Sport finance principles and practices

Athletic Scholarships

Providing scholarships for athletes is one of the best ways to fund athletic programs, because when the athletes are competing for that first scholarship, he or she will be determined to show his or her best athletic abilities to the coaches. One of high schools and colleges highest sources of budget increases is the talent and the physical abilities of the athletes on the athletic teams. However, this is not the only source of income that athletic programs depend on. In addition to budget increases, they also depend on fundraising, donations, advertising and sales to name just a few incidents, which increase the number and amount of the scholarship funds. Besides this, the entire image and pride of the educational institution depends on the success on the athletic teams. Although athletes may be perceived as academically non-competitive, and the majority of the student body and school officials may claim they spend most of their time playing or have unrealistic life goals, the athletes are the primary reasons why the school gets media attention, and increased budgets to purchase new learning technologies.

Athletic scholarship programs are more effective than academic scholarships as far as causing the school to be one of the top rated institutions. Having scholarship programs can be very rewarding for the school, as it can attract the top athletes who are serious about playing their sport professionally. It is a compliment and an advantage for the NFL football player to say he went to this certain university on a full scholarship, especially if that athlete is an exceptional player, and becomes well recognized. Not only will that school attract many more top athletes in years to come, it will attract many competitive students.

Athletic programs attract students, even non-athletic students to particular institutions; therefore, it is mandatory that the importance of athletic activities is not passed off as extra-curricular. Winning football, basketball, softball, volleyball and even championship winning cheerleading, dance and drill teams will cause students select one school over another. Sometimes academic teachers and non-athletic students say star athletes are chasing after a dream and it is not reality. Nevertheless, athletics is not their reality, but it does not mean it is no one else's reality. These athletes are training hard, and pushing beyond their physical limits day in and day out for a reason. Physical athletes are training with equal intensity for an athletic career as the law student whom studies many hours in the library for his personal career as an attorney.

One of the primary sources of funding for scholarships come from donations, and sometimes this includes fundraising for scholarships. To get celebrities and other businesses to invest in scholarships, the athletic program must be advertised and publicized. Most people are generally excited about giving to athletic programs for many various reasons. According to the Cyber-Journal of Sport Marketing, "the two primary reasons that explained giving to athletic programs were involvement with athletics and emotional motivation" (Tsiotsou, 7/28/99). Of course, there are many other reasons people and businesses open up scholarships in their names, one of the reasons, it is a great advertisement and tax write off. Bakel, 1979, has stated "our values, beliefs interests, hopes, fears and other feelings and habits not only motivates us to give, but also determine to which causes we give," (p. 43, Cyber Journal of Sports Marketing).

Many times, successful and top playing athletes get introduced to business opportunities, especially during the off seasons. As former athletes themselves, they realize the lack of funding that goes to school athletics, and remember the days when they had to work a part-time job, put in many hours of practice, keep up the minimum grade requirements to stay on the team, and on top of this, participate in many fundraising events so their teams can exists. In addition to this, they also realize the impact of the contribution they made as athletes that outsiders cannot relate or understand. The entire school system, the administrative, the school board, the teachers, the student body all demands the entertainment of athletic games and events, but no one wants to help out with donations or volunteer opportunities to cover the expenses, and sometimes the burden is put on athletes. Granted, there are people who are very generous, and more than happy to participate, these are usually the parents of athletes, who put in just as much time to support their athletic children. The expenses are still astronomical, and former athletes who own businesses are probably the ones who will feel the most motivation to invest in scholarship funds.

Unless the scholarship fund is generic, or for a particular sport, not a particular school, a business will only invest in a winning star team. And who can blame them? Even when used as advertisements or business write offs, the name the scholarship is carrying wants their business to be advertised in a winning light. Usually, winning teams will be well-known across the country and will not need to have any publicity to encourage investors to invest in a specific scholarship fund for their school. But more often than not, athletic teams need to be brought out into the open and ask for donations for their scholarship program.

Investment in a scholarship program is continuous, instead of a one-time donation. A business may give a one-time donation of two thousand dollars, and later his business will be out of the advertising. On the other hand, the business can open an investment fund at the bank and give the interest on a yearly basis as a scholarship fund, and his business would get continuous recognition. Although the one time donation would be much more money to one individual athlete, setting up a scholarship program would benefit many more athletic programs.

Setting up scholarships is a wonderful way for the coaches to see how well the perspective recipients can really play. For example, the athlete entering into college, competing for a scholarship is very much like their first professional job in the sport of their choice. The athlete realizes that winning a scholarship not only means having partial or full tuition paid for, it also means being recognized as one of the best and most competitive athletes in his or her chosen sport, and besides this, winning a scholarship looks great on a resume when convincing the professional athletic directors that they are the ones to be considered for once in a lifetime golden opportunity. When competing for the scholarship when first entering college is that student's first and most important chance to impress the coaches, so they will be playing their hearts out. But the athletes do not get up that day and decide they are going to go for the gold.

Athletic students have been preparing hard for many hours, and making the necessary sacrifices, and getting the correct training for the past many years to be ready for this moment. People have argued that that athletic scholarships are unfair because some students will be gifted at athletics and others are not. Anyone who makes the commitment and dedication to achieving athletic goals will be able to run faster, play harder, throw or kick a football farther and faster, no matter what ones hereditary genes are. As a result of this, some universities are prevented from giving out athletic scholarships, because ignorant people think athletes are born with some "gift." This type of thinking reflects a negative attitude and an excuse for laziness. I do not think students who have put in so many years of dedication and hard work should be punished because of some of the societies negative attitudes.

Competing for scholarships does not lower students self-esteem or self-worth, it teaches them to become better athletes, to work harder and to use their competition who defeats them as visual goals to strive for. Even the athletes would never win scholarships, but keep trying will become a much better athlete competing against their competition than if they never had anyone to show them how good they can be. True, only a handful of talented athletes can win or receive scholarships, but when they are competing in the workplace for employment, only one position is available for many applicants.

"Many people today, especially long-term fans feel that collegiate sports are tainted and have lost their purity because of the amount of commercialism and marketing that is embedded in collegiate athletics. In addition, there exists a large contingency of people that consider corporate sponsorship nothing more than a blatant prostitution of athletics for the sake of money.

They contend that schools are essentially selling their souls to the devil by giving into the increasing trend of partnerships between businesses and colleges or universities. However, college administrators would argue that this is indeed a necessary evil light of the skyrocketing costs involved in running a successful athletic department in today's competitive society"

(Helitzer, 1996). Also this commercialism funds many of the athletic scholarships.

There is a myth that college athletics have been corrupt because particularly basketball and football coaches of the big-time level are the highest paid public employees. I do not know if this is envy or not, but the high-level coaches have worked hard to earn their salaries and recognition, just like any other highly paid television figure. Non-athletic professionals have made proposals stating their prejudicesses against athletes. A couple of years ago, "a 28 member commission of current and former university presidents, other university officials, and private citizens, produced a report recommending shorter playing seasons, removing commercial logos from uniforms, requiring that at least half of the players on the team must graduate to be eligible of championships" (n a, December 2001). When discrimination or childishness like this take place on a professional level, it becomes mandatory for school athletic programs to do their own fundraising, because scholarship programs are effected.

The James L. Knight foundation made an impact on the funding of intercollegiate athletics, and dispelled some of the discrepancies.

"We have a lot of sports fans on our board and we recognize that intercollegiate athletes have a legitimate and proper role to play in college and university life"

(James L. Knight). Our interest is not to abolish that role, but to preserve it by putting it back in perspective. We hope this commission of those who want to curb the abuses which are shaking public confidence in the integrity of not just big-time college athletics, but the whole institution of higher education (Knight,

Page 8).

Inter-collegiate programs received a bad reputation and according to a Times Magazine article in 1988, athletic corruption was described as "an obsession with winning and money making that is pervading the noblest ideas of both sports and education." This type of attitude coming from credible sources makes funding and receiving scholarships a lot more difficult to get. The coaches, directors and athletic boards must work three times as hard to restore the reputation of collegiate athletic programs so that funding does come more readily available. In 1988, time magazine also reported that most Americans thought that college athletic programs were corrupt. However, the attitude of college athletics of the author has to do with which statistics are reported. Still, the majority of Americans feel that academics are neglected and that student's athletes are not fully rounded educated.

Fundraising to collect money for athletic scholarships is often turned into a fun event, and of course it is easier to get people with the same interest to participate in the event. Many times to raise money for athletic scholarships, the event consists of fun things, such as walkathons, marathons, danceathons etc.… It is only natural that athletic contributors will be drawn to an event that is fun and active. The trick to fundraising is to get people to associate participation in a fun activity to making a major contribution to helping keep their favorite athletic teams afloat. Creating fun and active events, especially for athletic scholarship participation, is most likely to be much more effective than having things like cakewalks, candy sales, or rummage sales. Although this is not to underestimate the previous success of these ideas in raising funds for athletic scholarships, this is just saying that active events or sporting events on a non-professional level would be much more effective.

In some instances, there may be some truth to this, but why does it bother people if the athletes give their athletic abilities priority over academics? This does not concern most people. Today especially, athletes are sacrificing marriages and children, the traditional family life to be able to play longer, and stay committed and dedicated to the performance of their skills. Many athletes today are playing competitively well into their forties and beyond, when just a few short years ago, athletes retired by the age of thirty five. So today's collegiate athlete, as well as the ones coming up, may never use the traditional education, because there is a possibility they will not need it. Retired athletes usually earn livelihoods by teaching in their sport, and the good athletes have more than enough customers who want to follow in their footsteps. Everyone is angry and putting their opinions in when no one on the athletic board asked for it. As said before, the average persons reality and the athlete's reality are two different things. Sometimes, non-athletes have a problem accepting this. It does not matter if it is jealousy or any validity to their complaint, I feel these critical people have too much power.

It also troubles some people that big-time collegiate athletes seldom graduate, and the numbers are increasing. Many people also claim that athletes are not working towards a worthwhile major. No one says anything of the business major who does not finish their degree when they get a fantastic job opportunity. How come these people are not pointed out like the athletes are? Sure, it is very honorable to have that certificate saying you have a degree, but the main purpose of higher education institutions is to make students employable. The universities give exceptional athletes experience and training, and if the athlete gets recognition and offered a contract straight from the college playing field, than that university has done its job. The educational institution made that athlete employable. Maybe in a few years, the athlete will go back and finish school, but if he does not, why is everyone so upset over this?

One of the first questions athletes get asked, "what are you going to do when you are forty years old?" Today, that has become a non-legitimate question. As mentioned before, athletes are playing professionally forever now, and furthermore, forty-year-old business people are getting pushed out of the job market, forced into early retirement, replaced with younger competitors. So the statement that athletes will no longer be able to play after forty because no one will take them, although no longer valid, but this statement can hold true for the secretary or flight attendant reaching into her late thirties and early forties.

In addition to the non-stop complaints against collegiate athletes, many people are complaining about the endorsements and advertisements displayed by college athletes, claiming that these students are being exploited. Advertisers cover the expenses to bring the entertainment that athletes provide. Advertisers also fund scholarships to these athletic programs so that they may have the best facilities, latest training techniques, and the best coaches. If these athletes are walking advertisements or being exploited, there is no shortage of eager athletes waiting in line and willing to give everything they have to be exploited and walking advertisements. Again, if the athletes are fine with this arrangement, what concern is it of anyone else's? Most athletes love the chance to jump onto a way to give something back in return to the people who funded their athletic collegiate career to help make their dreams a reality. By the time an athlete gets to be college age, they are old enough to decide for themselves what exploitation is.

The critics may not wish to contribute to the funding of college athletics, or feel that an athletic scholarship is all in vain, and they have a right to feel this way. However, they do not have a moral right to stop colleges from receiving funds and having scholarship programs to support their athletic programs. If it bothers them so much, they can turn the other way. Let the athletes live their lives.

Society will go to watch the games, for entertainment, and they love the feeling and pride that comes to not only their institution, but the entire community when the athletic teams are famous for record breaking winnings, but they very seldom appreciate the sacrifices these athletes make. Let's not forget that athletes, although competing for scholarships, bring in most of the money for the school and town, however they do not actually get the money.

"The big-time schools, the amount of money at stake divides the winners-those command the TV contracts -- and the losers, whose schools spend a great deal of money on their athletic teams but cannot win media attention. Athletes who bring in the money but see none of the profits also fall into the losing brackets while school administrations which actually receive those earnings gain an unfair victory. It is undeniably a flawed system" (n a, December, 01).

Fair or not, the NCAA controls the standards for collegiate athletes, and this encodes scholarship programs. Some of the requirements are a minimum level of academic achievement that the athletes must fulfill as a recipient of the scholarship program. If these academic standards are not met, and the athlete still receives the scholarship, the education institution stands a chance of losing the entire benefits of federal funded scholarships. It is the coaches and the school administrative's responsibility to see the student satisfies the academic requirement of the scholarship. For athletes to get selected for scholarships, they must let the coaches know they are out there, and convince the coaches they are not going to endanger the scholarship money by violating the NCAA regulations.

The NCAA is a commission, in honor of James L. knight and John S, which was established in 1990. The NCAA was established because the competition for athletic scholarships were increasing at an alarming rate, and the importance of the athlete's academics was declining. NCAA establishment's regulation's states that the athletic directors are responsible for the academic integrity, the financial integrity, and the independent certification of the learning institution. NCAA raises money for the survival of athletic programs and the possibility of athletic scholarships that normally would not be available. Before the NCAA, athletics had the poorest academic training, were automatically placed in lower level classes, and were expected to do have lower academic scores. Athletes were stereotyped before given any chance to prove their academic worthiness.

Even today, schools that have a reputation for turning out strong academic achievers, athletic coaches have been found to bypass the grades and select top athletes, who can run faster, throw harder, and has the stamina of the energizer bunny, for the winners of the scholarships. Although the coaches are responsible for making sure the athletes will make the minimum academic requirements for the federal athletic scholarship program, the coach still realizes that star athlete is going really make his career, regardless of his academic scores. Although the NCAA does regulate this process from getting out of control, they realize they will never put a complete stop to it.

"Even at academically competitive schools, coaches do have an increasingly

significant influence on admissions committees, and at nearly all schools, athletes who play football, basketball and hockey, do self-segregate"

(Shulman and Bowmen, December 2001).

The NCAA establishes regulations, especially in the area of scholarships to ensure fairness. True, I disagree with the non-athletic society having a problem with the athlete being totally devoted and committed to his or her specialized sport, and putting academics on a less important level, because they many never use their academic skills, or at least, most of the money they will make in a lifetime will not come from the traditional education curriculum. Nevertheless, my opinion is not a very popular or favorable one. However, the NCAA sets the guidelines and the standards to ensure equality, and that the academic achievement level among the scholarship recipients is at an acceptable level.

Although on the surface, it may seem that scholarships are a way of the student athlete getting a free higher education, coaches do know that scholarships are not necessarily free, not even for the recipient. The scholarship winner must be selected on the terms that the coach can be sure his or her abilities will give something back, such as greater financial rewards, to the university. Coaches have a difficult and pressuring responsibility in selecting the winning athletes for the scholarship rewards. This is why coaches must see the athletes in action. And the competition is fierce.

Statistics show that even when students get a full scholarship, it just barely scratches the surface of the amount of the money the parents invested in their child's athletic training and competitions. From these statistics, one can safely assume getting tuition paid through athletic scholarships is just a small portion of the reason why athletes compete fiercely and work with gusto to get that athletic scholarship. Winning that scholarship tells the NFL and NBA coaches that this athlete can take responsibilities and are superior choices for their athletic teams. Scholarship recipients, whether partial or full gives the evidence and image they are an all around winner. This is what professional athletic teams wants. Just to be exceptional at a sport is not good enough, they look for representatives of their athletic teams, because most of these athletes are selected to endorse products.

Getting selected for an athletic scholarship is not easy, and this process challenges the fittest of the fittest. Competition for athletic scholarships is stronger than ever, and with new training facilities and advanced technologies that increase athlete's speed and performance, the demands for the best get tougher and tougher. But this may be good news, because athletes are running faster and their bodies are accomplishing major feats. A few years ago, this was just not possible without the use of steroids or some other types of illegal drugs. Coaches will select the best athletes and representatives of the school and athletic program. The only way to be considered for an athletic scholarship is to let the coaches know you exists. In other words, just as an actor, singer or dancer goes to extreme efforts to get exposure to show their talents, athletes competing for an athletic scholarship must do the same. Athletes need to be visible. Athletes cannot pay someone to put together a package to send to the coaches. They can, but the chances of the athlete being selected on a scholarship basis this way is slim to none.

Unfortunately, scams do exist and these people are not bothered in the least by destroying the dreams and throwing in yet another obstacle that challenges and tests the young gifted athletes success. Just as no dancer, actress or model will get discovered by paying astronomical fees or buying purchases from a talent recruiter, no athlete will get discovered by shelling out lots of money for someone to advertise their talents. Legitimate coaches would look this way, or do anything else to encourage and support the survival and continuance of these scams. This is a waste of time for athletic coaches when selecting scholarship athletes. Many companies charge a fee to compile the excited recipient's athletic resume and assets on a website, or send them to coaches. Coaches usually throw these in the trash, sometimes before opening the envelopes. Their are many scams out there taking gifted athletes and their parents money when they know that no coach is going to make a selection from a piece of paper. Coaches must see the athlete in action before he can make a selection for the winners of the athletic selection.

In order for an athlete to improve his or her chances to be selected for an athletic scholarship is to get the coaches attention, talk to them. By the mid to end of your junior year in high school, you should have already sent the coaches a resume covering athletic and academic achievements, to the schools of your choice. Sending in videotapes and high school coach's recommendations, as well as going to see their games are also very advisable. Coaches also want to see good representation and good sportsman ship. They do not want the cool dude who thinks the team would not exist without him, and who is going to come in and run the show, and tell the coach how to do it. Believe me, there are many competitors more than willing to give the respect that coaches deserve.

It is important to be familiar with the coach's style of training before you commit. Eager athletes who are ready to jump in, assume they can adapt to any coaches style because he is a great coach, but that is not necessarily so. Just like, many girls wish to audition and be selected for the cheerleading teams of the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Mavericks, yet they have no idea of what type of dancing style required. They just go into the auditions blindly, and are the first ones to change their minds when the at the Dallas Cowboys auditions they must sit in the splits for twenty to thirty minutes. This is the same concept between the coaches and the athletes. The choreographers of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and the Dallas Maverick Dancers turn out great dance numbers, but it does not mean every superior dancer can adopt the dance style that is required. So, it is mandatory that the perspective athletes know the coaches style before investing a lot of time and money to get noticed for a scholarship to that particular school.

It is imperative the athlete is just as selective at choosing the right school and coach to commit to as it is for the coaches to be selective. If there is a mismatch between the coach and the athlete, then the athlete will never reach his or full potential, no matter how great the coach is, or how many athletic idols he has turned out. It is very possible that athlete will shine and much more likely to go on to a professional career with a much less popular coach. Sure, success is influenced and controlled by coaches, but only up to a certain point. The majority of it is left up to the athlete.

In the earlier years, because men have been perceived as the ones who dominated the sports arena, males had the best equipment, coaches, and training, and of course were awarded the best scholarships. This comes from the earlier days, when women stayed home, had babies, took care of the house, and although there were superb women athletes in history, it was unladylike for the average woman to engage in sports, such as running, and getting dirty, or lifting weights. Well, all of that has changed now. Women are showing their athletic prowess, and pushing their own athletic skills to their physical limitations. Today, it is just as common and acceptable for women athletes to make their mark and earn a living by sports participation.

A few years ago, a law was passed, title IX, which ensured federally funded athletic scholarships were distributed fairly to include women. "As a result of the Title IX, women and girls have benefited from more opportunities, equitable facilities, received athletic scholarships, and had the opportunity for higher education than would have been possible otherwise" (USA reporters, Spring 2002). This is especially true with female athletes who are from economically disadvantaged families. Being submitted for athletic scholarships increases the probability of considering higher education that they may not have otherwise considered.

Women athletes make just as much of a contribution as men do. Professional people usually see athletics as entertainment or a leisure activity, and high school and college women's athletics do not get nearly as much support as the men's athletics. Although athletics are usually seen as merely entertainment, athletes are the role models for fitness inventions and activities for these same people that consider athletic events a luxury. Of course, average people will not take their participation in athletic events to the same extreme level as professionals, but gyms, playgrounds, jogging and rollerblading trails are more readily available, and the activities are more acceptable for adult professionals to engage in these activities because of athletes. These same people who perceive athletic games as entertainment, nowadays consider their own active workouts a necessity. It is because of women athletes why professionals can acceptably live an active life.

As mentioned earlier, except for the top star athletes, women running on a playground, rollerblading on a jogging trail, or playing Frisbee in the park or at the beach was totally unacceptable, and not at all ladylike just a few short years ago. A woman was expected to go to the beach, and do nothing but lie in a lounge chair and get a tan, or watch the men. For a woman to jog on the beach, unless very young, she may have been considered slow. But thanks to professional women athletes, who broke the barriers and fought for equal rights and scholarships, all that has now changed. The law considering women eligible for federally funded scholarships was passed in 1972 and five years later, in 1977, women runners started emerging, although still considered unladylike, women running along the side of the roads attracted unwelcome commits by passerby's. However, for the women who ignored the comments and kept running anyway did not realize they were starting a never ending and fantastic tradition.