Research Paper Example on the National Collegiate Athletic Association

Introduction

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a membership based organization whose main aim is the maintenance of college sports and the athlete well-being and success (NCAA, 2017). With over 1123 member colleges and universities, over 98 voter athletics conferences and 39 affiliated organizations, the NCAA is mainly a member led organization. Some of the prominent members of the organization include college presidents, athletics directors, sports information directors, coaches, conference staff as well as health and compliance officers (NCAA, 2017). Historically, the NCAA can be traced all the way back to the latter half of the 19th century. Competitiveness and the desire to win has always been an active fixture in college sports. For instance, one of the earliest competitions between universities was the highbrow regatta between Yale and Harvard Universities. This event was sponsored by the then powerful Elkins Railroad Line. Harvard University at some point sought an advantage over its rival by attempting to use a coxswain that was not a student at the time (Smith, 2000). This story is the perfect illustration of the early events in competitive intercollegiate sports that eventually led to the birth of the NCAA. The increasing commercialization and the need to gain a competitive advantage are existed from the start of intercollegiate sports (Smith, 2000). In the beginning, concerns with this trend led to the control of athletics programs being moved from the control of students to faculty. Still, there were concerns of sports going out of control. Presidents from two main colleges in the country complained about this: Walker from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology complained about athletics losing its link to academics while President Eliott at Harvard complained about high gate charges at athletics events turning them into huge commercial spectacles (Smith, 2000).

Intercollege sports still remained largely unregulated, though, even though there was faculty and in some cases conference oversight. What pushed the need for regulation over the fence was the rising concern that was brought about by the high number of deaths and injuries. In 1905, for instance, there were over 18 deaths and up to 100 major injuries in intercollegiate football (Smith, 2000). It is around this time that the then president Roosevelt called a meeting in the White House to review the rules of football. This, combined with the efforts of meetings by representatives of major intercollege football programs to review the rules, eventually resulted in the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association or the IAA, with an original membership of 62. It was renamed the NCAA in 1910 (Smith, 2000).

NCAA and Baseball Recruiting

Even though the NCAA started mainly as after the recognition of issues in football, it has since grown in stature to cover almost every other sport that is played in school. Unfortunately, even though its mandate and scope have generally widened, some of the issues that plagued the organization and its control of collegiate sports still remain problematic. The commercial viability and entertainment power of collegiate sports still remains an issue, one that unfortunately manifests itself in the form of recruitment. With universities and colleges under pressure to produce talent in sport and keep up with the competition, focus has shifted towards finding talent, with the trend seemingly being finding the sportspeople as early as possible. In a system that has been referred to as the arms race or human talent, colleges are going as far as recruiting or soliciting commitments from eight graders (Fader, 2016).

Softball has been one of the standouts in terms of growth both in college sports and worldwide. For instance, it was recently added to the Olympics, with the number of schools sponsoring the event, fans and participants increasing. Today, student athletes in softball are much faster and more skillful. Further, with the higher profile of the game, younger players are seeing the possibility of dreams playing baseball professionally materializing. The result of this, especially for colleges, is an intensification of the recruitment process.

The South Eastern Conference (SEC) has especially been active in terms of recruitment numbers. Naturally, money from football programs filters down to such areas, and the players will naturally follow the money. The SEC is top in terms of recruiting, and this paper looks to examine the SEC high school athletic association bylaws with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness of the same season same sport system to the athlete and the college coaches, considering the nature of the NCAA recruiting calendar.

Recruitment

The college recruiting process today is growing increasingly competitive by the day. Athletic department budgets are growing as it becomes clearer that investment in the recruiting process results in school being more competitive at their division 1 level (Ferrante, 2010). In recent years, there have been multiple techniques and tactics that have been used by institutions, recruiters and coaches. Schools and coaches are getting more creative, with tactics such as sending students or prospective recruits hundreds of letters in a day, or sending them recruiting letters that depict them as covers on video games or magazines (Remillard, 2014). Other techniques used by recruiting institutions, coaches and agents include the practice of making the contact as grand as possible; flying helicopters to schools in a bid to woo students or even singing to students over the phone (Remillard, 2014). The flip side of the recruiting process is that there are shady, illegal or borderline illegal practices which constitute recruitment rule violations. The more blatant examples include being given favors and benefits like cash, using women in sexual exploitation rings to woo students or bombarding recruits with phone calls (Thamel, 2012). This shows just how big a deal the issue of recruitment is.

Over the years, recruitment has been identified as one of the biggest success factors in collegiate athletic sports programs (Kankey & Quarterman, 2007). A considerable amount of resources is therefore devoted to achieving success in recruitment, building relationships with junior coaches and upcoming athletes and gaining commitment. Billions of dollars are awarded in scholarships to hundreds of thousands of student athletes every year. In most sporting calendars, there is no downtime for coaches; as soon as the season ends, they will transition directly to the recruitment stage (Hunter Jr, 2015). Institutions value successful athlete recruitment programs because of the revenue they receive from the athletics program. Several studies have highlighted the relationship between successful and prominent athletics programs and the increase in applications to universities (Mixon, Trevino, & Minto, 2004). The pressure to recruit, develop, retain and graduate elite athletes is always going to be a factor (Hunter Jr, 2015).

For the prospective students, there is a significant investment in terms of time and money in the recruiting process. For instance, junior sports have seen an increase when it comes to year round participation and specialization as a result of the spread of club sports all around the country (Hunter Jr, 2015). In some sports like Lacrosse and volleyball, the recruitment process starts as early as the seventh grade. According to reports, up to 36 percent of women athletes in sports like lacrosse commit to institutions before the official recruiting process set by the NCAA even begins (Popper, 2014). This trend towards early recruitment of athletes has received considerable attention among coaches, even though there are allegations that the coaches themselves are one of the stronger driving forces behind the practice (Popper, 2014). Research is limited as to the specific effects of recruiting practices coming earlier, but there are reports of psychological and physical pressures on athletes (Popper, 2014). On the flip side, such early recruitment practices have their advantages. The athletes can finish the recruitment process early and be able to enjoy the rest of their high school years. The risk, however, comes when the progression or the vision of the program no longer matches a few years down the line. There is also the possibility that verbal commitments will not be honored (Popper, 2014). Verbal commitments remain non-binding until the student signs a letter of intent (Hunter Jr, 2015).

Softball

Today, softball remains one of the fastest growing sports in the college sports industry. Today, there is more talent than ever, and the funds required to keep the sport flowing are more available. The international softball federation has worked to have the sport re-introduced into the Olympics, and the success of the steps taken shows the potential of the sport (Hughes, 2011). Before the seventies, college sports opportunities for women were largely unavailable a few decades ago. Before the increased funding that came from the title IX after 1972, womens college softball was nothing close to what it is today (Plummer & Floyd, 2013). According to the earliest pioneers, it was nothing more than the occasional opportunity to give participants the opportunity to do something competitively. A lot of the emphasis was on the social element and not necessarily the competition. Attitudes were also different: it was thought that women either could not compete at the highest skilled level, or had no interest in doing so (Plummer & Floyd, 2013).

The start of the growth of the college softball scene can be traced back to the early sixties, though, when Don Joe of the John F Kennedy College in Nebraska believed he had the best team in the country and pushed for the organization of a world league series format competition that would then help determine which was truly the best team in the country (Plummer & Floyd, 2013). The strength of womens softball has also contributed to the growth in popularity of the sport nationally, in a trend that is seemingly worldwide in nature, seeing as the sport will now be played at the Olympics in 2020. The last time the sport was played at the Olympics in 2008, japan defeated the US in the gold medal game (Elliott, 2016).

For the colleges, the greater focus and interest in the sport, increased competitiveness and funding means there will be a stronger emphasis on recruitment from the lower levels. In the US, the South Eastern conference (SEC) remains the top in terms of performance in womens softball, and consequently in terms of recruitment. So dominant is the SEC that in May 2017, it was on the brink of achieving a historic milestone, having all its 13 teams get into the NCAA softball tournament. This was last done by the PAC-12 in 2007 (Linnehan, 2017). That it is the best performing softball conference in the country means the intensity with which recruiters descend on it is very high. Other factors that strengthen the SEC in terms of softball performance include increased resources from television and well developed softball stadiu...