We Must Reform College Sports Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Argume

The current athletics systems in many large colleges are no longer beneficial to student-athletes or the academic premise the schools were founded under and are in need of intensive restructuring. Ernest Boyer, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching said, "I believe that the college sports system is one of the most corrupting and destructive influences on higher education" (1999). In fact, it is widely acknowledged that there is corruption by many college coaches in the areas of recruiting, eligibility, degree progress, and academic integrity of athletes. The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), the national governing and accrediting agency for college athletics, possesses the duty of policing such offenses, but it is currently in a position to make huge profits off big-time sports, despite their continued claims of a non-profit status. The NCAA’s inconsistent enforcement of violations, seemingly based on the size of a progr am, has fueled many questions regarding the appropriateness of their role as a rules enforcement organization. The corruption by coaches and administrators, and academic ineligibility of many athletes has led people to wonder whether the amateur status of Division I athletes is still appropriate. The original intention of college athletics was to enhance the academic experience, and the NCAA came about due to the need to impose a set of regulations that would make college football safer. However, the big-time college sports of football and men’s basketball have become a multi-million dollar entertainment enterprise, and it appears that the NCAA has lost all concept of it’s mission: "to maintain intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educ... ...ronicle of Higher Education, 47, A51-A52. Suggs, W. (2000). A professor’s challenge to sports at Tennessee. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 46, A37-A38. Suggs, W. (2000). 10 years later, another look at big-time college sports. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 47, A69-A70. Suggs, W. (2000). A decade later, sports-reform panel plans another look at big-time athletics. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 46, A45-A46. Suggs, W. (2000). Knight commission gets an earful from critics of big-time college sports. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 47, A54. Suggs, W. (2000). NCAA adopts rules changes aimed at curbing abuses in men’s basketball. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 46, A54. Wyatt, J.B. (1999). Our moral duty to clean up college athletics. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 45, A56. http://www.NCAA.org/