College Sport Commercialization Essay, Research Paper

?I?m going to have to let you go,? says coach Tim Koth to another former

player as he adds another notch to his belt. ?It?s nothing personal, I like

you,? he says, ?but I have to look at this as a business.? Is that what it

is? I always looked at sport as an outlet, or even an opportunity; but sport is

a business, that has become the cruel reality of modern day sport. This paper

will discuss various aspects and show different examples of some ways in which

this fact is apparent. I am a unit, specifically, a mere employee within a

corporation earning just around four thousand dollars per year. Quincy

University (as well as other universities) represents the corporation; it is

because of Quincy University that I will never see my four thousand dollars per

year. The volleyball team, and other teams belonging to the corporation, are the

manufacturers?the moneymakers. So when I, or any other employee, is not

working out efficiently, then the boss needs to ?let me go.? As much as they

(meaning, the coaches) might say that they care for the individual, their care

is only skin deep. Every individual on a team is expendable, and every

individual, at one point or another, will be replaced. Coaches will typically

form relationships with their players on an authoritative level. The coaches

will normally develop a method in which they control nearly every aspect of the

player?s life (Sage 149). It can be anything from eating habits, extra

curricular activities, and training for the associated sport, to such things as

dating behaviors and other social characteristics of the normal life of a

college student?it?s a trap. This is the situation: a high school student

with an exceptional athletic background and satisfying grades is recruited to a

division one school with a healthy scholarship to play basketball. He accepts

the offer and signs his National Letter of Intent which declares that if the

student wishes to play for another institution he must first take a full year

off from playing his designated sport. In that effect, the student athlete is

bound to this institution; however, the institution is not bound to the athlete

(Eitzen 111). The student has no qualms about signing this piece of paper; he

feels that this is just a small price to pay in the way of higher education.

After the first year of college, however, the student finds that he is incapable

of competing at such a high level, and what once was a way to pay for the

greater part of his education has become his downfall. His contract is

non-renewable, non-negotiable; the once caring coaching staff has ?let him

go.? Since signing his letter of intent, he has no chance at playing

basketball for even a division two or three school, and is left with no way to

pay for his education?it?s a trap. Colleges should, in the future, offer two

to four year scholarships to exemplify their commitment to athletes as student

representatives (Eitzen 118). In college, the athlete considers himself or

herself to be an elite, which is true based on a table of progression within the

National Federation of State High School Associations data, stating that only

five percent of all high school athletes are able to carry their athletic career

into a collegiate level (Sage 52). This is one example of the business aspect of

sport. If this were not true, then anyone that wanted to play in a particular

sport, could. College sport has grown from simple intramural and recreational

facets of life to large-scale commercial entertainment. We have come to an era

in which sports are not only a part of our everyday life, but they almost

control us. The topic arises in nearly every conversation, example: ?how

?bout them Bears?!? The mention of a sporting team is a means of casual

conversation, an icebreaker, and even has certain politics involved as well.

Then you have your schools, the corporations, which have come to rely on sports

as a means of attracting more students and other gratuities (i.e. major

endorsements and other various sponsorships). One can be sure that nobody goes

to Ohio State because of its outstanding fine arts division. Ohio State is first

known as a competitive football producer, it is realized secondly as an

educational institution. Ohio State, because of its past successes, is

enthusiastically endorsed by the Nike Corporation and also has an enrollment of

well over thirty thousand students. There is a buzz that resonates in the air

and the minds of those in ?Buckeye Land,? and the state-of-the-art

facilities are directly related to this impact. Another, yet crueler, aspect of

college sport as a business is an example that was made public by the University

of Central Florida football program in 1997. With Heisman Trophy candidate Dante

Culpepper as one of the team?s greater successes, the coach of the UCF Knights

accepted a division 1 schedule, which included powerhouse teams such as Nebraska

and Georgia State for approximately one million dollars in return. The coach

commented by saying that he does not mind getting crushed mentally and

physically, and that one million dollars will more than satisfy any medical

needs. As it was, UCF was nearly obliterated by Nebraska physically, the players

being treated merely as the aforementioned ?expendable units.? Is it not

disgusting that universities are becoming so commercialized that student seating

is often raffled off in a lottery (Eitzen 106)? Participating, whether playing

or spectating, in sports was originally meant for the interest and entertainment

of the students. Would it not be more ideal to have a lottery for the community

outside of the university? It is, after all, the university that created the

community. These are but a few examples that have opened my eyes to college

sport in the business perspective. I feel somewhat guilty in that I am a

participant, and will continue to participate, in college sports even after

searching into the background for these facts. Although I do not foresee much,

if any, change in the future of sport, I will be ever more wary when it comes

time for my blood (my children) to enter into the commercialized world of

?higher education.? ?Not only is collegiate sport concerned with business,

but its leaders go to great lengths to conceal this fact (Sage 191).?

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