Gender Equality

                                                                 University Accusations
                                                                       By: R.J Swartz

                                                                                                               

                      This articles more closely connects to what is upcoming and what we discussed on Tuesday (4/14).  In this article there has been an accusation made to the Dennison University athletic department saying they do not comply with the Tittle IX rules and regulation. The article states that the university is made up of 56% of woman but that is only reflected on by 42% of the athletics at the institution being devoted to the woman's programs. The accusation was made my a 76 year old man who lives over 2,000 miles away from the school. Herb Dempsey, the accuser, has devoted much of his time to researching and reporting schools who do not comply with the legislation after his daughters very successful high school volleyball team was over shadow by a mediocre football team. This connects to the upcoming and current topics of gender equality and Tittle IX. People like Herb have reason to be upset. The idea of gender equality is sport is something that is very new tho the industry. Woman has been and continue to fight this uphill battle so that they have the same oppurtunities as males in the wide world of sports. The book hits on this on page 233. Coakley discusses how the Tittle IX legislation was passed and made sense to people when it came to education and the classroom but not in the world of sports. The enforcment of the law was delayed to be enforced by many insitutions for 7 years. It is also discussed how the battle is ever going and the idea of gender equality as taken off like a rocket over the last two generations.  

                                                              

                                                                    UNC Grade Changes

                                                                           By: RJ Swartz

            This article takes a look at a potential scandal involving the University of North Carolina. These accusation involved the football and men's basketball team. The article talks about an African studies program that most athletes would take. The academic adviser from the university comments in the article talking on how he rarely if ever saw athletes coming to him to look for advice on what courses he should schedule, he would see "normal" students quite regularly. The transcpript from a former football player was investagated and it found he was taking courses and receiving credits for courses that had never meet. If you view the video attached you can see the submittion of a paper that received an A- and it clearly does not show anywhere near that effort.

Scandal Video

             This connects to our class discussion where we looked at examples of deviance in sports and the problems of studying deviance. This scandal from the University of North Carolina is a direct example of deviance we took note of in class as well of how tough it can be to study this issue. We all know that for one of us to plagarize or to turn in poor work we will receive a poor grade, but when it comes to athletes and the pressure of your program to succeed academic cheating is way too common especially at the division 1 and FBS levels. This is looked at in Coakley's text on page 172, although it seems to maybe contrast the points made from the article and video. In the text it is disuccused that todays deviance is way less common before the days of mass televison coverage. Although we still see corruption such as this one if we look back on the early 80's and SMU giving players cars and receiving the death penalty. Although we all know that this is a deviant act by the university the video touches on how the reality of the situation is that they were the ones who were caught and this is more common then we actually know in  intercollegiate sport.   

The Media

     The New News Coverage.

By: RJ Swartz

             In this article from the April 14-20th, 2014 Volume 17 Issue 1 of the SBJ, which can be found on page 12, It discusses the media in sports. In this article it touches base on how networks are now only only broadcasting games or tournaments but how each network creates a sub network with in their own station. During the NCAA tournament and the BCS championship game companies such as CBC and ESPN would broadcast the games on different networks within their organization giving the viewer not just different camera angles but a totally different viewing experience. For example ESPN has several channels available to watch and experience events from different views, such as ESPN 2 or ESPNU which features prominently collegiate athletics. This connects to class when we discussed the introduction of sports and the media. These are two of the most successful industries not only in the country but in the world. It only makes sense to for the media and news stations to suck as much money as they can from the sport industry. This also connects how the sport and media feed of one another. Sport has become increasingly popular in the last 10-15 years and as a result we are seeing more news and media coverage and stattions. This is referenced in Coakley's text on page 394 where he talks about how sports and the media are interconnected. We all use media and the news in way one or another to be sure we are caught up whats going on, especially when it comes to the latest in sports. This only makes sens that netwokrs such as ESPN and CBS would want to provide the most coverage possible. These major netwokrs that provide several different oppurtunities for us as fans to watch our favorite events in near geniuss. In the article Bruke Magnus of ESPN is quoted saying " The notion hat you can capture more fans through multiple presentations is not as far-fetched as it probably was 10 years ago."

The SEC Network - This videos provides the announcements and some facts about ESPN launching the SEC Network.

 

Sports and the Economy

The Truth Behind Major College Athletic Budgets

                                                                        By: R.J Swartz

                       

        In this article it discusses how colleges and universities at the D1 level are able to cover their budgets for the athletic season. This shows that although some of the "big name" schools such as Alabama, Texas, and Michigan do generate profit, it is due to them taking subsidies from places such as the university or student fees to help cover their expenses through out the year. The article talks on how the just 23 of the 228 D1 school generate enough to cover their own expenses. Of the that group of 23 schools, 16 took some sort of subsidy. What can be seen as even more terrifying is 10 of the 16 school that did report receiving extra money from the school, state, or student fees actually received more money in 2012 then they did in 2011.  We talked in class on how only 1 in 5 school at the division 1 level make a profit at the end of a fiscal year. We continued the discussion by talking about how this contributes to the schools being such big spenders. Dr. Higgs used the example of her being in Las Vegas one Summer and there was a big off season hoops tournament going on. She explained how she was staying in a hotel that cost roughly $400 a night, every school that was apart of this tournament was also staying in her same hotel. Clearly these schools needed multiple rooms and were staying for multiple nights. In Coakley's text on page 380 he discusses how athletic programs try to "sell" their departments in order to gain sponsorships to assist in paying for money, scholarships, equipment, and apparel. 

                                     The "sad" truth of collegiate athletics is that although these programs make a killing it simply isnt enough for the schools to cover their expenses on their own. It is only a "sad" situation because of how much the school is willing to spend to make sure athletes enjoy stays in the best hotel, have the best meals and have the most prestine facilities to use.  

Sport and Education- Cuts in funding, Lack in participation

                                                                No Pay.. No Play
                                                                    By: R.J Swartz

    In the article a group of over 300 athletic directors met for the annual convention and the topic of athletic budgets cuts was amungst the most popular topics of the convention. The article outlines our discussion on the cost of high school sports from February 20th. This discussion including topics such as $2 billion dollars in funding cut from high schools across the country. As well as high school sports no longer being a given to be played at every high school. This also connect how the "pay to play" strategy affects not only the lack of funding a school has but it also eliminates some families from enabling their kid to play a sport due to their own financial situation. The Indiana athletic directors are worries as well that student oppurtunities will become limited due to the need to require a student too pay to play a varsity sports. They are also concerned that competition levels could decline because they need to cut feeder programs such as junior high or junior varsity sports.

 Along with connecting our conversation from February 13th, about the decline in participation of kids by the age of 13. The text explains how the need to for pay to play money isnt affordable for many families. This can also been attributed to the loss of those junior high and junior varsity teams. Many students will gain interest in other things. The texts also points out that for most high school the athletic budget is very minimal to the schools budget but teachers and staff often turn to reduce funding in athletic funding when threats to their job arise.
    The idea of budget cuts across the country for high school sports is very scary thing for poeple in this major. With the cuts in funding the oppurtunites for student decrease thus less kids will be able to participate, and obviously leans on participation of individuals in sport to survive. The problem many people fail to realize is that save a sport you must work from the ground up to keep the youth involved.

Sport and Politics

                                                           Presidents Who Saved American Sport
                         

                                                                                By: R.J Swartz

     The article points many presidents that have actually saved american sport. The first example is President Teddy Rosevelt, in 1905 the game of football faced the possiblity of being banned in this country. This was due the 18 deaths in the sport in 1905 alone. Teddy took his power in the oval office to call together the officials of many of the ivy league schools such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton to get the game cleaned up.
 In 1961 President John F. Kennedy signed the Sports Broadcast act of 1961, feeding the frenzy that would become the NFL as we know it today. This relates to the notes and lecture we had on class on February 27th. The connection between the government and sport is outlined by promoting the prestige and power of a community of a nation. These presidents could see that the sport of football was something we as Americans grew very kind to even early in its development. Seeing this the government needed to help promote and save the sport realizing that the abolishment and publicity is vital for the american race to have more enjoyable down time. This also represents the connection of government and sport by highlighting the increase in support to political leaders and political structure. When each president decided to help promote or save the sport they gained a tremendous amount of support towards their political campaign. The people love canidates that care about sports and their hobbies as much as they do.

       This article is outlined in Coakley's text in chapter 13. On pages 443-444 the idea of promoting the prestige and power of a community or nation, this relates to the article by stating the people take pride in their favorite sports teams at all levels. Towns have signs that promote successes such a being the home of a state championship team. The correlation between the saving and promoting the sport on the professional level translates into saving the sport at the interscholastic level for communities to rally behind as well. The texts also outlines the increase in support for political leaders and the government. It explains how former President George W. Bush often was seen with famous athletes and inviting championship teams to tour the White House. The presence of sports in the political campaign of a canidate is vital and considered to be great for their public relations. It is much easier for us as voters and citizens to vote for a canidate that share similiar interest and can relate to us.

Trends in Youth Sport- Declining participation

                                                         To Play?... Or Not to play?
                                               
                                                                 By: R.J Swartz


             On February 18th, 2014 we discussed some of the major trends in youth sport in our country. One of the major trends we looked at was the increase in participation is alternative sports such as snowboarding, skiing, skateboarding and many other of the X-Games competitions. This article looks deeper into the decrease in youth participation in the 4 major sports, football, basketball, baseball, and soccer. This article also looks into the other reasons why kids are choosing not to participate which ties into the decision making model we discussed on February 13th, 2014. With the kids in today's america finding things such as social media and video games to be more intriguing than playing a sport.  This also ties into the discussion we had about how in youth sport today there is an over emphasizes on winning and an unnecessary amount of pressure is put on by significant others such as parents or siblings on how well the child preforms.
                        This connects to Coackley's text on pages 96-98 when he discusses a study he did with a colleague on why young people did not participate in the highly publicized sports. The study showed and reinforced our notes section on benefits on youth sport benefits. It showed that kids that did participate in youth sports because of self-reflection, social support, social acceptance and cultural factors.The study also showed that no one is born into a sports vacuum meaning we are never stuck playing a sport just to play. We are faced with the decision to play sports everyday, and the decision directly is effected by the relevance the sport has toward achieving our life goals. Which is showed in our notes when we talked about how 70% of kids quit playing sport by the age of 13. The study done by Mr. Coakley and his colleague, the article presented and our notes can all be summarized by showing that the youth in today's society become less interest in our common sports and more interested in alternative sports or achieving other life goals.

Why Study Sport?

                                                   Sports Wagering Exposed

                                                              By: R.J Swartz

   In late January when classes began for the semester on the the 23rd we talked about what sport is and why we should study it. This article goes in depth a little farther on a fact we discussed and i found to be very interesting. Sports wagering or gambling is and industry that thrives both legally and illegally.  The numbers presented by Dr. Higgs in class demonstrated that the sports industry in the 4th largest industry in our country, that is by no means hard to believe when we look at how much gambling on sport alone brings in $2.4 billion per year legally and an estimated $380 billion wagered illegally in the country annually. According to this NBC news aritcle the Nevada Gaming Commission reported that $3.2 billion was wagered last year.

   Further connecting the article and the notes we have covered in class 41% of all wagers placed was on the sport of football. This relates how we as Amricans have grown and extreme interest in the game of football as well as trying to make a few bucks on the side. We discussed how we as Americans love sports that a fast,violent, and physical. This coorelates to why we love to gamble, especially on our countries favorite sport. Gambling is a high risk high reward hobby that usually gives us odds that do not favor us to win. After your bet is placed you could either win or lose alot of money very quickly. In Coakley's text in chapter 1 on page 21 where the section on sports and the economy begins, the sections continues on to page 24. Coakley talks about how sport is directly affected by the economy and how well we are doing as an economy. this ties into the wagering scene because when we have more money to spend we are willing to invest more into the things we are passionate about. Lets face it who wouldn't want to try and make a few bucks while rooting for our favorite sports teams.