IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apeclt/v23y2016i5p373-376.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Professional ‘amateurs’ in the NCAA: the impact of downstream demand

Author

Listed:
  • Kurt W. Rotthoff
  • Kaylyn R. Sanbower

Abstract

We argue that student-athletes are amateur in title only; they are actually professional athletes in all accounts of their actions. This occurs because of the downstream demand of their athletic success: coaches are paid professionals. As a paid professional, these coaches are held accountable for the performances of their team, i.e. they are hired and fired based on this performance. Within the constraints of the National Collegiate Athletic Association guidelines, coaches make the rules for their athletes, which the athletes are required to follow. As such, the athletes themselves are professionals acting under professional incentives and are amateurs in title only.

Suggested Citation

  • Kurt W. Rotthoff & Kaylyn R. Sanbower, 2016. "Professional ‘amateurs’ in the NCAA: the impact of downstream demand," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 373-376, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:23:y:2016:i:5:p:373-376
    DOI: 10.1080/13504851.2015.1076140
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/13504851.2015.1076140
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13504851.2015.1076140?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Paul Holmes, 2011. "Win or Go Home: Why College Football Coaches Get Fired," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 12(2), pages 157-178, April.
    2. Jason M. Lindo & Isaac D. Swensen & Glen R. Waddell, 2012. "Are Big-Time Sports a Threat to Student Achievement?," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 4(4), pages 254-274, October.
    3. Joel G. Maxcy, 2013. "Efficiency and Managerial Performance in FBS College Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(4), pages 368-388, August.
    4. Lawrence M. Kahn, 2007. "Markets: Cartel Behavior and Amateurism in College Sports," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 209-226, Winter.
    5. Rotthoff, Kurt W., 2008. "Could affirmative action be efficient in higher education?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 99(3), pages 574-576, June.
    6. Hernández-Julián, Rey & Rotthoff, Kurt W., 2014. "The impact of college football on academic achievement," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 141-147.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel C. Hickman & Andrew G. Meyer, 2017. "Does Athletic Success Influence Persistence At Higher Education Institutions? New Evidence Using Panel Data," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(4), pages 658-676, October.
    2. Dustin R. White & Benjamin W. Cowan & Jadrian J. Wooten, 2019. "March Madness: Ncaa Tournament Participation And College Alcohol Use," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(3), pages 449-461, July.
    3. Austin F. Eggers & Peter A. Groothuis & Parker Redding & Kurt W. Rotthoff & Michael Solimini, 2020. "Universities Behaving Badly: The Impact of Athletic Malfeasance on Student Quality and Enrollment," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(1), pages 87-100, January.
    4. Jerome Segura III & Jonathan Willner, 2019. "Athleticism in NCAA D-III: It Ain’t Only Football That Matters," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(7), pages 929-958, October.
    5. Ira Horowitz, 2017. "An Efficiency Evaluation of Men’s College Basketball Coaches," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 62(1), pages 77-98, March.
    6. Benjamin Baumer & Andrew Zimbalist, 2019. "The Impact of College Athletic Success on Donations and Applicant Quality," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, April.
    7. Austin F. Eggers & Peter A. Groothuis, 2021. "The Impact of Winning an NCAA Men's Basketball or Football Championship on Academic Quality," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(2), pages 263-275.
    8. Jason M. Lindo & Peter Siminski & Isaac D. Swensen, 2018. "College Party Culture and Sexual Assault," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(1), pages 236-265, January.
    9. Trevor Collier & Nancy Haskell & Kurt W. Rotthoff & Alaina Baker, 2020. "The “Cinderella Effect†: The Value of Unexpected March Madness Runs as Advertising for the Schools," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(8), pages 783-807, December.
    10. Poutvaara, Panu & Ropponen, Olli, 2018. "Shocking news and cognitive performance," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 93-106.
    11. Candon Johnson & Bryan C. McCannon, 2022. "Athletics and Admissions: The Impact of the Penn State Football Scandal on Student Quality," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(2), pages 200-221, February.
    12. Bradley R. Curs & Casandra E. Harper & Charles Frey & Brandon Wolak, 2023. "The Effect of College Football Bowl Game Participation on Student-Athlete Academic Outcomes and Team Athletic Success," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(4), pages 497-519, June.
    13. Zachary S. Fone, 2023. "You Booze, You Lose? Spillovers to Crime from Alcohol Sales at College Football Games," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 24(2), pages 193-240, February.
    14. Pugatch, Todd & Wilson, Nicholas, 2018. "Nudging study habits: A field experiment on peer tutoring in higher education," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 151-161.
    15. Alexander J. Cardazzi & Brad R. Humphreys & Bryan McCannon & Zachary Rodriguez, 2020. "Blaming The Ref: Understanding the Effect of Unexpected Emotional Cues on Family Violence," Working Papers 20-11, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    16. Stacey L. Brook, 2021. "A Comparison of NCAA FBS Head Coaches Salary Determination From New and Modified Contracts," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(5), pages 491-513, June.
    17. Jill S. Harris, 2018. "State of Play: How Do College Football Programs Compete for Student Athletes?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 52(2), pages 269-281, March.
    18. Jerome Segura & Jonathan Willner, 2018. "The Game Is Good at the Top," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(5), pages 645-676, June.
    19. William E. Even & Austin C. Smith, 2022. "Greek Life, Academics, and Earnings," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(3), pages 998-1032.
    20. Behera, Sarthak & Sadana, Divya, 2022. "The Impact of Visibility on School Athletic Finances: An Empirical Analysis using Google Trends," MPRA Paper 114818, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:23:y:2016:i:5:p:373-376. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEL20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.