EXAMINING THE VALUE OF COLLEGE SPORTS
EXAMINING THE VALUE OF COLLEGE SPORTS
You are to bring in any facts that you feel germane to the cause based on the primary research you will be conducting for this project. Your grade will be based not only on your creative thinking but on the quality of the research and analytical analysis & content you turn in with your response.
WHAT IT WONT ME BASED ON IS YOUR OPINION…YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN TARGET MARKET, CORRECT?
So…you have one simple question which you need answered and then analyzed by you, with solid conclusions and ready to answer questions by me…and the class.
Your Question: Should college athletes get paid to play?
Greg Oden, J.J. Reddick, Vince Young, and Reggie Bush, are all names synonymous with college athletics. They have played for some of the top programs in the nation such as the University of Texas, Duke University, University of Southern California, and Ohio State.
These players are responsible for bringing millions of dollars to their particular school, but they will never see the fruits of their labors.
This brings us to the question that many people want to know —should Division 1 college athletes get paid?
It is a fact that NCAA major sports are million, even billion dollar industries and the players are directly responsible for this income. Many people feel that scholarships are enough for these athletes to get by.
Although four or five years of free school is great, the fact is one or two games played by those few players who are on full scholarship will cover that cost no problem. Besides that fact, everyone who plays on the team is not on scholarship. A lot of the 50 plus players on a college football team and 15 plus on a college basketball team are not on full scholarships, and many of them are not on scholarship at all.
With all the time and work they put in, shouldn’t they receive something?
I don’t think the average person truly understands the work required to be a Division 1 college athlete. These young men and women put in nearly the same work as professional athletes, as well as balancing class work, but many times see no rewards. There is only a small percentage of these elite athletes that will get a major payoff by playing on the professional level.
How is it fair that they put in all the risk, with no reward?
It seems like the NCAA is prostituting these athletes for their talents and money. NCAA football brings in roughly half a billion dollars a year, not counting the $184 million payouts for bowl games.
Why don’t the people who make this possible get a piece of the action?
The NCAA often makes the argument that they want to keep the line between amateur sports and professionalism, but one could find this a contradiction of how they market these players and games. If you go to your local sporting store or even Wal-Mart, you can find college players’ jerseys right next to these professional ones, so how is this not capitalizing on the player’s names?
Why is it fair that college coaches can sign million dollar contracts but the players who are out there every day get absolutely nothing?
The fact of the matter is, these athletes are doing the school work, as well as performing physically at a high level, so some type of payment seems only fair. Perhaps million dollar contracts are not doable, but why would it be so wrong to pay $500 or $1,000 dollars a month, while they are in season, as a means for college students to survive?
These are just some questions I have supplied you…to make you think but by all means, make sure you supply your own questions as well with your questionnaire for your study.
Your questionnaire can not be longer than (10) ten questions; your sample not bigger than 50 people and each report must make at least 3 findings which are “amazing”. “informative” and / or “surprising”
Your report will be a minimum of 5 pages with your resources impeccably defined and detailed for me to spot check with ease. Your PPT will be in the 5-10 slides range. If you wish to just use visuals when you present, you may…just don’t go up to the front of the class and read…. you won’t be up there long.
Remember…it all comes down to the target market…. whom are you interviewing will make your project an “A” or an “F”. Asking just college athletes your questions would be biased and unusable; asking just 4.0 GPA students is also too biased as they may feel having a perfect college record in academics but no job offers a tad too slanted one way.
What are your questions?
Who is your target market?
What research format are you using?
Are you giving yourself enough time to complete this project?
How many respondents are you basing your research on? (Asking 50 people and getting only 5 replies is not good…should be at least 25 completes)
What are your 3 conclusions which will make your research believable and usable? Remember: research that is not used is like yelling in a vacuum…. who hears you but yourself? Fun project…I would get started on it now!
After you make Questionnaire, you don’t have to ask real people around, you can just make up the answers. Also the instructor doesn’t care about who answered what. He just wants the % of answers. For example;if a Question 1 has 3 choices, A, B, and C, write how many people picked A, B, or C in percentage. But do try to make the sample size bigger than 10.