Illegal Benefits in College Athletics is a serious problem and one the NCAA needs to address

Sports are all about the money, and it does not depend on the level of sports that you look at. Sporting culture is one of not only competitiveness and athleticism, but sports are also a business. In life, people are always trying to find a quick way to gain an advantage, and this includes the business side of college sports.

A college program, such as a football team or basketball program, is just as cut-throat as any major business in the United States. As a result of this, programs have tried to cheat in order to have more success, and it have affected not only the programs but the athletes as well. Scandals have plagued the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) throughout its history, and is just as prevalent today as it was 40 years ago. But what can they really? University of Maryland Director of Baseball Operations Matt Swope analyses the NCAA and the large task they have at hand.

Improper benefits scandals have riddled
the NCAA over the years.
Photo by wbur.org

In every decade since the 1970s, there has been at least one major scandal in college athletics, and the scandals are not restricted to one sport. This shows that the NCAA needs to make an adjustment, either changing the rules or changing the way they handle cases so that people stop accepting money illegally. Illegal benefits has become one of the larger topics in college sports, and it’s time for the NCAA to address it.

What the NCAA has done and can do

For the past 40 years, the NCAA has stuck to its rules on improper benefits, penalizing players and programs specifically based on the case, but regardless of the specifics, the amount of cases of illegal benefits being exposed is way too high. The NCAA has stuck to its rules, but the number of cases has not been deterred. In fact, the number of major cases has actually increased.

This graph shows the number of major cases of illegal benefits throughout the past 4 decades. It creates a clear depiction that this trend is a negative one. The number of serious cases per decade that have involved that accusation of at least one player or program has tripled since the 1990s, and we are not even half way through this decade yet.

So far, the NCAA has done little more than stick to its rules and penalize the players and schools accordingly, but clearly something must be changed. One growing debate is a clear indicator of a direction the NCAA could go in. The topic of discussion is whether student athletes should be able to make money off of the use of their name.

If this idea was adapted by the NCAA, it would basically have schools pay their players based off of income of the program and use of the players name by the program to make money. This change would effectively reduce the number of cases of illegal benefits because many of the cases in the past 10 years have been instances of players accepting illegal benefits for the use of their name by others or selling memorabilia.

Should the NCAA make a Change?

The problem with the idea of paying these athletes is that college athletes are supposed to be considered amateurs. This change would effectively eliminate their amateur status and make them professionals. University of Maryland Director of Baseball Operations Matt Swope, who himself was a college athlete at the University of Maryland, says that college athletes should be considered amateurs.

College athletes receive scholarships to go to school, so it’s not necessary for them to be paid because in a way they are already being paid. With a new addition to the NCAA rules, athletes will also receive free meals. College athletes and Professional athletes are on two completely different levels, and it’s not really fair to compare these kids to professionals so why should they take money away from the school and be paid like one?

On the other side of things, paying college athletes would also make sense. Athletic programs, especially in basketball and football, will make thousands, if not millions, off of their players. Through the selling of the player’s name, and the promotion of that player, the school will make a profit through merchandise sales and ticket sales. Athletes never see any of this money, even though they are partly responsible for the school receiving it. But is the NCAA ready to make a move like this. Matt Swope believes that the NCAA is not ready and that the athletes should not be paid.

In agreement with Swope, athletes should not be paid, or at least not yet. These athletes already receive scholarships and other aid to attend these schools and are not professionals so there is no reason for them to be paid at this current time. The NCAA has no solid answer as to how they would do so either. There are thousands of college athletes, so there is a lot of ground to cover. Also, some colleges have more funding then others which could give some schools an unfair advantage over other because some schools may not be able to pay all their athletes.

This issue is a real problem for the NCAA, but allowing college athletes to be paid is not the answer at this time. They need to find a way to crack down on these cases, whether it is through harsher penalties or teaching athletes more about this rule.

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Quiz 11

Kabrea27 answered the question, "What did you learn so far about your final topic that you didn't know before?"



Diamond24 answered the question, "Describe things that differentiate basic videotaping from professional quality videotaping."

University of Maryland Pitcher Mike Shawaryn discusses the upcoming season for the baseball team

Article on SpaceShipTwo Crash follows all of the Rules of P-I-C-K Journalism

Spaceship crashes in Mojave, California Leaving One Pilot Dead and Answers may Take a Year to Find

The article I chose that I felt showed good characteristics of P-I-C-K was an article names, “SpaceShipTwo crash investigation may take up to a year.” This article is about the recent spaceship that crashed shortly after its launch last Friday. One pilot was killed in the crash, and the other is still in the hospital fighting for his life. The company involved in the test was one that looks to use this flight method as a new and future type of tourism giving people a flight into shallow space. This article looks into what took place on October 31 and what could happen in the future with the investigation just getting underway. I picked this article displayed all four of the characteristics that makes up a good news source.

Personalization is where the article is made in the best interests of the viewer. This consists of presenting the information in a conversational style rather that in an expository style to peak the interest of the viewer. This article uses personalization very effectively. It has short paragraphs; every point is actually spaced out larger than normal. This is effective because it makes it easier for the viewer to read and comprehend the story because it is spaced out and in short paragraphs. A reader is less likely to lose interest in this article because of how it is laid out. This article also allows for readers to continue their exploration into of the story by adding a video, in-text links, and links on the side of the page that took the reader to another related article on the story if they were interested. Each of these little details allowed for good personalization that does a good job in creating and keeping good interest in the story from the reader.

Another characteristic that this article does a good job of including is involvement. The article has several subheads, which is good to have, but in these subheads they asked questions to get the reader involved. For example, one paragraph is started with the question, “Inflight Breakup?”

While this question is a rhetorical one and very simple, it introduces the topic that that paragraph will be discussing and allows the reader to begin thinking about that topic even before they have read the paragraph. Another example of involvement in this article is the video that was posted as a part of it. This involves the readers by allowing them to not only read the story, but to see it in a different way and hear it, too. This video helps engage the viewer allowing them to better understand the message that is trying to be delivered.

This article also includes good uses of contiguity. While there are no data graphics that were displayed to help the viewer, there were other uses of contiguity that created a coherence for the reader. A video was included in the story as a graphic that would help the viewer understand the points the author is trying to get across. This article also included a little section off to the side titled “story highlights” that helps create more contiguity in the article. Other little related videos are posted on the side as well. These things coincide with the article itself to help the viewer understand all of the important details of the story.

The last characteristic that I felt this article had was a small number of kick outs. There were links and videos posted on the page, but all were relevant and worked fast and effectively. I didn't feel as there were too many words in the article; the article was relatively short and the paragraphs were broken up with subheads. There were ads on the right side and a few on the left side of the web page, but there were none in the words themselves so I didn't feel as though they brought down the quality of the page. I felt that this page and author did a good job limiting any kick outs as this article and page were very well formed.

Article Link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/02/us/spaceshiptwo-incident/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Researcher Vedran Lekic receives Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering for Future Research on Earth's Inner Structure

By Nick16 and Liz14

Researcher Vedran Lekic receives Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering for Future Research on Earth's Inner Structure

(18- Important News) As a doctoral student at the University of California, Berkley, Lekic formulated higher-resolution images of the Earth’s mantle structure, stemming from his creation of a global seismic velocity model. Not only is the model able to give geologists a better understanding of plate tectonics, but it also helps explain the movement of continental plates and their evolution, Lekic said.

(10- Explanation) Lekic’s research is based on ground vibration recordings, which he and his students use to detect the scattering of seismic waves across the North American tectonic plate. In conjunction with the National Science Foundation’s EarthScope Facility network, the data is collected from the 49 states and Puerto Rico and makes up about 3.8 million square miles, Lekic said.

(12- Explanation) “EarthScope is kind of like our Apollo mission, but not as costly,” Lekic said

Lekic Receives Grant to Continue Research on the Earth and its Inner Contents

(1- Important News) In recognition of his efforts to integrate computer science and geological studies, Lekic joined the ranks of 17 other early career U.S. scientists and engineers who were awarded a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering last week.

(4- Important News) Lekic is now one of five alumni faculty members who have received the award while at this university, and he will be given access to unrestricted funds of $875,000 over a five-year period to support his extensive research on Earth’s inner structure.

(15- Explanation) Now that a large fund has been granted to his work, he hopes to spend more time plotting the seismic information in graphs and models so that he may better understand the Earth, Lekic said.

(2- Background) Lekic has already used the seismic information to investigate why and how the crust moves over the Earth’s mantle. As of now, the deepest any machine has been able to dig was about 12 kilometers into the Earth’s crust, a minuscle fracture of the roughly 6,730 kilometers it takes to get to the Earth’s core. Using the seismic information helps geologists see the shapes and sizes of the Earth’s layers.

Lekic seeks to provide greater insight and information on the build of the Earth

 (5- Important News) From this data, Lekic is creating a map that will not only cover all 48 contiguous states, Alaska and Puerto Rico, but also dive deep into the Earth’s crust and core.

(13- Explanation) “What we do is comparable to how an ultrasound let’s us see through our bodies,” Lekic said. “But this lets us see through the Earth.”

(17- Explanation) Lekic and McDonough are attempting to harness that energy to create another way to build a model of the Earth.

(16- Explanation) “We are both interested in the energy that moves the tectonic plates and creates the magnetic shield around the planet,” geology professor William McDonough said.

(7- Background) Nearly 2 million data lines fill the screen of Vedran Lekic’s computer every day, each representing seismic waves that are detected from of the more than 1,700 seismic stations around the U.S.

(6- Background) Neutrinos are a type of electrically neutral subatomic particle that are created during radioactive decay or some kinds of nuclear reactions. The particle, which was only discovered geologically in 2005 and physically detected for the first time last year, moves through every kind of object, McDonough said.

(11- Explanation) “It sounds magical; it’s like a particle that exists but you can’t really see,” Lekic said of neutrinos.

Lekic is not new to Fellowships, as this is not his first Award

(9- Background) “The great thing about this fellowship is its flexibility to go chase a really good idea to wherever it leads,” said Orr, a Stanford University professor. “It is an incredibly valuable fund and gives the researchers an opportunity to take off with a good idea instead of waiting a year or more for federal money.”

(8- Explanation) “If you look at the field of those who get it and try to figure out from their research summaries and letters which are the strongest candidate, it’s a difficult task,” said Franklin Orr, chairman of the Packard Fellowship panel. “We always run out of fellowships before we run out of wonderful people to give them too.”

(14- Kick Out) Lekic has received several other early career awards besides the Packard Fellowship.

(3- Kick Out) Other than his seismology research contributions, Lekic is also a forerunner in the new geological field of neutrino geoscience.

The impact of apps on social media is shown by the percentage of online adults using these apps

Social Media and the apps they consist of are becoming an ever growing part of our lives. According to this article, 74% of all internet users use social media apps. These new apps, the most prevalent being Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn, among others, are used by millions of people daily to update their status and acquire the latest news and updates. This information is vital for many reasons. These social media trends often show the habits and tendencies of the youth of the world, allowing companies to access the lives of people and see what they like, don’t like, and are interested in. Seeing the trends of the apps gives information seekers a path to follow to see the trends of the people. The correlating graphic shows what social media apps are being used at a high rate and what percent of online adults are using them.

Study Shows what technologies students use and how often they use them for academic purposes