For the past few months, the Emporia State men’s and women’s track and field team have been preparing for the MIAA Championships last weekend, the Hornets’ preparations were put to the test at the Hornets’ final competition in the indoor track and field season.

The Hornets competed in a three day competition at the MIAA Championships in Warrensburg, Mo. This was the third time the Hornets had competed in Warrensburg.

“I think going to Missouri prepared the team well,” said Head Coach Dave Harris. “We felt like we have been to this track, been to these field event areas, and that is important.”

The ESU men’s team placed second with a score of 126, losing to the University of Central Missouri by 13, placing them in the finals. The women’s team placed sixth with a score of 59, losing to Pittsburg State by one point.

The first day of competition consisted of the heptathlon, in which the men compete in the 60 meter dash, long jump, shot put, high jump, 60 meter hurdles, pole vault and the 1000 meter dash. The seven competitions use a cumulative score of each athlete to determine winners.

The heptathlon involves two days of competition in which athletes compete in four events the first day and three the second day.

Craid Saalfeld, senior heptathlon runner for the Hornets, competed in the first four events Friday. Saalfeld placed second in the 60 meter dash, second in long jump, sixth in shot put and first in high jump, with an overall first place ranking. Saalfeld is now ranked third in the nation in his event.

“He got the team excited,” Harris said. “He went out there and set a school record that started our team on a good run in this meet.”

The majority of the preliminary events took place Saturday. Alex Pyle, junior jumper for the Hornets, competed in the high jump along with Saalfeld. Pyle took first with a jump of 6 feet 8.75 inches and Saalfeld took second with a jump of 6 feet 8.75 inches also.

Sophomore Kenton Lonberger and junior Matt Koelling both injured themselves during Saturday’s portion of the meet.

Lonberger placed third in the 60 meter dash before injuring himself during the 200 meter dash in which he placed 16^th. Due to his injuries, Lonberger was not able to compete in the 60 meter dash finals.

“I am very proud of my men’s team,” Harris said. “I am disappointed in some injuries that occurred. That took a shot out of the win… there is not much you can do about it though.”

Each year a male and female freshman is awarded Freshman of the Year at the Championships. Katelyn Mona won the women’s award and Vincent Howze won the men’s.

“We gave them everything we could,” Harris said. “The highlight of the weekend was that we came here and people had a good time. I know that no one will ever forget this meet that was involved in it.”

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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Emporia State should encourage a more student friendly schedule for athletes, leaving them ample time to prepare for homework and exams over weekends. ESU’s economic status should not reflect on the quality of education its student-athletes receive.

In the midst of the impending economic status, President Barack Obama issued an American recovery and investment plan in an effort to create a higher job market. America has fallen into a recession and the American economy has reached the lowest point that most college students can remember.

ESU’s fiscal budget for 2009 dropped $420,000. The university is attempting to curb these costs by lowering costs of sports, reducing athletic scholarships and lowering campus employment.

The Hornets’ baseball team schedule is one instance where ESU is attempting to cut back. Of the 51 games the Hornets have remaining, over 50 percent of them are played one right after the other. Most of the time, they play three or more within the same weekend.

According to Head Coach Bob Fornelli, this year’s schedule was designed in a strong effort to cope with this year’s budget cuts. ESU, along with many other schools, has started to schedule games back to back to cut down on budgeting costs.

This scheduling effort has taken great toll on the teams, however, leaving a short amount of time in between games to prepare for the next.

Last weekend, the Hornets’ baseball team competed in four games against the Colorado School of Mines, all four of which they won. The weekend prior to playing Colorado, the Hornets competed against Regis University and were only given Wednesday to practice before leaving Emporia.

This lack of time and practice can cause a large deficit in time for academic work. Although studies have shown that, in recent years, student-athletes average a slightly higher grade point average, America’s current economic status was not accounted for in these studies.

Because a lot of student-athletes rely on scholarships from sports, these constant travel arrangements can cause dire consequences. Some student-athletes cannot afford to go to college outside of sports scholarships. This could cause student-athletes to focus less on school and more on sports, in turn lowering their GPA.

To resolve this problem there should be a limit on how many games a team can compete in per week. By doing so this, it will limit the time spent participating in sports and help balance sports and academics. This tactic should curb the hits to this year’s budget and also help give athletes an appropriate amount of rest and practice between games.

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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Cody Grauberger

In baseball, batting last is considered a home team advantage, but in reality it is not. At the beginning of the game, both teams are aware of who will be batting last, leaving them all eight innings prior to reach an appropriate level. If a lead is not reached, it is due to the ability of the team, not a home team advantage.

For instance, the Emporia State baseball team has started off their season playing eight away games to hold a current record of 6-2. They recently played four away games against the Colorado School of Mines. The Hornets defeated Colorado in all four games 11-0, 18-4, 6-1 and 19-2. Colorado batted last in all four of these games and still ended in deficit regardless of their batting advantage.

The topic of home team advantage has become an issue in college baseball. Outside of any tournament play, college baseball allows the home team to bat last, leaving ample time for them to get a few extra points before the game ends. Some have associated this type of play as an unfair team advantage.

A study by sports analysts Courneya and Carron (1992), states that this theory is true, however not fully. The home team advantage theory is affected by numerous factors such as batting last, the crowd, travel, familiarity and rules that might favor the home team.

In the same study, Courneya and Carron studied the results of over 260 seasons of various home game competitions. Of those, 53.3 percent of baseball home games resulted in a win. Meaning that every time a game is played, the home team has just over 50 percent chance of walking away victorious.

With those factors applied, this is the second time the Hornets have competed against Colorado, so travel and familiarity combined with batting last, the Hornets statistically had over fifty percent chance of loosing each game. This year, Emporia’s fiscal budget was cut by nearly $420,000. In an effort to save money, the Hornets have taken to new methods of sporting transportation. By placing away games against teams back to back rather than traveling more than once, it places the Hornets at a familiarity disadvantage.

However, statistics can not dispute a team’s playing abilities. Last year, the Hornets ended their regular season as MIAA Champions, holding a record of 50-10.

Because baseball is reliant on physical abilities, quick reactions and team contribution, these all play a significant role in winning a game and are affected by home team advantages.

The theory of the home team advantage may be recognized as unfair, and in some aspects may be slightly off set. But the only way to have an equally fair game is for both teams to play on a foreign field.

In most cases, an equally fair game will not happen because any games outside of tournament play are either played home or away. Schools merely cannot afford to be constantly renting public facilities to create an equivalent playing environment.

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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The Emporia State men’s baseball team played their first game of the season Feb. 10 against Southwestern Oklahoma State. The Hornets won 19-9.

The Hornets were at bat 44 times and had a total of 20 hits, 19 of which resulted in a point. Of the Hornets’ 19 points, 15 were runners batted in, or RBI’s.

In his 18 years as a coach, Bob Fornelli has coached for Butler County Community College and Fort Hays State and is now in his sixth season as head coach for the Hornets. Fornelli finished out the last season 50-10 and has an overall record of 522-202.

Two of this year’s seniors, Connor Crumbliss and Anthony Drieling, helped bring the Hornets to victory.

“Connor Crumbliss, Anthony Drieling and Kevin Wempe are pretty much everyday guys and guys that are definitely going to help us,” Fornelli said.

Connor Crumbliss batted five times with a total of four hits and four runs. Crumbliss helped bring in additional points with two RBI’s. Crumbliss currently has a batting average of .800

Anthony Drieling also batted five times with a total of three hits and three runs, one of which was a home run. Drieling had a total of five RBI’s and has a current batting average of .600.

The team had not practiced much outside due to the Trusler Sports Complex being under construction, but they have been training hard toward this year’s season.

“We are not going to use excuses,” Fornelli said. “We are going to go out and compete and hopefully we come out on top.”

The Hornets started practicing as early as last August.

“We practice pretty much year round… but our field is not done yet so we have only had a couple practices on a baseball field,” Fornelli said. “We have pretty much been down in the gym doing batting practice in the batting cages… doing whatever we can to be prepared.”

The Hornets lost several seniors last year, some of which played a key role in last season’s wins, but Fornelli is confident that the team will be successful.

“We lost a lot last year… three all Americans, a bunch of great seniors that helped us win 50 games, but we bring back a good number of guys that were here last year,” Fornelli said.

This season, the younger players have had the opportunity to step up to bat. The Hornets have a total of eight freshman, six sophomores, 16 juniors and 10 seniors this season. With so many younger players, the Hornets look forward to a promising season and many returning athletes.

“I thought we did a lot of things good for the first time out,” Fornelli said. “We had some quality at batting, we need to work on our concentration a little bit. There were a couple of lapses in concentration, probably pitching wise and one lapse defensively but I thought we played pretty well considering we have not practiced a whole bunch.”

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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Most Emporia State students would be surprised at the restrictions they have compared to athletes. For instance, the HPER building on the ESU campus is the headquarters for the athletic department. It contains a 60-yard stretch of indoor track, two fitness centers, and an indoor pool, almost all of which are accessible only to student-athletes, with the exception of the pool that is only open 5 hours each day.

This can affect the students of Emporia greatly because they should be able to access all facilities regardless of athletics. To label something athletics only is to restrict a student of their right to exercise on all campus facilities, not just some.

However, Emporia is not the only school that has such policies. In fact, there are many colleges nationwide that abide by very similar policies.

Nationwide recruitment is based on getting the best players and coaches around, but nearly 60 percent of the students at the University of Oklahoma did not meet admissions requirements and were admitted under the title of special admits.

Why should an athlete be accepted when they did not work as hard as the student that made the admissions requirement? Does throwing a football make one individual excel over another? People agree to disagree, but we live in a society based on equal opportunity, so let equality prevail.

Plato once stated “all men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.” So what is it that sets an athlete’s education above that of another student?

For over 50 years, colleges have been at an arms race to recruit athletes and coaches to improve their collegiate athletics. However, the race has gone to new measures where many schools across the nation are building academic centers exclusively for athletes to better their athletes’ education experience.

A majority of these buildings are built with money that is either donated or raised, but not in all cases.

By 2010, the University of Oregon is planning to build a three story, 34,000 square foot facility that is large enough to serve as a fitness center and tutoring facility for athletes. It will have 37 individual tutoring rooms as well as a 112-seat lecture hall and even a reflection pool.

Philip H. Knight, the co-founder of Nike and an Oregon alumnus, is completely funding and designing the facility. However, the school must pay $250,000 annually for maintenance. One might think that is not a bad price for such a nice building, but one would be wrong. An additional $750,000 must be dished out to furnish the building with state of the art equipment, all of which is not allowed to be used by non-athletes.

With such stipulations, one might wonder where this $1 million is coming from, chances are, it is coming out of students’ tuition. Some athletes even receive such large scholarships to play collegiate sports that they end up having thousands of dollars to spend at their leisure.

The very same students that attend games and support their team are also providing their athletes a better education than themselves. Because Knight requires Oregon to completely furnish the new facility and will not allow students to use the facility students are being cheated out of useful, up to date facilities.

Although this is not the case with all schools, an intervention should occur to rid higher education of such ailments. If ESU allows the issue of equal opportunity education for students to go unnoticed, the integrity of athletic and academic programs will be compromised.

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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The Emporia State men’s and women’s track and field team competed at the Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb. and the Mule Relays in Warrensburg, Mo. Feb. 6-7 where seven athletes qualified provisionally for the MIAA championships, two athletes automatically qualified and one athlete set a new school record.

Head Coach David Harris separated the two teams, sending the stronger athletes to the Husker Invitational and athletes that needed improvement to the Mule Relays.

The team that attended the Husker Invitational was comprised mostly of freshmen and sophomores. With such a young team, there is room for a lot of improvement.

“I was really pleased with the challenge to improve for the freshmen,” Harris said. “I think that when we take people to a big meet like that, you just never know how they are going to react. That is the challenge of going to a big meet you kind of sometimes wonder whether the freshmen will be overwhelmed by it.”

Although athletes can be intimidated by new environments and bigger schools, Harris seemed very pleased with the results of the Husker Invitational.

“I think they challenged themselves, and that is what I like to do with them,” Harris said.

Sophomore Josh Honeycutt, freshman Katie Mona and junior Brooke Kent all attended the Husker Invitational and placed in the top ten of their events, which also qualified each of them for the MIAA Championships.

Josh Honeycutt competed in the men’s triple jump and placed fourth with a jump of 50 feet and 1.25 inches. Honeycutt became the second Emporia athlete to jump farther than 50 feet.

“I felt Josh Honeycutt would compete very well, and he did… that is a mark that is going to get him to the national championships,” Harris said.

Katie Mona competed in the women’s one mile run. Mona came in first place in her event with a time of 4:58. Mona also ran anchor for the women’s distance medley relay, helping to place second in that event.

Brooke Kent competed in the women’s 60 meter hurdles, placing 10th in the preliminaries and fourth in the consolations.

Junior Samuel Williams and sophomore Adam McGovern attended the Mule Relays and both placed first in their events, making them automatic qualifiers for the MIAA championships.

Williams competed in the 60 meter and 200 meter dash. Williams placed first in both events, with a time of 6.74 seconds in the 60 meter dash and 21.92 in the 200 meter dash. Williams set a new ESU record in the 60 meter dash and ran the third fastest time in the nation this year.

McGovern competed in the one mile, placing first in his event. Harris said he was very pleased in McGovern’s performance at the mule relays.

“Adam McGovern was (one of) our only first place performances at the mule relay… he has been coming along real well and we won the mile,” Harris said. “That is a good win.”

This is the second time that ESU has competed at Central Missouri, which is where the MIAA championships will be held.

Harris announced he will hold a staff meeting to attempt to regulate the efforts of the team toward the MIAA championships.

“We are going to decide what is best for members of our team to do, some people need to train… and then some people could probably use another competition,” Harris said.

This year, Harris will allow the athletes to take some weekends off from competing to better prepare for the championships.

“We are at a point where we are going to pick and choose where we go with people,” Harris said. “I would say the majority of the team is going to take this next weekend off. We are preparing them for the championship meets. We are not worried about scoring or placing certain places at meets we are trying to prepare them for the championships.”

Although not all track athletes will attend, the ESU track and field team will compete Feb. 13 at the Pittsburg Meet in Pittsburg, Kan.

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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Matt Wallace, senior business major, competes in the intramural dodgeball tournament held Thursday night at the Emporia State Student Recreation Center. Wallace and his team, Thunder from Down Under finished second in the men’s bracket. PHOTO BY KELLEN JENKINS

The Emporia State Student Recreation Center held an intramural dodgeball tournament Feb. 5, which consisted of 23 teams. There were 11 teams on the men’s side, five on the women’s and eight coed teams.

Ballz Deep finished on top, placing first in the men’s bracket. Thunder from Down Under placed second and Str8 Homicide placed third.

In the women’s division, Chi Omega placed first, Sigma Sigma Sigma placed second and The Bullets placed third.

In the Coed Division, Average Joes placed first, the Beavers placed second and Off Consistently placed third.

Men’s and women’s teams could consist of up to 10 players, but six players could be on the field at any time.

Coed teams could consist of up to 12 members but could still only have six players on the field at any time. Coed teams were also required to have at least three females playing throughout the game.

The game is played on a standard volleyball court 60’ x 30’ and all players must remain in the court with the exception of retrieving stray balls. To retrieve a stray ball, players must leave through the end line, or the end of the court.

Six balls are placed parallel to each other across the center line of the court, leaving three balls for each team to retrieve. After the balls are placed on the center line, the six players on each team line up on their end line to prepare to race toward the center line to retrieve the balls for their team.

Each game is played best out of two. In the instance that each team wins one game, a third game is played to determine the winner.  To win a game, one team must eliminate all players on the opposing team, either by hitting them with a live thrown ball or catching a live thrown ball before it touches the ground.

In the instance that one team is in possession of all the balls, there is a five second violation in order to keep the games moving.

“There is a five second violation but we pretty much tell them ten seconds,” said Andrew Tabor, the intramural supervisor at the Recreation Center. “If you have all the balls, we do not want you to hold all the balls from stalling the game, so if you hold it for more than ten seconds then we tell them one other player has to come out just to try and keep the games moving at a decent pace.”

This year’s turnout was different than in past years.

“This year is the first time they combined all the divisions, usually they have enough teams that they do Greeks and independent man, but they only have eleven teams so they just combined everybody this year,” said Seville Ko, senior physical education major.  “It is pretty consistent, there are more girls teams than usual.”

Ko has played for Str8 Homicide for the past five years in the men’s division. Str8 Homicide won the men’s division each year for the past three years.

“We are just having a good time,” Ko said. “We’re just out here to have fun just like everybody else.”

In intramural athletics, teams compete against friends and students alike.

“It is more about having fun and just providing activities for people to get out there,” Tabor said. “We try to have a competitive environment, but still we promote sportsmanship.”

However, several students were expelled from the tournament for unsportsmanlike like conduct. Such conduct is not tolerated during intramural athletics.

“Sportsmanship is always one thing we try to preach… but when certain activities do get out of hand we normally try to tell the participants they need to leave,” Tabor said.

During the semi-finals, Str8 Homicide was eliminated by Ballz Deep, ending their three year reign.

Nick Carlson, a senior physical education major and team captain for Ballz Deep, aided in the defeat of Str8 Homicide early in the semi-finals.

“We were trying to have fun out there,” Carlson said. “It was a fun time and it was good to get a win. That is what intramural sports are all about-go out and have fun and luckily we came out on top.”

Although the dodgeball season is over, play will continue with the upcoming intramural basketball competition. The dodgeball tournament is held once a year and students will be able to compete again in the spring of 2010.

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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CODY GRAUBERGER

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is responsible for many athletics, but often people do not realize the affect that collegiate sports can have on a school. Collegiate sports should be a privilege for the school and not a financial burden. By participating in collegiate sports, students build a reputation for their college and students should be rewarded, not penalized for having adequate facilities.

For centuries, the NCAA has governed college sports of all kinds, but who governs the NCAA? A report by the NCAA recently shed light on the issue of the real fiscal value of sports programs, revealing that money given by the NCAA in order to fund sporting events is a very gray area indeed. Only five percent of Division One schools actually earn a profit on sports programs.

In an effort to better explain the situation, Myles Brand, the president of the NCAA, cumulated a report explaining that collegiate athletics are growing at an insurmountable rate and it is hard to keep up with the funding needs of each individual college. With such high competition, some colleges have built million dollar facilities to attract athletes and coaches to come participate on their teams.

For instance, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has a track that is hydraulically lifted at each end to enhance the runner’s posture and speed around the turns and can be lowered promptly to accommodate hurdling events as well. Undoubtedly this was paid for by student fees, tuition and donations, all of which do not qualify for reimbursement.

The NCAA provides revenue funding for seating arrangements. However, things such as parking, concessions and merchandise do not qualify for reimbursement. These three components play a key role in attracting spectators and consumers to events, although one can easily see the injustice that prevails.

The basketball arena at Mississippi State seats 10,500 people. Of those, 3,500 are credited free of charge to students year round, amounting to nearly $2 million annually. The NCAA deems those free seats non credible for reimbursement because fees were paid for by students, which is considered financial support, when in reality, most colleges rely on student fees for sport costs already.

Other schools such as the University of Texas give students the optional annual fee of $70 to attend any athletic event, amounting to $1.7 million a year. This is also categorized as student fees and is not reimbursable.

For many years, athletic directors have spent much time and effort to account for parking and concessions. Many argue that they just want to receive rightful credit for their revenues. However, others point out that parking should not be counted because parking areas are not only used for sporting events and there is no way to tell which parking lots are used for what when revenue reimbursement data is collected.

However, some colleges do get such reimbursement when deemed appropriate by the NCAA. Such colleges qualify because they have specified arena parking used only for sporting events. Many do not qualify because their athletic parking is not excluded from their public parking or student parking.

Collegiate sports can create large revenue for the school and can greatly affect things such as renovations to the school and sports arenas which, in turn, can be used to hire teachers and coaches alike and can provide up to date books for students and athletes.

The United States is in a recession and budgets are pinched worldwide. However, as the unemployment rates go up, so does the rate of citizens attending college. Because of this, colleges should not be penalized for participating in sports, but rather rewarded by receiving additional revenue.

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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The Emporia State indoor track and field team placed second on the men’s side and third on the women’s side last Friday at the University of Central Missouri Invitational in Warrensburg, Mo.

In preparation for the rest of the indoor track season and the coming outdoor season, the men’s and women’s track teams continue to practice regardless of the winter weather.

“We are preparing this team like we normally do – we are dealing with the weather, and I cannot control that,” said Head Coach David Harris. “It hinders us to go out in this kind of weather, so preparing the team we just have go to day by day and week by week on how the weather is going to affect us.”

Although the team continues to train, the weather is still difficult for the athletes.

“Sometimes we are able to go outdoors, but since it is so cold we usually do not,” said Brook Kent, junior and member of the women’s indoor track team. “Its kind of hard to prepare for outdoor, we usually just get there when we get there.”

In order to be better prepared for meets, both the men’s and women’s teams are taking a different approach to training.

“One of the decisions we made this year was to take a few off weekends during the season,” Harris said. “We are taking this next weekend off – we are training hard for two weeks and then we will go and compete.”

Although most sports have off season play, the indoor and outdoor seasons are equally important for the track program.

“We are concerned with the indoor right now,” Harris said. “I am not looking ahead to outdoor right now. I am trying to focus on indoor.”

With the end of indoor season getting closer, the men and women prepare for the post season.

“Our championship is the last weekend in February,” Harris said. “We are about a month away, and were trying to prepare for that indoor championship.”

Just like any other season, both the men’s and women’s teams have goals they hope to attain.

“Our goal for this year is to go after an MIAA Championship,” Harris said. “We have never won one indoors. We have won outdoors, but we have never won indoors.”

Both teams’ goals go beyond doing well at the MIAA Championships.

“Were also are attempting to be in the top 10 in the nation.” Harris said. “Last year we (the men’s team) were 11^th…we are moving towards an individual and a team goal, where we can be ready to compete at the indoor championships 100 percent.”

Athletes spent the indoor season preparing both mentally and physically for the outdoor season.

“Indoor is more of a preparation for outdoors,” said Josh Honeycutt, a sophomore and member of the men’s indoor track team. “If I know I am doing well in indoor then I know good things will come of outdoor too.”

The indoor track team will have their next meet Feb. 6 at the Husker Invitational in Lincoln, Neb.

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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With the growth in popularity of college sports, commercialization is much different now than in past years. Though there are good and bad connotations to commercializing college athletes, changes should be made to accommodate both NCAA and college sports programs.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association claims that if you were to define the commercialism of athletics, it can be as simple as ticket sales and advertising. But commercialism is not as refined as it is presented to be.

Recently, the press has released information regarding the NCAA’s over commercialization of its student athletes.

In an article published by The Chronicle of Higher Education, many teachers and university presidents feel that the NCAA does not handle the exploitive commercialization of student athletes in a timely manner and criticize the NCAA for their lack of response on the issue.

According to Wallace Renfro, a senior advisor for the NCAA, they receive an average of over $500 million in endorsements each year from CBS. Renfro said the NCAA does not retain ownership over any of the players or their rights.

However, in an attempt to reconcile these differences, a letter was written to CBS in hopes to lessen the amount of collegiate commercialization, stating that such things could jeopardize the athletes’ eligibility.

In 1989, CBS paid $1 billion in addition to its annual endorsements in order to keep exclusive coverage over NCAA tournaments. With an additional $1 billion, the NCAA could alleviate many financial issues in collegiate sports.

It has been suggested that for a school to get a higher percentage of the money, allocation should be determined by their graduation rate.

Craig Krenzel, a former Ohio State University quarterback drafted to the NFL in 2004, recognized that the key difference between collegiate and professional football was being compensated for playing. Although the money that students receive is not in hand, they are compensated in tuition, books and the liberty to do something they enjoy.

Krenzel suggested the idea that a portion of the money the NCAA and CBS get from advertisements is to be used towards post graduate scholarships for athletes and collegiate sports. In addition, coaching salaries exceeding that of the university presidents should decompensate to be made more equal.

Societies ongoing expectations of professional football players have moved on to college football, making collegiate sports equally sought after and commercialized as professional.

With such easy access to entertainment, such as the internet, television, radio and publications, it is hard to control the amount of commercialism today.

To adjust to the new times, a committee or commission needs to be implemented to protect athletes from being extorted by greedy corporations.

With such a large endorsement from CBS and virtually no authority without universities’ consent, the NCAA would hold little jurisdiction in swaying either side.

With little jurisdiction and such a large budget, who is to guarantee the funds will be distributed accordingly?

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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For over 100 years, the National Collegiate Athletic Association has governed college sports. Since the NCAA was founded, rules and regulations have changed with the times. One principle stressed by the NCAA is the academic well-being of athletes.

In an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “faculty members discuss what role they should play in athletics.” A survey released by an athletic commission found that most Division 1-A faculty members consider athletics ranked 12 out of 13 on areas of priority.

In a more recent article written by the same publisher, the NCAA discussed bringing back punishments revised over 14 years ago. Such punishments affect playtime, recruitment and academic scholarships.

Reinstating these would both positively and negatively affect college athletic programs nationwide.

According to the Georgia Career Information Center, less than 20 percent of all college athletes will continue to play in a professional league. With the majority of athletes not continuing sports after college, better preparing them for the future is even more imperative.

Although bring back harsher punishments should help boost athletes’ learning, revising these rules should be considered. College sports are always changing and adapting at faster paces due to a constant increase in competitiveness. Rules and policies should change with them to avoid controversy.

Ultimately, performance on the playing field is only one part of an athlete’s success. With these changes in NCAA policies, collegiate athletes should be better prepared for life after sports.

Cody Grauberger/The Bulletin

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