ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST?

Ethics in Collegiate Athletics: Does it Still Exist? An Evaluation of the Effect of Monetary Pressures and the Will to Win, No Matter What the Cost. Lauren Bauch and Elizabeth Prince Belmont University

ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST?

Ethics in Collegiate Athletics: Does it Still Exist? An Evaluation of the Effect of Monetary Pressures and the Will to Win, No Matter What the Cost

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

A loss of ethical standards seems to becoming the new norm in college athletics. Every new sanction that is imposed on an NCAA member institution now follows with a new investigation into another rule-breaking scandal. These recent violations do not just break NCAA Rules, but they also encroach upon human morality and everything the founded academic institutions stand for. This problem needs to be addressed before this new norm becomes the standard for ethics in collegiate athletics and this new generation of athletes does not become numb to the ideals of right and wrong.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS

This study will implement a mixed-methods approach including both qualitative and quantitative studies to examine the pressures placed upon collegiate athletic directors in large NCAA Division I schools based on producing winning, revenue-based programs. The study will examine these pressures and the effect that these pressures have on the directors daily ethical decisions in running the program.

ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? H1: The larger the school and the more successful/more storied the athletic programs are, the greater pressure will be upon the athletic director to make questionable decisions.

H2: The more powerful the revenue-based coaches are in a University, the less-likely that the athletic director will standup to any wrongdoing committed by that coach and/or his program.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This study will allow there to be light shed on the root of the problem in these situations and hope to make changes in the administration of collegiate athletics that will eradicate this problem from the university system. This study will look to the top of these organizations, mainly the athletic director, and offer a new system that truly is a top-down approach and is run efficiently as such. The main purpose of this study is to put in place a workable system for these larger institutions which will give power and respect back into the hands of the athletic director who still reveres the true purpose of the university as an academic institution; and takeaway the godlike deference that society has placed in these coaches of revenue-producing sports.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY Several limitations will exist with this study including: (1) sample size; ideally it would be useful to survey more than twelve schools (2) lack of openness from the subjects, (3)

ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? truthfulness from the subjects, and (4) lack of a time commitment from these subjects to engage fully in the research interviews.

DEFINITIONS OF TERMS (1) Absolutism: The acceptance of or belief in total or complete principles in political, philosophical, ethical, or theological matters. (2) Codes of Conduct: A set of conventional principles and expectations that are considered binding on any person who is a member of a particular group. (3) Codes of Ethics: A written set of guidelines issued by an organization to its workers and management to help them conduct their actions in accordance with its primary values and moral standards. (4) Ethical Dilemma: A complex situation that will often involve an apparent mental conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another. (5) Ethics: Moral principles that govern a persons or groups behavior. (6) Morality: Principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. (7) Moral Principles: The fundamental truths of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or social group. (10) Morals: Lessons, especially concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story, a piece of information, or an experience (11) Relativism: The doctrine that knowledge, truth and morality, exist in relation to culture, society, or historical context, and are not absolute.

ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? REVIEW OF LITERATURE Brief history Corruption in collegiate athletics is not a novel issue. In 1932 Reed Harris published King Football, the Vulgarization of the American College. Harris book focused primarily upon the Ivy Leagues football programs and rebuked those highly esteemed universities for placing a greater value upon athletes over academics and for even compensating athletes for their performances on the field. For years programs have been slapped on the wrist for various violations. All types of sanctions have been imposed on these programs from its overall governing body of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. And even though these sanctions do away with the poisonous fruit in the present time, they have not proven to cure these institutions of the poison, which corrupts. This study will go directly to the heart of the matter and evaluate the main position that should act as the glue that holds the athletic department together the head athletic director. This study will examine what happens when athletic directors allow their revenue-based programs to lose focus of the academic prong of student-athlete and focus solely upon the athlete, and will seek to restore to these programs the scholastic values upon which their universities were established. Review Harrison-Dyer discusses several of the winning NCAA Division I schools who are currently under imposed sanctions: The Ohio State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of Miami. However, the main focus of the article was the investigation and sanctions that followed upon The Ohio State University. After the NCAAs

ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? investigation, it was revealed that several star football players had sold certain Ohio State memorabilia, gained as a result of being a student-athlete, for cash and tattoos. Despite the uncovering of these improprieties, the players were allowed to play in the teams 2011 Sugar Bowl game; proving the Universitys focus was solely upon ensuring that they secured a win on the field. One may question if the win was more important than the noted violations. (Harrison-Dyer, 2011). Even more despicable, the Head Football Coach, Jim Tressel, was allegedly aware of the players actions prior to the investigation and did nothing to reprimand their behavior. Tressel subsequently resigned from his position and can now be reveled as the perfect example of the win-at-any-cost mentality. As a result of the plethora of NCAA investigations, Harrison-Dyer suggests that athletic departments re-commit to a code of ethics and even adopt Zinns (1994) ethical decision-making model to ensure that they continue to abide by the adopted code of ethics. However, the most core-shaking improprieties that have been revealed lately are those of Penn State Universitys Football Program. In Siegels interview, Professor Dave Ridpath from Ohio Universitys Sport Administration Program discusses how Penn States situation is the

leading example proving that rational people in sport do irrational things. Ridpath asserts Penn States illegalities shows the lengths that very smart, very distinguished people, the lengths that they will go to [] protect King Football, to protect the brand, to protect the image, to protect highly-paid coaches is immense. Ridpath further agrees that the collegiate athletic system is a broken one that may have reached its tipping point with the Penn State reveal and needs to re-

ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? focus on the student-athlete as an amateur at the collegiate level not a professionally paid athlete. In this article, Single reaffirms the need for athletic directors to step up to the plate and take charge in revamping the culture of their universities. They must rededicate their universitys commitment to the full meaning of student-athlete and attempt to reintegrate the athlete back into the classroom as an equal with other students. The athletic directors must not only recommit to their universitys educational ideals in the development of athletes as students, but they must also set realistic goals for their athletic teams and coaches. Single states, If we as athletic directors place a higher value on winning than on the total experience of the student-athlete, we are telling coaches all the wrong things. For these institutions to maintain, or in some cases regain, their integrity, it will take the athletic director truly stepping into his/her role of being committed to doing things the right way, not the easy or the popular way. METHODS Study Design In this study, a mixed-methods approach was required to gain further understanding of compliance officers and athletic directors moral thinking in relation to carrying out their professional roles and responsibilities. The main focus of the study is a quantitative focus using questionnaires posed to current athletic directors and compliance officers. Using the questionnaire approach was necessary in order to ensure the subjects were being honest and open with the answers given; we did not want the subjects to feel as though we were policing their programs in an effort to uncover a scandal. For these reasons, the qualitative portion of the study using in-person interviews was posed to former athletic directors and compliance officers; those

ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? who no longer were in charge of making these decisions at a Division I institution. We felt it necessary to get explanatory answers from former employees who no longer have the pressures hanging over his/her head in order to ensure more truthful and open answers. Using both qualitative and quantitative approaches allows the research of this study to be verified by each approach and to also expand the findings. Population and Sample The population from this study was gained by utilizing a non-probability approach with purposive sampling in order to get a better representation of the targeted population: successful NCAA Division I revenue-producing programs. The subject population was gained by taking the Associated Press Top 25 end of season rankings over the past fifteen years for Division I collegiate revenue sports (football and mens basketball) and tallying which schools appeared most frequently in the polls. The top fifteen schools which appeared most often in the Top 25 rankings were chosen to participate in the quantitative prong of the study. In addition to the fifteen schools appearing most often in the rankings, five other schools were chosen who appeared least often and were also included in the quantitative prong of the study. As for the qualitative prong of the study, that sample was chosen by examining all of the schools included in the Top 25 rankings and choosing five former athletic directors or compliance officers of these programs, who are now in retirement. The entire population, including both the quantitative and the qualitative group, consisted of twenty-five subjects. These subjects were a combination of compliance coordinators and head athletic directors from these chosen institutions. These specific employees in these positions were chose due to the decisions made in their everyday working environment. Both the

ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? compliance coordinator and the head athletic director of an institution are responsible for coordinating, monitoring, and verifying compliance with all NCAA requirements, and they are the ones who make the final decisions in regards to these issues. Access to these participants was gained by contacting colleagues who worked with the conference offices of which these schools were a member. Approval was then gained from the head athletic director of each school before proceeding with the study. The participants ages ranged from 30-65 years with a mean age of 40 years. Of the twenty-five subjects chosen, twenty-two of the subjects were male and three were female. In addition to each participant having earned at least a bachelors degree, eight participants had earned law degrees, and twelve had earned graduate degrees. The participants each had averaged approximately eight years of compliance experience. Ethical Consideration (Human Subject Protections) The request for approval from the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at Belmont University was sent six months in advance of the actual implementation of the research and data collection. The submission for approval included (1) the purpose of the research, (2) the informed consent form for the subjects involved, (3) a complete overview of the benefits and risks of the study, (4) the incentives for participation, and (5) the contact information for the researchers involved and what they expected to gain from this study. No incentives were offered to the subjects (i.e. they were not paid or given any reward to participate). Informed consent was gained from all subjects by including all required twelve steps of the informed consent form. All subjects were repeatedly told to contact any of the researchers involved if they had questions or concerns about the process or their participation. In order to ensure full disclosure and openness, the subjects anonymity was kept as high priority

ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? throughout the study. Each subject was assigned a random number for identification, so they would not have to place their name on any of the documentation and, in further protection, individual profiles were not provided in the study. No children or any other vulnerable population was used in the study. Investigative Techniques Questionnaires were used with the twenty subjects who were actively employed with one of the member institutions studied. Semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions were used for the remaining five subjects who are currently retired. As stated earlier, it was important for the current employees to undergo a quantitative analysis via questionnaires to ensure openness and anonymity. However, the interviews were chosen for retired employees to better gain an understanding regarding the issues faced on a daily basis in that profession in collegiate athletics. The interview setting allows for the researcher to follow-up on issues that needed further clarification that could not be addressed in the questionnaire format. The independent variables in this study will be the prestige of an Athletic Program. To determine this we will rank schools based on amount of money that is allocated to the football and mens basketball programs. The dependent variable of this study will be whether or not Administrative professionals within the Athletic Department feel their Athletic Director has made unethical decisions or actions. We will use varied levels of measurement including nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio to determine the outcome of these results and analyze them accordingly. Instrumentation The instrument implemented in this survey will be in the form of a survey. The survey will contain twenty questions pertaining to the research questions being asked. All questions in

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ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? the research survey will have respective answer choices with numerical values assigned to each possible response. The questions will include interval, ordinal, ratio and nominal levels of measurement. As researchers, we are attempting to not include any type of leading questions to avoid bias; however, due to the nature of the subject of this study, questions may seem leading or offensive, when in actuality we have classified them as neutral. There is always still a possibility of bias when dealing with a man-made survey and human subjects. The Independent variable that is being looked at in this study is the level of power and prestige of an athletic program, and the dependent variable in this study will be whether or not the Athletic Directors in these Universities make questionable decisions in regard to ethical rules established in the written Code of Conduct. As far as reliability, we believe that this survey may or may not be reliable due to the fact that behaviors will vary among the different Athletic Directors. As researchers, we are not expecting to receive completely consistent results among all the twelve schools in the survey. The validity of this survey will also be determined if the results do indeed line up with the Athletic Directors actions. This could also be determined by conducting follow-up interviews after the quantitative research is completed. Data Collections Because of the distance between all the included schools participating in this study, the instruments will be distributed via electronic mail. The surveys contain very sensitive information, and this will eliminate the risk of losing surveys in the mail or the wrong person receiving the survey. The survey respondents will have two weeks to complete this survey. We understand that as administrative professionals, our subjects have many obligations, so we believe two weeks is ample time to complete a twenty-question survey, while still being efficient.

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ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? To those respondents who do not complete their surveys after the first week, reminder e-mails will be sent alerting them that the survey is not yet complete. Data Analysis For this study, we will be collecting descriptive statistics including measures of central tendency, measures of validity, measures of relative position, and measures of relationship. This will allow us as researchers to describe and summarize data collected from this sample.

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ETHICS IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS: DOES IT STILL EXIST? References Harrison-Dyer, Stephanie (2011). Ethical Dilemmas in College Athletics: The Role of Coaches and the Codes of Ethics. The Sport Digest, Retrieved from http://thesportdigest.com/ 2011/07/ethical-dilemmas-in-collegiate-athletics-the-role-of-coaches-and-the-codes-ofethic/. Lapchick, Richard, Slaughter, John Brooks, & Single, Doug. The Role of Directors of Athletics in Restoring Integrity to Intercollegiate Sport (1994). The Rules of the Game: Ethics in College Sport. 151-160. Siegel, Robert. Ridpath Discusses Ethics In College Sports (2011). National Public Radio. Interview of Dave Ridpath. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2011/11/09/142184376/ ridpath-discusses-ethics-in-college-sports

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