college sports Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The Ohio State University (OSU) was bombarded with allegations of misconduct on various fronts involving its athletic department in 2018. A former team doctor, a former diving coach, a former assistant football coach, and the head... more

The Ohio State University (OSU) was bombarded with allegations of misconduct on various fronts involving its athletic department in 2018. A former team doctor, a former diving coach, a former assistant football coach, and the head football coach were accused of misdeeds directly-or indirectly-related to their relationship with OSU. The most publicly debated issue was related to Urban Meyer, the head football coach, and whether he followed proper university procedure or possibly violated his own contract related to a claim of spousal, domestic abuse by one of his former assistant coaches, wide-receiver coach Zach Smith (Zach). Television, radio, the internet and social media blew up with reports and opinions about the various problems at the Columbus, Ohio flagship institution. After an investigation costing $500,000 and managed by a law firm which produced a twenty-three-page report, Meyer was suspended for the first three games of the 2018 season, OSU’s athletic director Gene Smith was also suspended, both without pay. The OSU-sponsored investigation concluded Meyer “misspoke and made misstatements” but “did not…deliberately lie.” However, controversy-and legal issues-are nothing new to OSU, its athletic department, its coaches and its student-athletes. This includes the infamous punch by OSU’s iconic head football coach Woody Hayes after Clemson’s Charlie Bauman intercepted quarterback Art Schlichter’s pass in the 1978 Gator Bowl. This article summarizes some of the more prominent sports law cases or compliance incidents over the last 20 years related to OSU.

In this article, Kirsten Hextrum considers institutional avenues that limit upward mobility opportunities by revealing a hidden curriculum of athletic recruiting that favors students from privileged backgrounds. The study's data center on... more

In this article, Kirsten Hextrum considers institutional avenues that limit upward mobility opportunities by revealing a hidden curriculum of athletic recruiting that favors students from privileged backgrounds. The study's data center on forty-seven life history interviews with National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I athletes from an athletically and academically prestigious university. Hextrum's findings reveal three phases of a hidden curriculum—socialization, covert selection, and overt selection—that secure greater access to elite colleges for White middle-class communities via athletic participation. In this case, social reproduction required active effort by both representatives of higher education and representatives of White middle-class communities to protect existing class and race relations.

Pulling data from a year-long case study into a Division II men’s basketball team, this article suggests how threshold concepts as currently conceptualized and implemented in first-year composition pedagogy and curriculum could more... more

Pulling data from a year-long case study into a Division II men’s basketball team, this article suggests how threshold concepts as currently conceptualized and implemented in first-year composition pedagogy and curriculum could more directly consider unique forms of literacies student-athletes bring into the classroom.

Top football programs around the country are leading a trend of building exclusive player-only villages to enhance the togetherness of the team. Although coaches love this idea, little thought has been given to the larger student... more

Top football programs around the country are leading a
trend of building exclusive player-only villages to enhance
the togetherness of the team. Although coaches love this
idea, little thought has been given to the larger student
development and isolation issues this trend creates for
students on a team. Further segregating them from the rest
of the campus population creates significant social and personal
drawbacks that senior administrators need to consider
before signing off on this concept. This article presents the
advantages and areas of concern regarding athletic villages
that should be considered for those interested in student
development.

The first preparatory institution was founded in 1635 to prepare elite men for public service, a role in the church, or admission to Harvard (Boyer, 1983). Nearly 400 years later, the objective of such institutions is no longer Harvard,... more

The first preparatory institution was founded in 1635 to prepare elite men for public service, a role in the church, or admission to Harvard (Boyer, 1983). Nearly 400 years later, the objective of such institutions is no longer Harvard, but often an avenue for potential student-athletes (PSAs) to participate in intercollegiate sport (Thamel, 2007). The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) does not define nor regulate postgraduate preparatory institutions (NCAA, 2018); however, Curran (2014) describes a preparatory institution (prep schools) as a postgraduate institute that provides PSAs another year at a secondary institution prior to making the transition to college. Utilizing semi-structured interviews as well as focus groups, and framed by Mincer’s (1958) Model of Basic Human Capital, the purpose of this study is to examine the experiences of those attending (PSAs) or associated with (e.g., coaches, teachers, parents, administrators) one specific postsecondary preparatory institution (Academy X).

The University of Michigan was the first major college brand to consent to collecting private performance data from their athletes as part of their apparel contract. The Wolverines signed with Jumpman, Nike’s Michael Jordan branded... more

The University of Michigan was the first major college brand to consent to collecting private performance data from their athletes as part of their apparel contract. The Wolverines signed with Jumpman, Nike’s Michael Jordan branded apparel division. As part of that agreement, the $170 million deal may “allow Nike to harvest personal data from Michigan athletes through the use of wearable technology like heart-rate monitors, GPS trackers and other devices that log myriad biological activities”, according to a story in the New York Times.

Abstract: Recent explorations position multimodality as a largely curricular practice wherein the body typically is not figured as a potential mode of meaning making. Such a projection not only fails to acknowledge extracurricular uses... more

Abstract: Recent explorations position multimodality as a largely curricular practice wherein the body typically is not figured as a potential mode of meaning making. Such a projection not only fails to acknowledge extracurricular uses of such a rhetoric but also fails to acknowledge the role of the body in and especially for composing. In hopes of countering this limited yet common understanding of multimodality, I consider an Auburn University 2004 defensive football play and sketch a picture of how embodied multimodality figures heavily in the literate activity surrounding college football. I end with a brief word on how Gunther Kress’s theory of multimodality encompassing the material and the bodily—two important concepts at play when examining football as literate activity—informs classroom practice through paving the way for embodied multimodal pedagogies. Ultimately, I hold that an analysis of extracurricular embodied multimodality in college football invites student-athletes to hone a beneficial form of second-nature embodied rhetoric absent in curricular multimodality.