Aaron Crouse - Derailed by Disabilities

There have been many efforts made in order to help those with disabilities gain the opportunity to participate in athletics.  Organizations such as the Paralympics, Special Olympics, and the Extremity Games have created games designed specifically for individuals who have incurred some disability.  Several modified versions of sports such as ice sledge hockey, wheelchair basketball, and sitting volleyball have provided alternate forms of traditional sports for individuals to participate in at a highly competitive level.  While these alternate opportunities have allowed many individuals to participate in sport who otherwise may not have had a chance, many of the athletes who are a part of such teams have been dealing with disabilities throughout their entire lives.  Suppose you were a professional athlete who had trained your entire life to make it to the show, when suddenly you came down with a unique disability that ended your career.  During the past few years, professional sports have lost several athletes to disabilities before they were even able to reach the prime of their careers.  In the cases of Dan Blackburn and Ben Petrick, fans and the athletes themselves are only left to wonder “what if”.

Dan Blackburn was drafted 10^th overall in the 2001 NHL entry draft by the New York Rangers.  He was named that Canadian Hockey League (CHL) goalie of the year in 2001 and named to the NHL’s all-rookie league in 2002.  It seemed as if the 22-year old was destined to take over for long-time Rangers’ goaltender Mike Richter upon his retirement and become a star playing in front of crowds at Madison Square Garden.  However, during the 2002-2003 offseason, Blackburn suffered a freak injury while weight training, which resulted to nerve damage in his left shoulder.  The injury left Blackburn unable to raise his left shoulder or close his catching glove, a devastating injury for a goaltender.  Though Blackburn attempted to fight on, even attempting the creative solution of using two blockers (in place of a glove), the disability proved to be too much.  He was forced to retire at the age of 25 and now works in real estate after coming to the realization that there was no way he could continue to pursue a career in professional ice hockey and that no viable alternatives were in existence (Burnside, 2005, pg. 1).

Ben Petrick was selected 38^th overall in the 1995 MLB entry draft by the Colorado Rockies out of Glencoe High School.  Scouts described him as a 5-tool player who had potential to become a hall of fame catcher.  Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd claims, "He had no ceiling. I only wish I'd known."  What neither the Rockies or Petrick were aware of is that Petrick was suffering from Parkinson’s disease, a disability that would end his baseball career far too early.  As the disease progressed, it became increasingly difficult for Petrick to hold a bat, let alone swing, catch, and throw. Throughout his career “In 240 games for the Rockies and Tigers, he hit .257 with 27 home runs and 94 RBIs while trying to control the symptoms of Parkinson's, which include tremors, rigidity and slow movements” (Wulf, 2012, paragraph 9).  He recently underwent Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) in an effort to control his Parkinson’s and has turned his attention towards being a motivation speaker, husband, and father.

Petrick’s story was featured on ESPN’s E:60 this past week and is definitely a look for anyone interested in how he has learned to deal with Parkinson’s.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8421632

Boy on Girls' Volleyball Team

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to post a link to a story that Aaron Crouse sent to me - it is about Jensen Daniel from Yonkers, NY who wants to play on a girls' volleyball team. While he has practiced with the team, he has not been allowed to play in matches. However he is appealing the decision and hopes to be able to play before the season is over. This is a great example of the issues we have discussed in class.

Here is the clip:
http://news.yahoo.com/video/gender-bender-boy-wants-play-142055119.html 

Thanks for sending this Aaron!

Dr. Spencer

Budget

This is in regards to the budget allocation we did in class last week; my group came up with the following. We first decided to use our four fundraising opportunities on the four biggest teams: football (75), men’s/women’s swimming (60), women’s track and field (65), and men’s track and field (55). They were the obvious choices because it allowed us to maximize the amount of money we could raise.

Next we made sure to meet all of the demands that were in bold for each team. If the team was one of the above mentioned that did a fundraiser then the money they earned went toward the bold costs for their team and the rest of the money needed was given from the initial $120K. Since the total in bold after taking out the fundraiser money was $136K and we only had $120K, we took the donation money of $20K and paid the rest of the bold money and was left with $4K.

We then added up all the non-bold costs and got $86,400. We subtracted our remaining $4K from the non-bold costs and were left with $82,400. At the point we decided that we could cover the remaining expenses in an easy way, we took the remaining cost ($82,400) and divided it by the total amount of athletes (459) to get $179.50. Every athlete would pay that amount to play in their sport and receive all their needs.

No preference was given to “high ranking” sports, we figure every team works hard and can’t control who comes to see them or which sports bring in the most money. We thought it would be fair across the board for all the sports to receive everything that they needed and wanted. Now there are arguments that some sports bring in more money, or that it isn't fair for a football player to have to pay for some of the skiing team's expenses. But would it be fair for instance that the football team gets new helmets and jerseys but another sport can't have new equipment? Shouldn't every athlete get the same opportunities and treatment? It is because when it comes down to it, it is 99% of the time about money. So we felt we would go against the trend and support all of our teams. Also some people would say well what if they can't come up with $175? Our answer to that is would you rather pay for your own new jersey? Or trip to Florida? For example it would cost $500 for each of the baseball players to go to Florida, now its essential only $175.

Douglas Deprest, Emily Schlueter, Tyler Strom, Miles LeGros, and Ashley James

Budget Allocation - Michael Berti, Aaron Keyer, Matt Pitzulo, Joey Durant, Mike Frank

The first thing we decided to do was figure out which sports would have a fundraiser to gain $60 a person. Since we were only allowed 4 teams to do a fundraiser, we chose the sports with the most participants. These sports were football, men’s/women’s swimming, and men’s/women’s track and field. Based on fundraisers from these sports we gained $15,300. Our original budget was $120,000 but with the added $15,300 from fundraising and $20,000 from a donation, our final budget came out to $155,300. Next we looked at which sports programs were needed to boost school attendance and which ones were the most popular among students. These programs included football, hockey, baseball, and men’s and women’s basketball. 

We then looked at which sports programs were cost effective and decided on men’s and women’s soccer, softball, and volleyball. After funding all of these programs, the budget we had left was $30,700. Since we can’t fund all of the programs, we decided to make cheerleading, field hockey, and men’s/women’s downhill skiing all club sports. This means that these programs are all pay to play sports. Even though Skiing was 1^st in the division, we decided to make it a club sport because we are making our school a Midwest University so that skiing is not as popular as it would be if our school was set in somewhere like Colorado. Cheerleading costs too much to fund for only 16 participants and we are saying it’s not technically a sport so it will be pay to participate. 

We are also not funding field hockey because of the division rank and it’s not a popular sport among our students. We then had to decide what to do with the remaining money. We decided to pay for court resurfacing for basketball. Since both basketball teams use the same court we are only paying for one resurfacing. After the $15,000 it costs to resurface, our remaining total came out to $15,700.

We then decided to pay for the most cost effective benefits to select sports. We decided to pay for new suits for swimming, new field equipment for track and field, and new landing mats for track and field. Our remaining money came out to $900. This remaining money will be used if any sport team needs something extra during the season. We cut out baseball and softball tournaments in Florida because of the cost. Paying $10,000 for each team to travel to Florida didn’t make much fiscal sense due to our limited budget.

Paxin, Chelsea, Tyler Clifton

The four teams we choose (Football (75), Women's Track and Field (65), Men's Track and Field (55), and Men's/Women's Swimming (60)) to get fundraising for each member. We choose these sports because they had the most athletes participating. For the alum donation, we took the donation and put it to the entire athletic department instead of one particular program. For each team, we looked at the number athletes and the needs that should be met based on these numbers. For the $10,700 left over we looked at the teams rank in the conference. The higher the rank team the more money was allocated. For example, softball is ranked first so we ended up giving an extra $1000 for bats due to their success. We ended up cutting cheerleading completely because they weren't ranked and had the most needs as far as total cost. I believe by cutting cheerleading Title IX would remain in compliance because most programs do not consider cheerleading a sport and that was not defined in the budget if it was a sport or not. Also, they had a trip to Hawaii which took up unnecessary funds and could have been spent else where. We used the costs from Hawaii that was not spent on the cheerleading team to the women’s and men’s soccer team which was ranked both 3^rd to purchase new jerseys. In the future, we should utilize pay-to-play instead of cutting the program completely. That way it is still avaliable for those interested to play.

Embrace It

Alicia Jefferson, Khiry Kelly, Dominique Harris, Casey Daulbaugh and Danielle Miller-Blog Entry #5

The four teams we decided to do the fundraisers were the football (15 players), Men’s and Women’s Swimming (60 players), Women’s Track and Field (65 players), and Men’s Track and Field (55 players), which gives us a total of $15,300 more. We chose these teams, because we figured we would pick the top four teams who had the most players, thinking the more players fundraising, the more money each team would bring back. This is where the number of athletes on a team played an important role.. We also decided to give the $2,000 donation to the football team. After adding everything together (in bold) the total amount was $151,350. After adding all of our revenues up after fundraising and denotations, the total came up to $155,300. We had $3,950 left over. We decided that $2,000 of the extra money will go to the Hockey team, so they will be able to purchase jerseys. After subtracting the amount of money used to help the Hockey team purchase jerseys from the $2,000 left over, we had $1,950 left over, which we all decided to divide up between the Baseball team and the Softball team to help them with their tournaments. Each team would then receive $975 a piece. When dividing the budge between the different teams, the teams’ rankings and pay-to-play status did not play a part. I believe that our group did a great job trying to divide our budget amongst the different teams and I know we were all satisfied with the decisions we had without having to cut any teams.

Budget Allocation Ryan Viselli, Marc Rodriguez, Sunny Marchand

When going over the budget allocation, we added up all the expenses that the teams have, which came to $144,600.  With only $120,000 to pay for all the expenses, we knew we needed to make adjustments.  With only four fundraisers, we picked the teams that had the most athletes so we could raise the most amount of money we could.  The teams we choose were football, men’s/women’s swimming, women’s track and field and men’s track and field.  These four fundraisers gave us $15,300.  We also received a $20,000 donation from an alumnus who played football.  When looking at the teams we believed we needed more money to sustain each sport.  We thought because cheerleading does not compete in a conference, they should pay their expenses, which added up to around $422 per person.  When adding up all of the money we had and the amount of expenses, we ended up with an extra $10,700.

     When spending the money we included the $20,000 dollar donation in with the original $120,000 we got to spend.  This brought us to $140,000, we than took $4,600 from the $15,300 the teams raised, which is how we ended up with $10,700.  With all the teams necessary expenses paid, we wanted to concentrate on other expenses that teams needed help with. 

     With the $10,700 we looked at what teams needed other expenses paid for and what teams needed the money the most.  We decided to spend $2000 on jerseys for the hockey team.  We decided on this decision because it did not say new jerseys and we believed that the hockey team didn’t have any jerseys to play with.  We believe it’s important for every team to have jerseys.  For the rest of the money we decided to split between softball and baseball for their tournament in Florida.  We gave each team $4,350 for their tournament in Florida with each team having to cover the difference.  We came to this decision because softball is first in their conference and baseball does well within its conference.  The main reason was because a tournament in Florida seemed important for our teams to gain exposure.

     We believe that we made good decisions and are pleased that we could cover all the necessary expenses without cutting out any sports.  With our extra money we believe we spent it on expenses that were necessary to the sports.

High School budget - Adam Dolezal, Drew English, Jonathon Barone, Pat McFall

Our starting budget for the high school athletic teams was $120,000. We also received a $20,000 donation from an alumni who played football. We were allowed to hold four fundraisers, and we chose the football team, the co-ed swimming team, and the two track and field teams, men's and women's. The fundraisers got us an additional $15,300. We also decided to charge the field hockey team $225 per player because that will allow them to cover all of their expenses which were some of the cheapest out of all sports. They are also one of the lowest ranked teams at the school. This gives us a total of $159,800.

After covering the necessary costs of $151,350 (bold items), our budget is $8,450. We decided to get new jerseys for men's soccer, women's soccer, hockey, and volleyball, and new suits for swimming. The total cost of these jerseys and suits was $7,400. We wanted to make sure that all of our athletes had jerseys that they could be proud to wear. They were also some of the simplest and cheapest needs. Our remaining budget is now $1,050. We used this remaining money to buy shot puts and discus for both the men's and women's track team. The shot puts cost $200 each and the discus cost $300 each for a total cost of $1,000. That leaves our budget at $50, and we no longer have enough money to purchase any other equipment.

The expenses that we left out were all large items with the cheapest one being $6,000 landing mats for both track field teams and $6,000 helmets for the football team. Since we are a high school with a small budget, these are items that we simply can't afford to purchase if we want to keep it free to participate in most of our athletic programs. If parents and students were willing to pay to play we could certainly buy more equipment, but tough choices must be made when operating within tight circumstances.

High School Budget Activity - Aaron Crouse, Marc Horwitz, & Geoff Roberts

Budget issues are amongst some of the greatest concerns in the athletic director’s dilemma.  Attempting to fund each sport while not having to cut equipment, travel, or even entire programs can be quite a daunting task.  In the athletic budget assignment, our group was challenged with creating an allocation of funds that could support a total of 17 men’s and women’s teams that needed to secure a total of $151,350 in order to meet minimum standards.  We were given a starting budget of $120,000 along with a donation of $20,000 from a former football player.  Fundraising opportunities were available for four teams offering $60 per every player on the team.  Our goal was to not cut any programs and to be able to provide for the basic needs plus some extra incentives for most teams.

We began by holding fundraisers for the top four in terms of participants.  Through this we accumulated a total of $15,300 ($4,500 from football, $3,900 from women’s track and field, $3600 from swim and dive, and $3,300 from men’s track and field).  Since all of the money in this assignment was going to be pooled into one general athletic fund rather than allocated to the individual teams that held the fundraisers, it made the most sense to fundraise using strength in numbers.  In a true athletic high school setting, most individual team fundraisers only go to supporting that specific team while an athletic or school booster club will handle any other extra funds.  After fundraisers, our total budget was increased to $155,300.

In order to fund every sport and provide extra benefits, we decided to impose a pay-to-participate fee of $100 for every student who was on an athletic team.  With a total of 459 athletes at the school, this created another $45,900 of available funds. We also decided to charge extra fees for hockey, skiing, and swimming because those sports required athletic facilities that were not present or maintained by the school.  It was decided that the school would cover half of the total cost for these outside venues and the other half would be picked up by the team.  In the end, hockey players were charged an additional $200 each (Ice Time was $10,000/2= $5,000…$5,000/25 players = $200), skiers were charged $20 extra (Season Lift Tickets were $1,000/2= $500...$500/24 skiers= $20), and swimmers added $40 to their cost (Pool Rental was $5,000/2= $2,500…$2,500/40 swimmers = $40).  Pay-to-participate and outside facility rental fees added a total of $53,000 to the budget.  These types of fees are becoming much more common in high school athletics.  As state and local tax funding is continuing to be cut, athletic programs have needed to find ways to keep programs up and running.  Overall, we feel this is a very fair tactic.  Athletes who do not participate in high school athletics will more than likely be paying more than $100 to play on travel, AAU, or even recreation league programs.  While most athletic facilities were present at the school, it is important to remember that even these require some maintenance and necessary utilities.  Even for the sports paying extra fees, these prices are still very reasonable.  Each of us (being hockey players) can promise that paying $500 for an entire season including practice and game ice each day is an incredible bargain.  For those who argue that less fortunate families may have trouble in paying these fees, most schools have a system set up where families can pay in an installment play and that any child eligible for a free or reduced lunch program is also offered the same type of deal for athletic participation.  While schools would like to avoid pay-to-participate fees, it is becoming an inevitable practice in many districts. 

After our initial budget, donation, fundraising, and pay-to-participate collection we had a budget total of $209,080.  After paying for each of the mandatory items (totaling $151,350) we were left with a surplus of $57,730 with which to improve our program (in a side note, we would like to add we allocated that entire $20,000 donation to purchasing the mandatory football dummies since the donor was a former football player). Our goal with this leftover cash was to try and help out as many teams as possible while also giving extra precedents to teams who helped fundraise.

We spent our remaining budget on resurfacing the men’s and women’s basketball court for $15,000 (more than likely volleyball also plays on this surface), purchasing new football helmets for $6,000, buying new track and field equipment for both the men’s and women’s teams for $13,000, sending both the men’s baseball and women’s softball teams to tournaments for $20,000, and purchasing new jerseys/suits for swimming and volleyball for $3,000.  In the end we had $730 left over to be attributed to future expenses.  The only items that did not get purchased from the list were new jerseys for men and women’s soccer, hockey jerseys, and the skiing training in Colorado (because we considered this to be an extra training camp not associated with the school).  We decided to take care of football, track and field, and swimming first and foremost because they helped in adding extra fundraising money that other teams did not.  In resurfacing the court, we were able to help out both basketball teams and volleyball in one expense.  We figured that jerseys and suits would be purchased on a rotating basis.  Most schools give teams new jerseys in rotating 3-year cycles so that each class at the high school receives new jerseys at least once during their careers.  No sports ended up being cut or short-changed and we were able to provide for the extra needs of our athletes without harming other sports or imposing unreasonable fees.

At no point was team conference standing considering when allocating our athletic budget.  Unlike in professional and collegiate sports, high school should not be about winning at all costs.  As long as a coach and program is developing successful student athletes and teaching proper sportsmanship and skills, results are not as important.  A high school athletic program should be about providing opportunities for students to engage in an extracurricular competitive environment.  Athletics should be seen as a privilege for those who succeed academically and help out within the community rather than a right given to purely gifted athletes.  A successful high school athletic program is able to develop student athletes by promoting high standards of academic excellence, character, and citizenship and we took this into a higher consideration than winning and team record when preparing our budget.

Aaron Keyer – What Title IX has done to American Sports.

Title IX is a great thing for American and has proven to help balance the playing field for men and women in the United States. Not only has it given American women a chance to succeed as individual in athletics, it has opened the door for American women to compete as teams in sport.

Not since Billy Jean King has their been a more influential person or team in women’s sport than in 1999 when the American women went all out for the World Cup which was being held in the United States. This team is probably the single most responsible “team” in women’s sports history. The American women did everything they could to raise awareness about their games and did everything in their own power to generate as much buzz about themselves as possible. As a result, they sold out NFL stadiums across the country and really opened the door for women’s team sports forever.

Although there has been a lot of controversy concerning Title IX throughout the years, I think most of it is either misinterpreted or misunderstood. I believe it is great that women play intercollegiate athletics and have the same opportunities in sports as men. However, due to the dominance men once had and the implications of equality Title IX brings with it, in order to help better compensate and budget for women’s teams to be added, some men teams had to be cut at many universities. This is one of the biggest arguments from men about Title IX and although many people refuse to say it’s because of Title IX that teams get cut, I believe it is.

Every college sport is on a budget, and very rarely does a college team make money for their school. In order for all these guidelines to be met of Title IX, many schools had to cut their wrestling programs, men’s track and field teams and men’s swimming.

I believe Title IX is great for American female opportunity and I think it has made American women more competitive and motivated in the American society. There is no better example of this than how the U.S. women dominated in London this summer in the Olympics. 

Title IX in a Nutshell: Where to Look for Problems Entry #4

In class Thursday, I know I was a little quiet that day, (: but we talked about the different common ways to organize Title IX’s requirements. I know I wasn’t very engaged in the discussion that day, so I decided to write my comments in blog, because I did have a few inputs in the different areas. Most of the areas we talked about were pretty much the same compared to the other sports. There were only a couple areas that I felt were different than the other sports. I know for Track and Field, when it comes to traveling sometimes we will have to get up at 6AM to load the bus, then travel 3 or 4 hours to a meet. The only problem is that some people may not even run until 1PM or 2PM or even after that, which kind of stinks. I don’t know if other sports teams have to do that at BG, but I know for me I would rather have people who have to travel early, leave earlier and have the others travel later, or even have people stay in a hotel. I know the reason is to cut down on costs, but sometimes I feel as though it is too much, but at the same time I understand. I know when we went to the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa; we had to travel all the way there on a bus. I don’t mind traveling at all, because I did a lot of traveling when I was younger, so I’m used to it, but I know others probably would have been much happier flying. My second point was about the equipment and supplies. I know when I was a freshman here at BG; we got the bare minimum when it came to equipment and supplies. A lot of the time we had to purchase equipment and supplies on our own. Starting last year we had to raise money in order to get new equipment, which is starting to work out really well this year. My third point was about the publicity that we get. Track and Field does not get very much publicity. I don’t really know the reason, why it is so, but I do believe that in years that I have been here our team has been VERY small compared to the other MAC schools, so that maybe a reason. Now, that our team is much bigger now, I hope that you all will hear more great news about Track and Field and I hope to see some of you all at a meet this year! (:

Alicia Jefferson

The Best

About: Men are Bigger, Faster and Stronger By: Aaron Keyer. I agree with your statements that men are more exciting to watch. When I think about by tickets to any event, I want to see the best show possible. This includes the best athletes. I think that we can all agree that a professional women's athlete would beat 99% of males in that same sport. However, that remaining 1% is typically the male counterparts who also play that same professional sport. In my eyes a close game is what I want to see regardless of sex. Blowouts are boring regardless of how many dunks I see. By Miles LeGros

Physical Sports

About: Whats the Difference By: Patrick Mcfall.   I couldn't agree more with your assessment to males being more appt to succeed in physical sports. I'm a soccer coach and currently have 3 9 year old boys teams. During my practices my players will often lose focus and begin to push and shove the other players. My players also carry this mind set on to the field during games. I also agree that the most development begins during the early high school years. Many of my current players are not strong enough to pass the ball from one side of the field to the other. This makes it basically impossible to spread out and play real soccer. Many of my games end up being a struggle between the most physically advanced kids. By Miles LeGros.

The DGWS Philosophy: Then and Now - Marc Horwitz

Although it has been nearly 40 years since the DGWS had taken a poll regarding athlete exploitation and financial aid, many of the fears and findings that have come as a conclusion of this poll can still be seen today. As a result of a 1973 poll, the DGWS met to revise their position on financial aid regulations and restructure their philosophy when it comes to athletic scholarships and other forms of financial aid.  When reading the Philosophical Statement, many of the ideas that are brought up within the seven guidelines seem as though they would certainly still fit in the college athletic world today.  The DGWS recommended guidelines, established in 1973, are as follows:

1. The enrichment of the life of the participant should be the focus and reason for athletic programs.
2. Adequate funding for a comprehensive athletic program should receive priority over the money assigned for financial aid. (Providing funding for a variety of competitive sports, appropriate food, lodging, and travel accommodations, trained coaches and officials, and safe equipment and facilities)
3. The potential contribution of the "educated" citizen to society, rather than the contribution of the student to the college offering the scholarship, should be the motive for financial aid.
4. Staff time and effort should be devoted to the comprehensive program rather than to recruiting.
5. Students should be free to choose the institution on the basis of curriculum and program rather than on the amount of financial aid offered.
6. When financial aid is to be given, participants in certain sports should not be favored over those in other sports.
7. Students should be encouraged to participate in the athletic program for reasons other than financial aid.

(Carpenter, 2005, p. 106-107)

What I find most interesting when reading through these guidelines is how pieces of each one could be applied to university athletic departments today. Many would argue that the guidelines established by the DGWS are ideas that should still be prominent at today's schools, as they promote academics and fair treatment of athletes in regards to financial aid over athletics.

Take the first guideline for example. The idea here is that athletics should be in place to promote a healthier and all-around lifestyle for the student-athlete as opposed to being solely established for revenue at the institution. While we may like to think that athletics still provide students with the opportunity to better their lifestyles through competition and physical activity while promoting life skills through working with a team, intercollegiate athletics has become a business, focused budgets and revenue to better the schools.

The second point is one that should still be followed by all athletic departments today, and much of what is covered here is still looked at to decide whether a department is in compliance with NCAA regulations. This guideline pertains to the fact that money should be spent on bettering the athletic department by offering adequate equipment, training, coaching and other accommodations instead of focusing more on scholarships. While scholarships are certainly important, especially with all the recruiting involved in today's athletics, it is crucial for athletic departments not to overlook the safety and wellness of athletes in efforts to better their departments.

Next, the DGWS felt as though college athletic programs should be more centered around reaching out to individuals with the best opportunity to provide to society, instead of putting athletics first and offering scholarship money because the athlete can bring in more revenue for the institution. This is something that the current NCAA institutions could definitely do a better job of, seeing as in sports such as basketball there are programs that recruit and offer scholarships to athletes who have no intention of ever staying at school for the duration of their program and earning a degree, it is simply a step stool to earning a place in the NBA.

The fifth guideline is one that reflects a big problem in intercollegiate athletics today. When making a decision as to which school to attend, financial offerings have become a crucial factor in deciding where to go. Rather than focusing on the programs offered, or it being the right fit for the student, many choose a school to attend based on the award package offered. If this was a problem seen by the DGWS in 1973, I can't imagine what the founders of these guidelines would say today if they were to compare the awards and scholarships offered to today's student athletes now.

Guideline number six is a growing concern at larger Division I institutions. While many of the schools in large conferences offer anywhere from 15-20+ sports, most of the focus is primarily on just a few of the sports. Just look at the athletic department here at Bowling Green. While we have 18 Division I sports here, how often do you hear of a women's swimming competition or a golf match? Just because the programs are offered, doesn't mean they reap the benefits of programs such as football, ice hockey, or basketball. Much like in 1973 when these guidelines were established, it should still be a focus of athletic departments today to ensure that there is not too much focus on one program and that each has the opportunity to receive aid and scholarships to better position themselves for recruitment and have the best chance at success.

The final guideline ties in with the fifth, looking at financial aid and scholarships being the sole reason for attending an institution or playing a sport. This guideline pertains to the idea that student-athletes should be participating in sport because they still find enjoyment in it, not because they are offered financial aid. Instead of using potential scholarship money as a recruiting tool, things such as longstanding program history, state of the art facilities and strong coaching should be what is highlighted to a prospective student-athlete.

In conclusion, I'd say that it is quite clear that today's intercollegiate athletic programs could take a lot from the DGWS Philosophy guidelines, regardless of the fact that they were established nearly 40 years ago. The principles highlighted in these guidelines focus on bettering the experience for the athlete, rather than ensuring that the athletic department. I find it interesting how much these guidelines could still pertain to today's athletic departments, and I think that schools should still strive to look at some of these guidelines to provide the best possible environment for the student-athlete and keep the focus on enjoying the sport rather than bringing the athletes to the forefront of the business side of college sport.