"Unsportsmanlike Conduct"

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the book "Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes," where Walter Byers gives an overview of the corruption he witnessed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) while he was the executive director. The paper explains Byers' premise that the NCAA appears to protect college athletes and the integration of academics and athletics, but in actuality, these reforms are covered up by hypocrisy, exploitation and the mislabeling of athletes as amateurs. The paper looks at Byers' discussion of the current grant-in-aid system and how coaches control the financial opportunities available to athletes. The paper then outlines Byers' reforms and his competitive opportunity plan for athletes.

From the Paper:

"The underlying theme in Byers' book is the premise that the NCAA appears to protect college athletes and the integration of academics and athletics, but in actuality, these reforms are covered up by hypocrisy and exploitation. The problems are rooted in the NCAA's focus on its multibillion-dollar industry, self-promoting coaches and their staff, and university presidents who hold their jobs for a short-period of time compared to tenured faculty. He admits that his leadership as executive director of the NCAA simply filled a void that was not being enforced by the integral regulations of the regional accreditation agencies and university presidents. Byers recommends a tougher system of serious federal regulations and programs that will increase job opportunities for athletes. He argues that university coaches and the interpretative process of the NCAA's archaic rules lock away the athlete's rights to gain economic freedom by a mislabeling them amateurs."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Byers, Walters, and Charles Hammer. Unsportsmanlike Conduct: Exploiting College Athletes. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1995.

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