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College SPM Sports
Intercollegiate Athletics History
The birth of intercollegiate
athletics involved a regatta between the Yale and Harvard boat clubs in 1852.
Intercollegiate Athletics History
College football emerged shortly thereafter; although the rules were similar to soccer. The first intercollegiate football game was played between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869.
Intercollegiate Athletics History
Three years later, in 1872, the first business enterprise involving college athletics occurred. Admission fees were charged, and tickets sold for the first time, when Ivy League teams Yale and Columbia met on the gridiron.
Intercollegiate Athletics History
The nature of intercollegiate athletics quickly changed from social interactions to highly competitive events soon thereafter. By 1905, football competition became so intense that reform was instituted. One way of implementing reform was to establish associations to govern intercollegiate athletics.
Prompted by deaths and charges of brutality, President Theodore Roosevelt hosted the White House Conference on Football in 1905. Roosevelt's decree to carry out "both the letter and the spirit of the football rules," eventually lead to the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association (IAAUS), which was officially constituted in 1906, and became known as the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in 1910.
Formation of the NCAA
NCAA currently has over 1,250 member institutions, conferences and sport organizations dedicated to the administration of intercollegiate sports. The NCAA is the largest and most influential governing body in the field.
Formation of the NCAA
Division classification characterizes the NCAA, with Divisions I, II, and III. Universities and Colleges are classified based on:
Size of Financial Base 2. Number and Types of Sports Offered 3. Focus of the Program 4. Existence of GrantinAid
1.
Division I programs must offer: 1. a minimum of seven sports for men and women; 2. and they must have at least two team sports for each gender. Division I schools offer full grantsinaid based on athletic ability. DI institutions are highly competitive and consider many of their athletic events to provide spectator entertainment.
Division I programs are typically funded through: 1. Student Fees 2. Ticket Sales 3. Television Revenues/Broadcast Rights Fees 4. Licensing Revenues 5. Private Donations/Athletic Development Licensing revenues royalties paid to athletic department or leagues by second parties in return for the right to produce and sell merchandise bearing logo or other marks associated with its sports program.
Division I Athletics
Division I is further divided into IA
institutions (119 members), IAA (118 active members) and IAAA (91 members)
Division II Athletics
Division II schools must offer at least four sports for men and women, and must have two team sports for each gender. There are 281 active member institutions that offer full grantsinaid based on athletic ability, but fewer per capita than Division I schools.
Division II Athletics
Division II schools are typically
financed by their institutions in the same way as academic programs on campus, and focus primarily on regional competition.
Division III Athletics
In Division III, there are 421 members. The focus is on participation, rather than competition or entertainment. These colleges must offer a minimum of five sports for men and women, and two team sports for each gender. There are no athletic scholarships in DIII schools. These schools generally focus on regional and conference competition.
Junior College Athletics
The National Junior College Athletic Association was formed in 1932. The NJCAA seeks to promote and supervise a national program of junior college sports and activities consistent with the educational objectives of JC's. There are approximately 550 institutions and the NJCAA is organized into 24 geographical regions.
NAIA
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) has 360 member institutions. The NAIA is open to fouryear and upper level twoyear colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. The NAIA places a heavy emphasis on academic achievement.
NAIA
The NAIA was the first national
organization to offer postseason opportunities to black student athletes in 1948.
NAIA
The NAIA was also the first national organization to offer athletic championships for women's sports, beginning in 1980.
AIAW
A national governing body exclusively for women's athletics was formed in 1971 when the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was established by women's physical educators from colleges and universities across the country.
AIAW
The AIAW lasted for 10 years and provided many opportunities for female athletes, coaches and administrators. It also offered several national championships, many of which received TV coverage.
AIAW Becomes Part of NCAA
The NCAA and the NAIA expanded their structure to incorporate women's athletics. In 1982, the AIAW was dismantled. Currently, both men's and women's intercollegiate athletic programs exist under the auspices of the same governing bodies.
Intercollegiate Athletic A Conferences conference is a group of colleges or universities that governs the conduct of its member institutions' athletic programs.
Intercollegiate Athletic Conferences
The first athletic conference was established in 1895, and was known as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives. It later became the Western Conference and is currently known as the BIG 10 Conference.
Athletic Conference Functions
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Communication within and beyond the membership Scheduling (regular and postseason) Officiating Crowd Control and Event Management Compliance & Enforcement (rules & regulations) Eligibility of StudentAthletes
Athletic Conference Functions
7. Negotiating Television Rights Contracts 8. Informational Services 9. Merchandising and Commercial Sponsorship Procurement 10. Product Endorsement 11. Membership Surveys and Research 12. Record Keeping 13. Negotiating PostSeason Bids (Bowls)
ECAC
The nation's largest athletic conference is the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), which was founded in 1938.
Academic Integrity
Historically, intercollegiate athletics has been filled with academic and financial scandals, and at times, has been perceived to be out of control.
Academic Integrity
In the late 1980's, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics created a very significant college athletic reform movement. The Commission found that 57 of the 106, (53.8%) D1A athletic programs had been censured, sanctioned or put on probation for major violations of NCAA rules.
Academic Integrity
In 1991, the Commission proposed a "oneplusthree" model. This emphasized individual presidential control over three areas:
1. 2. 3.
Academic Integrity Financial Integrity Independent Certification of Athletics Programs
The 2001 report found that "more than half of the institutions competing at the top levels continue to break the rules. Wrongdoing as a way of life seems to represent the status quo."
Knight Commission
2001 Knight Commission Findings
Among the most glaring of these problems cited by the Commission were: 1. Academic fraud (tutors writing papers for athletes, athletes receiving copies of tests in advance, changing athletes' grades to remain eligible). 2. Low Graduation Rates 3. Financial Arms Race (excessive spending and poor financial accountability) 4. Escalating commercialization that created a "widening chasm between higher education's ideals and bigtime college sports."
Knight Commission
As a result, the Knight Commission proposed another oneplusthree model of academic reform. No longer do individual college presidents control the issues; instead a coalition of presidents representing the most powerful athletics conferences, dictate policy. (St. Bonaventure)
Oneplusthree Model Part II
Knight commission focused on: 1. Academic reform (minimum graduation rate standards have been established that can affect postseason eligibility). 2. A deescalation of the athletics arms race. 3. Deemphasis of the commercialization of intercollegiate athletics.
The overemphasis on winning, the monetary payoffs for success and commercialization found in major college athletics, has infiltrated into every aspect of the educational system within the U.S., reaching into elementary schools.
(Signing endorsements as teens, soda beverage companies building athletic stadiums at high schools)
In order to compete, even schools maintaining a balance between athletics and academics have progressively allocated more resources to intercollegiate athletics over the years to the detriment of the academic experience of students.
Between 1995 and 2001, spending in DivisionI athletics after inflation increased by 25percent, while institutional spending increased 10percent. This was due to the building boom of new facilities and the escalating costs of football and basketball coaching salaries.
Collegiate Arms Race
Collegiate Arms Race
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, from 2002 to 2007 schools in the nation's six premier athletic conferences raised at least $3.9 billion for stadium expansions, new practice facilities, and such.
Escalating Costs
In many cases it's the powerhouses expanding to ensure their dominance, such as the $226 million stadium renovation at Michigan. Or, it's a striving institution like Oklahoma State putting to use the $165 million pledge by billionaire OSU alumnus T. Boone Pickens. In all cases, it is the schools' boosters who are footing most of the bill.
In 2000, the Drake Group, comprised of scholars from around the country who study college sport, found that:
"college athletics has been transformed into a multibillion dollar entertainment industry that has compromised the academic mission of the university."
Drake Group Recommendations:
1.
2.
3.
Force policy makers to require public disclosure of academic information about athletes. Institutions must offer academic support and counseling services to all students, rather than special services provided to student athletes. Consideration should be given to replacing oneyear renewable scholarships that place athletes in dependent relationships with coaches with needbased financial aid.