Literature Review 4

Lit Review 4

Kahn, Lawrence M. "Markets: Cartel Behavior And Amateurism In College Sports." Journal Of Economic       Perspectives 21.1 (2007): 209-226. Business Source Premier. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.

Summary:

This paper discusses evidence on whether the NCAA has exercised cartel power. It also review evidence on the indirect effects of college sports on the rest of the university, including how sports revenues affect the rest of the university. The author investigates pay of coaches, assistant coaches, and student athletes. He compares the pay with what could be possible, what they deserve, what is restricting proper pay, and takes a look at illegal (under the table) pay as well.

Author: Lawrence M. Kahn is Professor of Labor Economics and Collective Bargaining, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Key Terms:

"Monopoly"- The author refers to the NCAA as a monopoly over college sports. In the business world a monopoly is something that the government tries to avoid because it allows one entity to command the rules and prices of the goods/services. This is no different with the NCAA.

"Division I"- D1  can be further segmented into I-A,  I-AA, and I-AAA. Division I schools with football are classified as I-A or I-AA. For membership in Division I-A, a school must have a football team which satisfies attendance criteria. Division I schools without football programs are classified I-AAA.

Quotes: 
"Total ticket revenues for football and men’s basketball were $757 million in 1999, which exceeded ticket sales for professional baseball, football, and hockey that year" (1)

"Both big-time college athletics and professional athletics have highly paid coaches and expensive facilities for games and practices. However, while professional teams are owned by investor groups and feature highly paid athletes, college teams are “owned” by colleges and universities whose official mission is not primarily athletic accomplishment and they feature athletes who receive only free tuition, board, and a small stipend for living expenses—if the athletes even receive a full scholarship, which not all of them do." (8)

"Another piece of evidence that the NCAA is restricting pay comes from the widespread incidence of under-the-table payments for top college athletes. For example, Sack (1991) surveyed 3500 current and retired NFL players in 1989, of whom 1182 responded. He found that 31 percent of them received under-the-table payments while in college and 48 percent claimed they knew of others who received them." (9)

Value:

This is a strong article that I could use in my paper because the author shares the same beliefs that I do on the subject of paying college athletes. The author has many facts that he implements into his arguments, and he examines both sides of the argument to further his point. I will draw from certain areas of Kahn's writing to further my paper.