Literary Review #5

Smith, D. R. "It Pays to Bend the Rules: The Consequences of NCAA Athletic Sanctions." 
Sociological Perspectives 58.1 (2015): 97-119. Web.

The author of this study is D. Randall Smith, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University - New Brunswick, the State University of New Jersey. He has conducted research on sociological aspects of big-time intercollegiate athletics including the "indirect effects of high-profile sports and universities and how athletics contribute to higher education."

In summary, the study focuses on how scandals in big-time college sports receive considerable attention in the national media, potentially damaging the reputation of the specific university. He focuses on that because the penalties issues by the NCAA do not affect the outcomes of the investigation, but that sanctions for "poor academic performance are slightly more effect" (97). He provides evidence that suggests as a result, "colleges and universities suffer little economic or reputational damage when penalized for rule violations. He points towards the idea of "Deprivation Theory", which he defines as the prediction "that athletes and coaches who view themselves at a disadvantage either in society generally or when compared with others at their school or to other athletic programs, are more likely to engage in behavior that runs counter to NCAA expectation" (98). This describes the arms-race that universities partake in to establish premiere and successful athletic programs in order to establish brand equity and generate mass revenue. He suggests, because of this obsession with creating a successful athletic department in the form of winning games, the "Winning-at-all-cost notion produces a context that increases the likelihood of rule violations" (99). Essentially, because the focus is on establishing a successful athletic program, and eventually a brand equity, athletic departments, and the entire university constituency, tolerate and partake in academic fraud and dishonesty.

This will serve as a very valuable source and idea for my paper in the sense that once I establish the system of collegiate athletics, I will use the examples and evidence provided in this study to demonstrate how that system affects academic values and promotes academic fraud and dishonesty.