much more strongly at this University about paying the athletes than the women do. It would be interesting to conduct a separate survey to figure out why this is. However of the 40 students surveyed at this school 27 agreed that athletes should receive some sort of compensation for their play.

Graph 1: Should College Athletes Be Paid

One area of study that is not represented on this graph comes from a specific question on the survey. The question read “Do you think it is right for the NCAA to make a profit on a players name, likeness, and image without the players seeing any of that money?”. Interestingly enough 39 of the 40 participants answered no to this question. It is very obvious that this seems unethical to both athletes and non-athletes. Even though players sign contracts that give away the rights to their names and images it is clear that this deserves further investigation and something should change in the future.

Discussion

The most important element of this current study is that a majority of college students believe that athletes should be getting paid. It is not all athletes either. As displayed by the data, non-athletes also argue that the players deserve some form of compensation for their work. The data shows that both male and female athletes strongly believe they should be paid. The only gap comes in the male and female non-athletes. Only 2 of the 10 female non-athletes said the players should be paid opposed to 7 of the 10 men. Further research should be conducted to try and explain why this is. This research should be continued and carried out in greater detail. It would be interesting to compare the survey results of the 40 students to that of the entire university. It would also be interesting to see if the trends continued nation wide at other schools and if there were other notable trends that appeared in certain regions of the country. A large side of the argument against paying athletes is people believe that the non-athletes on college campuses would be offended if the athletes were receiving a salary on top of their scholarships. The results of this survey suggest that this may not be the case. Taking this survey to the national scale would be very useful in further research on this subject. It could show the NCAA that changes may need to be made to take arguments in another direction and that there is a whole other unexplored side to the “Pay for Play” argument.

Survey

1. Are you a male or female?

           

            Male

            Female

2. Are you an athlete or non-athlete?

           

            Athlete

            Non-Athlete

3. Do you have a friend/ know somebody that plays a division 1 college sport?

           

            Yes

            No

4.  Do you think college athletes should be paid?

            Yes

            No

5. In one or two sentences describe why you think this.

6.  Do you think it is right for the NCAA to make a profit on a player’s name, image, and likeness without the player seeing any of that money?

            Yes

            No

7. If college athletes were to receive smaller salaries of $10,000-$20,000 a year rather than million dollar professional contracts I would feel better about them getting paid.

            Strongly Agree

            Agree

            Strongly Disagree

            Disagree

8. College athletes have a harder time finding time in their schedule to get a job than non-athletes.

            Strongly Agree

            Agree

            Strongly Disagree

            Disagree

My Survey

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J9SRBSS

IMRaD Paper Questions

Research Question: Should College athletes be paid?

Survey Questions:

1. Do you think college athletes should be paid?
2. Why do you think this?
3. Are you an athlete? Male or Female?
     Does opinion vary based on:
         Athlete vs. Non-Athlete?
         Male vs. Female?
4. Do you think it is right for the NCAA to make a profit on a players name, image, and likeness without the athlete seeing any of that money?
5. Would you feel more inclined to pay college athletes if they received salaries of $10,000 a year instead of million dollar professional contracts?
6. Do you believe that an athlete would have more difficulty making time in their schedule to get a job than you would?
7. Do you have friends/ know anybody that plays a division 1 sport?

Research Questions

Do you believe college athletes should be paid? Yes or No?

Then: Why or why not.

Possible ways to approach: What do athletes think versus non athletes? Does gender play a role...Male versus female opinions

Could poll both students and professors. Should not matter what year the student is.

Reflection of 3rd Major Assignment

The purpose of re-mediating my research paper into a presentation was to better represent the information I was trying to get across. I think that turning my research paper into a power point presentation made my argument as a whole much stronger. I think it was much easier to get my key points across because you could emphasize them with points on a slide. After this it was very easy to go back in the verbal part and explain each of these points in greater detail. I made a short power point presentation in the remediation of my project that was about 8 slides long. I then added in a voice over that was me giving my actual presentation. I think this was a much better way to deliver my information than the actual research paper. A power point is much more visually appearing and listening to somebody present the material is much better than simply reading it.

I believe that my target audience remained the same in the remediation of my research paper. I don't think I was making a presentation for a different group of people at all. However I think that the rhetorical situation definitely changed when I was making my power point. This was seen mostly in my design. It was important to realize that this information was going to be presented with a visual. That meant that it had to be visually appealing which led to me adding pictures to my slides. You also had to keep in mind that the slides themselves could not be overwhelming. Color schemes had to make sense and be easy to read while not being too boring. It was also to good to keep in mind the fact that you didn't want to overwhelm people with information. It was good to follow the 6 by 6 rule as best as possible on each slide.

A paper is a very one dimensional way to present information. It has to be put together in a way that makes it flow well since it can only be read by others. In a presentation you have a lot more options. You have the ability to include visuals, and audio to make the information more exciting. Properly utilizing these extra resources is key. I did my best to include pictures on every slide to help back up my information. I also wanted to make sure I wasn't using random pictures just for the sake of having one. I wanted them to all be relevant without distracting people from the main points of my argument.

Research Paper Outline

Research Paper Outline

Introduction

o   Introduce my topic (College Athletics Pay for Play)

o   Give a brief background of the topic so that the reader will understand what the paper is going to be about

o   Introduce the topics for the body paragraphs

·      Half of the paper will be about Pay for Play/ Half will be about no Pay for Play

o   Thesis Statement

Body Paragraph 1

o   Topic Sentence – Pay for Play

o   Introduce my first source possibly the second regarding reasons to pay college athletes to play their sports

o   Use at least one quote to back up the argument then explain the quote

o   Reasons to Pay College Athletes: Focus on Money

·      NCAA players are considered amateurs despite helping earn more annually than some of America’s major sports (NBA $5 Billion Revenue…NCAA sports generated $11 Billion)

·      Universities pay head coaches contracts that are comparable to their professional Counterparts

·      The highest paid public official in 80% of the US is the head coach of a college football or basketball team

·       

Body Paragraph 2

o   Pay for Play Continued

o   Topic Sentence – introduce the next reason/s to pay for play

o   Use at lest one quote to back up the argument then explain the quote

o   Reasons to Pay College Athletes: Focus on Competition and Campus Life

·      It would make sports more competitive and students would be less likely to play for a year and then leave (over seas or professional)

·      Money is made off of the athletes name (Jersey or picture sales) and the player receives none of that money

·      College Athletes would actually be receiving and education because they would be attending the university for a full four years

(Possible Body Paragraph 3 Would be breaking these two up somehow and dedicating a 3^rd paragraph to the reasons: Pay for Play. Want to see how the paper works out when rough draft is completed)

Body Paragraph 4

o   Topic Sentence – No Pay for Play

o   Introduce one or two sources regarding the reasons not to pay college athletes

o   Use at least one quote to back up the information and explain the quote

o   Reasons Not to Pay for Play:

·      College Athletes Receive scholarships that cover full tuition, room & board, and textbooks

·      It would make the disparity between large and small universities even greater. University of Kentucky can make much more money than a small university such as Bellarmine

Body Paragraph 5

o   No Pay for Play continued

o   Topic Sentence – Introduce the sources that will be used in the paragraph

o   Use at least one quote to back the information and then explain that quote

o   Reasons No Pay for Play:

·      Student Athletes not Athlete Students. They are getting an opportunity at no cost that thousands of other Americans are not (can’t afford)

·      Lower level positions in the AD such as athletic trainers are severely underpaid. Counters argument that all of the coaches and staff make millions of dollars while the players make nothing

(Possible Body Paragraph 6: Depending on how the paper is going may introduce new arguments/ break up previous paragraphs. Depends on length and flow after rough draft.)

Conclusion

o   Restate the thesis

o   Recap major points of the paper

o   Wrap up any final thoughts and ideas

o   Strong Closing sentence

Bibliography/ Works Cited

o   Cite all sources correctly in Alphabetical order

IR Reflection

First Major Assignment Reflection

Overall I think that this assignment went very well. One thing that I can say for sure is that it was very difficult to begin writing the rough draft. This assignment was nothing like any of the papers I have ever written before. I did not know how to format it or even specific details such as what tense to write it in. The major turning point in this paper for me was the conference. I found the conference to be very helpful. Before it I was not sure if I had even done the paper correctly. It was helpful to get a copy of the paper back with your notes and then sit down with you so that you could explain them. I think the time was perfect (not too long and  not too short). I actually did not have an issue with the two person conference either. It was surprisingly useful to hear you talk about two different papers. It had two very different perspectives and gave tips on things that I could add into my paper that I would not have come up with on my own.

The biggest challenge of this paper was by far the formatting for me. I was struggling to determine how I was going to lay the paper out so that it would make sense. I was not sure as to how I was going to introduce and explain the 6 different sources. Another challenge that came with this assignment was distinguishing between academic and  non-academic sources. In my field especially where writing is not the most important skill it was difficult to find a lot of good academic sources. It would have been much easier to write this paper if my field of study was something like psychology. I think In the field of marketing the most important skills are creativity and oral communication. Incorporating the writing aspect of this paper was difficult for me. 

Informational Report Draft 1

Alex Quarella

Informational Report

Professor Paudel

February 3, 2015

The World of Sports Marketing

            In the business world there are many different job opportunities. One can work in finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, marketing, etc. Within each of these disciplines are more specific fields of study. An example of these fields could be Sports Marketing. This is an interesting field that has been on the rise in recent years. It is a very competitive line of business, which requires a certain skill set for success. These skills include: communication, attention to detail, creativity, organization, enthusiasm, and writing. There are a number of different professions that exist within sports marketing but this same basic skill set is required for them all.

            There are a number of different jobs that exist within sports marketing alone. You could be an accountant coordinator, event coordinator, marketing representative, or work in public relations. While researching the vital skills for these different jobs there seemed to be one common occurrence. This was that, one seeking a job in the sports marketing field should be able to write effectively. Brian Clapp highlights the importance of this skill in his article on workinsports.com; he says, “Without writing skills you aren’t a marketer or a communicator” (Clapp, 3). Arguably the biggest aspect of a job in marketing is the ability to effectively advertise and communicate with others. You have to be able to sell your promotions or on a basic level be able to pitch the idea to an employer. This idea that you will not be successful in a business environment without the ability to effectively communicate makes sense when you think about the atmosphere of a marketing workplace. The idea of marketing is convincing somebody else to buy your product for whatever reason necessary. If you cannot effectively communicate this message to your consumers then how could you possibly be a successful marketer? The answer is simple, you can’t. Writing skills are the baseline for other sets of skills such as active reading and verbal communication. It is no surprise that the first thing that employers look for in a marketing field is writing skills, this may come up as early as a job application.

            Brian Murphy, the President of Athletes First Sports agency was interviewed on January 28^, 2015. He was asked about his own views on writing skills in his profession. Mr. Murphy insisted that writing skills are paramount to any other when it comes to his work. His company happens to have it’s own marketing department. This department takes care of player promotions and relations. Most of the endorsement deals for his clients originate in the marketing department at the firm in southern California. One thing you will learn if you want to get into the sports business world is that internships and connections are everything. It is all about who you know. Athletes First takes five to six interns each summer from over five thousand applicants. One of the biggest things that his company takes into account is the cover letter on those applications. Brian said that you can tell right away who is a legitimate candidate by the quality of their cover letter. This is essentially an applicant’s ability to write a strong letter. Dr. Stephanie Heald-Fisher touches on this as well in her article on Globe University. Her article is about writing in the business world and she had this to say, “The inability to write clearly and effectively communicate through the written word significantly impacts your ability to land a new job or promotion” (Heald-Fisher, 1). Again it is evident that you must be able to clearly communicate your thoughts on paper if you want to get ahead or even be considered relevant in business. It is a skill that needs to be practiced so that you can develop yourself into the best writer that you can possibly be.  

If you are an 18 year-old college freshman that struggles with writing and you were hoping to go into a field of Marketing or business you may begin to worry a little. However this is not something you should look at as a defeat, rather it should be an obstacle that you work to overcome. Like all skills practice makes perfect. There are lots of suggested ways to improve one’s writing abilities. You can go to workshops or simply take classes in college that target the improvement of writing. One article by Katherine Hansen suggests that you “take a few creative writing courses early in your college career” (Hansen, 1). Creative writing is beneficial in more than one way, especially if you are considering a job in the field of marketing. Aside from writing, creativity and enthusiasm are two extremely important skills in the Sports Marketing field. One could actually kill two birds with one stone by opting to enroll in a creative writing course. You would be improving your ability to write and your ability to creatively think. Put those two skills together and you have the perfect skill set for an introductory marketing job in any field.

Class Discussion 1/29

Our group spent a lot of time discussing the possible format of this paper. It seems to us that most of the work on this paper would be coming from other people (the interviews and outside sources). We talked about the best possible ways to organize this paper so that it would flow well and fit the credentials for the assignment. It seems that the way you back up information will be very important for this paper. Quotes and quote analysis are going to be essential to writing a strong informational report regardless of the field you are discussing. One possible way to organize the paper would be to introduce the interviews and then consider what you learned from them versus what you learned from the outside sources. It would be interesting to see what similarities and differences appear.

Interview and Source Analysis

Interview Review

I conducted my first interview last night with Brian Murphy. He is not only my Uncle but also the president of Athlete’s First. He is an NFL sport’s agent, which is exactly what I want to do when I get older. I felt he would be perfect for this interview because he is one of the best writers that I know. After speaking with him I learned just how often writing affects his career. First off he said writing was a huge part of getting through law school and this is the first step to getting a career in sports agency. He also write’s and analyzes writing all the time through his contract negotiations. This is not typical writing that is done in an everyday English class. Contracts are formal, legally binding agreements, something that I do not fully understand yet but hope to learn more about. Writing is something that Mr. Murphy uses in other ways as well. He has been published in many high-ranking business magazines including the Sport’s Business Journal. While writing may seem like a skill of minimal importance to a sport’s agent it is a skill that is vital in the long term if you want to be successful in this field.

Other Sources

The information that I found from my other sources were very similar to that of which I learned in my interview. All emphasized the importance of writing in a Sport Management field of work. I never realized how essential these skills would be nor did I realize how often I would use them. Whether it is writing formal reports, or introducing a promotion it is obvious that writing is used in a number of different ways in this field. I read something interesting while researching the Sport Marketing field. The article suggested that those interested in pursuing a career in sport marketing should consider taking a creative writing class in college. It said that a class of this sort would help when writing a proposal for a promotion or other document in your field. This would be useful because the field of Marketing especially in the area of sport requires a lot of creativity and innovation. I believe that my sources are going to be very useful in the drafting of this paper.

Assignment 1 Reflection

The rhetorical situation for this assignment is relatively obvious. The audience, as described in the assignment, is a group of high school students who are interested in your profession. The purpose in this situation is explaining to the young students the details of your profession and why it might be something that they are either interested in pursuing or something that they want to avoid studying. My stance on this assignment is going to be something to do with Marketing since that is what I am studying. I will most likely interview professors from the Sports Administration field as I want to study Marketing with a focus in Sports Marketing.