A Value Oriented Analysis of Proposed Collegiate Athletic Reform Legislation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to conduct a value oriented analysis of the National Collegiate Athletics Accountability Act (NCAA Act), the Collegiate Student Athlete Protection Act (CSAP Act), and the College Athlete Protection Act (CAP Act). Based on theory of moral development and logical moral reasoning criteria three value classifications served as the orientational framework. A content analysis was conducted to evaluate the value orientation of the entity’s mission putting forth the bill, the purpose of the bill, the content within the bill, and the degree to which the value orientations were aligned. So as to offer improvements to the bills, a formative evaluation was conducted. Results revealed that the CSAP Act presented the most principled case for collegiate athletic reform.

Notes

1 Additional sponsors include Congressmen Steve Stivers (R-OH), Scott Perry (R-PA), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Glenn Thompson (R-PA), Jim Moran (D-VA), and Tom Marino (R-PA).

2 See NCPA (n.d.) (Founded in 2001, the NCPA has over 17,000 members from over 150 Division I campuses…[and] serves as the only independent voice for college athletes across the nation.”)

3 Additional sponsors include Congressmen Elijah Cummings (D-MD), Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Jared Huffman (D-CA), and Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN).

4 Working group members included Drs. Allen Sack, Gerald Gurney, Andrew Zimbalist, Donna Lopiano, and Brian Porto, J.D. Two initial members of the working group, Dr. Ellen Staurowsky, a founding member, and Dr. Kadence Otto, a Past-President, subsequently resigned from the organization due to what they considered troubling philosophical and ethical aspects of the proposed bill. Also of note, the CAP Act is based, in part, on Thomas McMillen’s Collegiate Athletics Reform Act, H.R. 3046 (1991), and Porto’s College Sports Legal Reform Act (2012).

5 See Sara Ganim, Some college athletes play like adults, read like 5^th-graders, CNN.com, Jan. 7, 2014, available at http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/ncaa-athletes-reading-scores/index.html ([some] schools have between 7% and 18% of revenue sport athletes who are reading at an elementary school level).

6 See Rachel Axon, NCAA concussion lawsuit consolidated, USA Today, Jan. 2, 2014, available at http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2014/01/02/concussion-lawsuits-ncaa-consolidated-adrian-arrington/4293867/ (nearly a dozen college football concussion-related lawsuits were consolidated to a federal court).

7 See Jon Solomon, Jay Bilas uses NCAA store to highlight NCAA’s hypocrisy of Johnny Manziel scandal, Al.com, Aug. 6, 2013, available at http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2013/08/jay_bilas_uses_ncaa_store_to_h.html (the NCAA stopped selling college athletes’ jerseys after ESPN analyst Jay Bilas Tweeted that the NCAA and Texas A&M can profit off Johnny Manziel but they prevent him from selling his own signature). See also In re NCAA Student-Athlete Name & Likeness Licensing Litigation, Case 4:09-cv-01967 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 20, 2010); NLRB, Region 13, Case 13-RC-121359 (Mar. 26, 2014) (Regional Director Peter Ohr ruled that members of the Northwestern University football team are “employees” within the meaning of the Act).

8 Noting that Kohlberg recognized that his levels of moral development are not necessarily a product of maturation nor are they the direct product of socialization; rather, he maintained that these levels emerge from our own thinking about moral problems.

9 See Appendix for a comprehensive summary of this analysis in spreadsheet form. Also of note, all three proposed bills seek to amend section 487(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

10 Founded in 1999, the original mission was “to defend academic integrity in the face of commercialized college sports”.

11 Indeed, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett made it known that he was less than pleased with the NCAA’s sanctions which resulted from the Penn State sex scandal when he filed a lawsuit against the NCAA.

12 See Big Ten (n.d.) available at http://www.bigten.org/school-bio/delany-bio.html (“In 2006, Commissioner Jim Delany announced the creation of the first conference-owned television network, a 20-year agreement with Fox Cable Networks to create…the Big Ten Network (BTN). Delany has also negotiated extensions of ABC, CBS Sports and ESPN agreements and reached a media agreement with FOX to serve as the official broadcast partner of the 2011-16 Big Ten Football Championship Games. These agreements result in the production and distribution of nearly 1,000 events annually.”)

13 Id. (“The Big Ten administers more than $136 million in athletic scholarship aid to nearly 10,000 student-athletes, which is more than any other conference” and is engaged in “cross-institutional research…to study the effects of head injuries in sports.”)

14 Consider, who is to say what is and what is not a corrosive aspect of commercialized college sports?

15 See NCAA Manual, 2013-14, Principle 2·2·3 Health & Safety and 2·9 Amateurism at 3-4 (noting that the purpose of the CAP Act mirrors existing NCAA requirements).

16 See, e.g., North Carolina State Constitution, Article IX Education, Section 9 Benefits of Public Institutions of Higher Education, 1971 at 31 (“The General Assembly shall provide that the benefits of The University of North Carolina and other public institutions of higher education, as far as practicable, be extended to the people of the State free of expense.”)

17 E.g., the Student-Athlete Opportunity, Comprehensive Health Insurance, Catastrophic Injury, Academic Enhancement, Special Assistance, Emergency Travel, and White Settlement.

18 See Kadence A. Otto & Herbert R. Otto, Clarifying amateurism: A logical approach to resolving the exploitation of college athletes dilemma, Sport, Ethics, & Philosophy: Journal of the British Philosophy of Sport Association 7(2), 259-270 (2013). (The authors provide a logical proof which exposes an inherent contradiction in trying to maintain both the common definitions of ‘amateur’ and ‘exploitation’ while claiming to ‘protect the athlete from exploitation’.)

19 Id.