Date of Creation
5-1-2016
Degree Type
Departmental Honors Thesis - Restricted Access
Abstract
The NCAA aims to preserve the purity and amateurism of college athletics. However, each year several colleges and universities are sanctioned for breaking rules established by the NCAA. It is the duty of the NCAA Committee of Infractions to investigate and penalize these rule-breaking colleges and universities. Probation, scholarships limitations, and postseason bans are some of the common penalties that are handed down by the NCAA. But just how successful has the NCAA Committee of Infractions been in implementing penalties that hurt rule-breaking colleges and universities? This study aims to answer that question by analyzing the on-field effect of NCAA sanctions in college football over the past 30 years. 2 In recent years, there has been a significant transformation in college athletics. Celebrations of amateurism and the purity of student-athletes have been replaced with recruiting violations and university-wide scandals. Universities sever traditional rivalries and geographical logic to align themselves with conferences that have the most lucrative television contracts. The more money at stake for universities, in the form of postseason appearances and television contracts, the more of an incentive for universities to sidestep the rules and regulations to gain a competitive advantage on the playing field. Furthermore, the digital age has brought new ways for players to be recruited resulting in changing and growing recruiting guidelines imposed by the NCAA. Despite all of these changes, the NCAA Committee of Infractions attempts to guard the purity of college athletics. The Committee of Infractions guards the amateurism of college athletics by implementing sanctions on rule-breaking schools. Not surprisingly these significant changes in the college game have resulted in an increase in the number of sanctions imposed by the NCAA in recent years (Eckard [1998] 350). But just how effective are these sanctions in penalizing rule-breaking teams and institutions? This study will specifically analyze the on-field impact of NCAA sanctions in college football
Recommended Citation
Spagnoletti, Anthony, "Is the Punishment Fitting the Crime? Analyzing The On-Field Impact of NCAA Sanctions in College Football" (2016). Economics and Accounting Honors Theses. 1.
https://crossworks.holycross.edu/econ_honor/1