Making Sense of Amateurism: Juxtaposing NCAA Rhetoric and Black Male Athlete Realities
Black Males and Intercollegiate Athletics: An Exploration of Problems and Solutions
ISBN: 978-1-78441-394-1, eISBN: 978-1-78441-393-4
Publication date: 3 June 2015
Abstract
In the 1980s, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) passed several eligibility rules to address concerns about the academic and personal development of its participants (Gaston-Gayles, 2009). Despite garnering publicity, fostering school pride, providing entertainment, and generating billions of dollars in revenue for the Division I-affiliated institutions they attend (Sylwester, M., & Witosky, T. (2004). Athletic spending grows as academic funds dry up. USAToday.com , February 18. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2004-02-18-athletic-spending- cover_x.htm), student-athletes are prevented from receiving compensation beyond athletic scholarships by the NCAA’s amateurism principle. Consequently, the ethical question at the center of college sports is: how do participants benefit from the college experience relative to their non-sport peers? While the NCAA typically reports benefits, research that disaggregates the data by sport, division, race, and sex reveals long-standing and pervasive inequities (Harper, Williams, & Blackman, 2013). Accordingly, this chapter juxtaposes NCAA’s rhetoric, principles, and espoused goals with the lived realities of the most populous demographic group within high revenue-generating collegiate sports, Black male student-athletes.
Keywords
Citation
Williams, C.D. (2015), "Making Sense of Amateurism: Juxtaposing NCAA Rhetoric and Black Male Athlete Realities", Black Males and Intercollegiate Athletics: An Exploration of Problems and Solutions (Diversity in Higher Education, Vol. 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 151-174. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-364420140000016008
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited