Literature Review #5

McFarland, Allison J. "What's in It for Us?" Rethinking Corporate Sponsorships in Interscholastic Athletics. 2002-03-00. 22p. Opinion Papers. Print

The article talks about the importance big corporations now put on interscholastic athletic activities across the nation, from very early on to national college level. It informs the reader of their importance, and a lot of marketing methods used by a lot of them to pull in more revenue and also help schools build more funding meanwhile. It also alerts the reader to some of the dangers in what is happening as well.


 Allison J. McFarland- Professor and Chair Department of Business & Economics, Bethel College. During the past several years, Dr. McFarland has presented over 60 workshops on the topic of Millennials to human resource professionals regionally, statewide and nationally.

Key Terms: Commercial opportunism- which refers to the opportunity to market their brand by sponsoring activities and events that would lead many to partake of their product and hopefully make it a practice.
Purchasing influence- The influence these corporations have on such young ones to consume or use their product, and build brand loyalty from early on

"Athletic departments across the country are selling
broadcast opportunities to local radio and television stations; connecting with corporate
sponsors for special events and promotions; seeking corporations who will agree to make
a substantial financial contribution in return for naming rights to a local facility; signing
deals with soda companies to distribute their product exclusively in exchange for new
electronic scoreboards, uniforms, or equipment; and soliciting advertising revenue from

game programs, field, arena, bus and rooftop signage, and halftime promotions"
"most companies are in a race to establish brand loyalty with young consumers before their competitor does" (Thompson, 2000, p. 30).
"Research has demonstrated that the commercialization of athletic programs and the high schools in which they exist have become a major focus of strategic corporate marketing plans"

I think it's crucial to understand just how far these companies have gone to impress on youth what they should drink when they get older. It's also interesting to note that any exposure is a good exposure when both sides are winning, and usually it is the big corporations that get the upper hand on these deals, much to the apathy of schools who just want more money for their staff and to fuel their programs and gain even more attention.

A picture of Allison McFarland

Literature Review #4

Huot, Lyndsay N. "Athletics and the Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments. The Georgetown Journal of Gender and The Law. Vol VIII:417. 2007. Print

The article talks about almost everything there is to know about Title IX; from its history, to how involved women's sports have become in society, to females from all ages being able to compete with the same amenities as boys' sports programs. Giving more opportunities for a fair ground to athletic development.

Lyndsay "represents financial institutions, broker-dealers, and investment advisers in investigations, enforcement cases, or other regulatory matters involving government agencies and regulators, including the SEC and FINRA." She has worked on a couple of cases that helped reinforce the efficiency of Title IX with regulatory jurisdictions and so forth.

key terms: Framework of the Title IX legislation in the context of high school and intercollegiate athletics.
Constitutional Protections- basically protecting from sex discrimination claims and constitutional malpractices that can take place from time to time.

'At least one court has explicitly stated that that outside funding for athletics programs, whether through booster clubs or outside donors, becomes transformed into public funds upon receipt by a school."
"Existence of equal treatment and benefits is measured by an analysis of whether the resources necessary to ensuring equal opportunities for males and females are provided, as well as the comparison of the advantages provided to females and males program-wide."
"Claims may also involve substantive equal protection violations brought under the Civil Rights Act of 1964"

It is valuable to understand the legalities of Title IX because this outlines more rules about gender equality in extra-curricular activities, and thus the reasoning behind the funding of collegiate sports.

This is a picture of Lyndsay N. Huot

Literature Review #3

"Rutgers Revisited: Coalition to Save Our Sports Responds to Rutgers Media Statement." Swimming World News. The Coalition, 27 July 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2017.

This article talks about the six athletic programs that were cut from the Rutgers athletic program to supposedly save money and slowly get out of debt due to low revenues and increased spending. It also talks about how great these sports were to the school and what many accolades and benefits they brought as far as athletic and academic attention. It further talks about how these cuts were a mere distraction to spend more on things that benefited others' pockets, and how this decision came back to bite them in the butt anyway.

The Coalition is the group that put this information out there, and they seem to have quite a bit of knowledge on this topic; maybe through interviews or data given to them, or maybe one of the people giving out information was again from Rutgers Athletic department.

One key concept is the fact that the sports that were cut were actually very competitive in their fields compared to the rest of their foes in conference play. They were also very academically inclined student athletes who upheld great standing in that aspect, and it still was not enough to keep them around, although there was no actual necessity to cut them. The whole thing about Title IX is to create more opportunities, not take them more away.
Another key concept is the actual increase in spending due to regulations put in to stay on good standing with the NCAA, despite these cuts.

"Rutgers "elected" to cut six sports in 2006, including men's swimming and diving, as part of a budgetary crackdown from the State of New Jersey. The explanation for the decision to completely cut six sports, instead of taking the state-mandated percentage cut across the board came under heavy fire at the time."
"Rutgers claimed that it was forced to eliminate the teams due to reduction in funding received from Trenton. Yet, no savings resulted."
"$711,734 increase in women's athletic scholarship spending triggered by the elimination of Women's Fencing which forced Rutgers into the Title IX "proportionality" test."
"The Scarlet Six included incredibly high performing teams, producing numerous Olympians and NCAA All-Americans, Rutgers' only national championship performances, and Big East titles"
"By terminating the Scarlet Six, Rutgers has eliminated the present and future financial contributions of some 4000 team alumni and supporters."

This material helps me to see more details on the cut of these programs in general, and what came out of it. It clears up things that lead up to resolutions that were questionable at times, and how they could have been avoided, and how we could have potentially had a stronger overall program had these sports stuck around.

Literature Review #2

Rvc73. "Restoring Sports Is the Right Thing to Do." On the Banks. On the Banks, 28 June 2015. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.

The reading is basically about Rutgers's attempts to gain more money through very selective areas, and being a lot more partial towards those sports when it comes to funding compared to others. It also makes mention of the allocation of scholarships favoring a few sports programs (3 to be exact). The article also touches on Title IX and some of the intricacies this topic deals with when it comes to staying in line with regulations.

There is no history on the author of this article, but it seems to be one well versed with Rutgers Athletic department, and maybe even one who works in the department.

One key concept was the constant shortfalls of funds for athletes in Rutgers compared to their conference foes, who receive abundant money just from revenue of the sports programs.
Another key term is the effect Title IX has on Rutgers athletic growth and competence against other schools, and the only way to bring back cut programs.
"When someone says that got a "full ride", they're probably playing football or basketball"
"The law never said that sports should be eliminated in order to do this. In fact, the spirit of the law was to expand opportunities. However, as costs have increased, many schools have found the easiest way to bring about the equity called for in the law is to cut men's sports"
Reinstating sports that were cut in 2007, the focus of this series, seems a back-burner issue for the Athletics Department, although there are supporters in those sports who have strong feelings about it, and they will not give up easily"

This material helps me better understand the priorities and main concerns of funding at big schools like Rutgers, and what nuances the Title IX claw has on the whole ordeal.

Research Blog #9

My argument rests on the fact that athletic programs lean too much on their "staple sports" to bring in revenue for the rest of the sports, and big corporations are flocking to the sports that could make them the most money as well. The misallocation of funds among men's sports and females' sports is also slightly accentuated by the implementation of Title IX, which in a way allows this more favored behavior among sport programs.
A counter-argument is the rise of many female sports programs thanks to Title IX, and the amenities it brings to those teams so they can be able to perform at a higher level and compete against the best.
My thesis question was trying to find out if corporations could help change the tide around athletic funding, and if so how? Also finding out how Tile IX has affected the playing fields, and if that is really a concern for the future.

One opposing argument on this would be the actual dominance of football and basketball on a national scale compared to other sports, which is why these two sports are heavily publicized and pushed to generate more revenue. But, when we look outside of the U.S, these two sports are nowhere close to the revenue other sports bring in outside, and the same goes with their popularity. The universal sports are pulling in great numbers.

Research Blog #8

My chief example for this argument is the decision made by then Rutgers athletic director Bob Mulcahy; to cut six great sports from the athletic program to "save money in a period of budget crisis." We see that these changes actually did nothing more but bring attention to the NCAA about regulating the Title IX effects hat were supposed to be put in place, and increased the amount of money dished out to mostly female sports. However, it also made it much easier to ignore proper allocation of funds to the other men's programs (apart from football and basketball), because although funds are to be split "equitably" among male and female programs, it does not say that every sport in each gender gets the same amount of money. In my opinion, that was the plan all along, and it seems to have worked so far. Those teams cut were no less competitive in their respective domains compared to other schools in their conferences, but they were apparently not good enough to stay. If we look at what those teams offered to the student body, school's athletic recognition, and their academic prowess, we see what a curious decision it was to take them away if not for one reason..



https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/rutgers-revisited-coalition-to-save-our-sports-responds-to-rutgers-media-statement/

http://www.onthebanks.com/2015/6/28/8761051/rutgers-athletics-title-ix

Research Blog #7

One major theory that helps me put my paper together is the corporation's involvement in athletic programs in general, and how it is affecting the monetary transactions of those universities.
Another theory that is guiding my paper is Title IX which was a result from women's rights and lack of support for female sports in general, and this changed the structure of college sports when serious implementations of the law started taking place.These two ideas basically help guide my paper towards its eventual conclusion which will be finding a possible culmination to this issue.
In "Title IX and Men's "Minor" Sports: A False Conflict," we see that although Title IX is in effect nationwide in the U.S, "female athletes [are] still [getting] the short end of the stick." It also mentions that Title IX is not to be viewed as the problem for men's funding for sports other than football and basketball, but it is rather the misallocation of these funds among men's sports that is to be seen as the main problem. This unearths many suspicions about the Title IX saga and why funds have been drastically cut from men's programs unlike female programs.