Scouting the Territory

1. My idea has remained similar so far since my first post, I am very interested in looking into how collegiate athletes are being essentially exploited by the NCAA.  I was a division 1 athlete for a year, playing for the Rutgers Men's Soccer team, before I decided to switch my focus on my studies.  Experiencing first-hand the life of a division 1 athlete is what got me interested in this topic and lead me to be sympathetic to athletes across the country.  I would also like to focus my efforts on how to start to combat this problem, and an interesting solution that I have come across is the idea of privatizing college sports, and in particular college football.  I would like to see how this might be a potential solution and what changes would it cause to college athletics as a whole and more importantly what changes it would make for the lives of college athletes.

2. After doing initial research online, a key word that continued to show a numerous amount of results was "college athletes exploited."  It seems that many people are starting to form this opinion about the NCAA and what it is doing to their athletes.  Most of the articles are taking this standpoint, taking about how colleges are making millions of dollars through their programs and their head coaches and athletic directors are making just as much.  Many articles began to talk about potential solutions and one that kept arising was the idea of privatizing college sports and I thought this was a very interesting idea to research.

3/5. I very interesting source that Professor Goeller brought to my attention is the documentary "schooled."  This film goes into depth on how college sports have become a multimillion dollar industry that is being built upon the athletes.  The film, that I only got to watch a portion of so far, follows athletes and tells of their struggles in the NCAA and how the NCAA has evolved over the years.  Another source that I have found helpful is from the American University Law Review called, "College Athletics Internships: The Case For Academic Credit In College Athletics."  This article brings into question whether or not athletes should be reimbursed for their duties on the field.  This has brought to light a lot of problems players are currently facing and some solutions they could use.

4/6.  Before starting this research I already had an opinion on the topic, having been a former college athlete.  Upon doing initial research into this topic my viewpoint was only solidified by what I saw.  The articles I have seen continue to support the idea that college athletes are being exploited by the NCAA and something needs to be done to stop this.  The important conversation is what that right solution is going to be, what the next steps that the NCAA takes, and the players.  On the side of the NCAA, they look at themselves as serving the athletes by giving them a free education, meals, clothing, a home and a college life experience.  In the eyes of the players, yes they are getting these things from the universities but the universities are making millions of dollars of profits off of them that they are seeing none of.  The players do not think it is fair that their coaches and athletic directors are getting paid in the millions while they are barely scarping by and doing all of the work.