For my group and I's forum presentation, we chose to look deeper into how much revenue college sports generates and how it is distributed. We also chose to add a secondary question focusing on whether college athletes should be paid for their services to the universities. Originally we wanted to use concussions as our main point, but found the idea of college sports and the money they make to be a better forum topic.
What made me so interested in this research topic is my love for sports. Since I can remember I grew up watching college football every Saturday with my dad, during fall and winter months. Then after football ends, the transition is made to college basketball and so on. So when the idea of researching the revenue made by college sports was brought up, I thought it'd be interesting to look deeper into an industry that I actively participate in. This research question should draw interest from different types of people, because it's not just about the money made from college sports but where does the money go and what kind of people are affected.
For example the University of Alabama in 2013-14 generated roughly $121 million in revenue from all sports. So the next question is where does that money go? Do non-athletes every see any of the money? Does the money just get put back into the sports programs, or does the money go to better the school as a whole? Or should athletes receive money since they're the reason the school brings in so much revenue to begin with? That's what makes this research question even more interesting, I can draw so many small questions from my research topic to then dive deeper into.
Overall when looking at the system universities use for distributing money made by sports, clearly the universities benefit while students get the short end of the stick. I got to research the University of Alabama in depth, and found most of their revenue being put back into the sports programs. It's estimated that Alabama spends roughly $91,000 per athlete, while spending only $13,000 per student. With the university's board controlling where the money goes, the thought is that if we put more money into sports we'll be able to generate more money. If the system for how money distributed changes, it would hurt the school but benefit students. More money could be put to academic programs for students, along with making school cheaper in general. As for the student-athletes, I feel they deserve some form of payment for the time and effort they give to schools, but the question becomes what should the payment be?
Before I started doing research on our forum topic, I wasn't too knowledgeable in this subject. I had seen a few reports ESPN did on Northwestern University, and how their football program was protesting against the NCAA hoping to change the pay-for-play rule. Though the players lost their battle, the debate on pay-for-play in college sports rages on. Also I had watched a short documentary done on college football as an industry, where the focus was mainly on how much revenue college football generates. Since doing my research, I've found on average how much top colleges make from college sports, and where some of that money goes. Also I've looked into different suggested models for whether athletes should be paid or not. Based on what I've found, I feel that colleges need to do a better job at distributing money in a way that both athletes and non-athletes can benefit from it.
I think overall this research topic will be a fun one because it always us to look at college sports in a different way. We get to see universities for what they really are, big businesses that only care about money. With me being in college I feel its important to understand what universities do with the money they generate. Do they invest in their students or do they continue to make sure they're the only party that benefits?
Michael Trautmann