With Millions Of Dollars In Merchandising And Television Contracts At

With millions of dollars in merchandising and television contracts at stake, colleges have a lot of money riding on the recruitment, education, and performance?both on and off the field-- of college athletes. Colleges lure the athletes to their school, and make sure they meet the eligibility requirements when there. In order for athletes to be eligible to play in college they must attain a minimum of a 2.0 GPA in 11 designated courses, and earn a combined 700 on the SAT's. Athletes must also meet the schools requirements, normally a 2.0 GPA. With so much at stake, some colleges often go too far, by providing players with personal tutors, who often do work for the players, and pressuring teachers and administrators to look the other way when athletes fail. The NCAA also bars players from receiving any compensation, except scholarships for their play. However, there are many incidences of players receiving other sorts of compensation. There are many violations of athletic department of ficials and trustees giving players money, or gifts, ranging from clothing to cars. Colleges have also been known to give gifts to players just to get them to attend their institution, a practice that is much harder to trace because the student is not enrolled at the school. This has an effect on the psyche of the athletes; more incidences of sexual abuse and other crimes by athletes are arising every year. Even though the NCAA strictly prohibits all of these things from going on, it seems every year another school is violating them. These rules are not stringent enough both academically and socially for the players. The last major change to these rules came in 1989 with the passage of Proposition 42. This rule change closed a loophole in a proposition passed in 1983. The 1983 proposition, known as Proposition 42, required that, beginning in 1986, all athletes must earn a minimum of a 2.0 in eleven designated high school courses, and earn a minimum score of 700 on their SAT's. However, there was a loophole in this regulation. If they did not earn these minimums players could still enroll in the university, under full scholarship, not play or practice with the team, but earn their minimum GPA and then play the next year without ever having met the initial requirements. In an article written for The New Republic in May 1986, Malcolm Gladwell criticizes Proposition 48 and the effects it will have on college sports. Citing many examples of foul play at colleges, ranging from teachers being fired at the University of Georgia in 1982 for not giving preferential treatment to athletes, to players being arrested for rape at the University of Minnesota and their coach stating he " could not set realistic disciplinary standards?much less academic standards?for fear of losing recruits", Gladwell states, "Big time athletic competition is far more important than education at many major public universities, and nothing is likely to change that" (13). He identifies the main problem with proposition 48, citing Berkeley sociologist Harry Edwards, "The big universities will simply keep a separate roster of first year ineligible athletes along with their regular players"(16). The amount of money a school has will determine how many non-qualifying players they can lure to their schools with scholarships. This is the reason for the passing of proposition 42, which bars colleges from giving scholarships to incoming freshmen that do not meet the requirements. Consequently, many people feel that these tougher regulations will lead to more cheating. If that is the case, than more severe punishments should be installed to deter this behavior. A side effect of proposition 48 is that, m any of the athletes that attend these schools on basketball and football scholarships are from low-income families that cannot afford to pay tuition to large universities. It is these people that will lose out if the colleges cannot find another way of paying for them. This in effect will lead to more cheating, like colleges helping prospective students secure government grants and loans, but this is not always enough. They may have to have trustees pay for some of their education, or may be outright given money by the schools. And this is for athletes who