Sports Reform: Top 4 Ways Sports Should Change.

             As a sports fan I always look at sports ,and I wonder what things can be changed or be improved in the sports world. Below I will express what I think are some of the changes that should happen in the sports world.

No More Transfer Restrictions for Student-Athletes

         Transferring in athletics has been a topic of discussion in the NCAA. Most athletes transfer for sports reasons others for personal reason. Limiting athletes to certain schools is what most people would say is an unethical and unfair. The reason why people consider this unfair is because of the free reign coaches have to pick up their things and leave and go to another school without penalty. The reason that there should be change to do is because student-athletes make mistakes as they are picking colleges they want to attend coming out of high school. You can’t put your trust in 17-18 year olds to make the right choice at  this age. Also, coaching situations where the coach leaves makes transferring an option. Many people throw out the statement that “ You choose the school not the coach.” I believe that is an absurd statement. In this day relationships mean a lot to recruits because these are the people you will be depending on to take care of you while you are away from home. They are basically your new parents. So when coaches leave, it damages the comfortability of the player, and now the player wants to leave. The second part of this is the restrictions the coaches put on players where they can not go to a group of schools that the coaches have picked. The problem here is that coaches don’t give other coaches restrictions on where to take jobs. So why should they do it to these young teenagers? The solution to this transfer problem is to let the players transfer where they want so they can improve and be comfortable. Whether it is closer to home or just another college in country let the players be happy. The coaches can have free reign, so players should have the same opportunities. 

Ending "One and Done" in College Basketball and Allowing High School Entry

     The NBA and the NCAA should come together and allow high school players to enter the draft straight from high school, and not have to go to college for a year. Forcing athletes to go to college for one year is pointless and not beneficial. In Jonathan Abrams article N.B.A. Players Make Their Way Back to College, it states that “About 21 percent of current N.B.A. players have undergraduate degrees” according to Rothstein Murman. I believe that keeping players in college for one year, with that low rate of people coming back for degrees is wasting colleges money handing out scholarships. There are numerous benefits of allowing players to enter the draft from high school. The first one is that the players that go to college will get the proper development that they need for the NBA. Also, this would  help the NBA as a whole. The talent has been diluted and not what it needs to be. Adding this could create a better product for the league. This would also help NCAA coaches because there would be less turnover than usual. The solution that could help is, allowing players to go straight from high school to draft, and if they choose to go to college they would not be eligible for the draft until they are 3 years removed from high school. Just like the NFL structure.

Shorten The MLB Season

     The next act of reform would be shortening the MLB season from 162 games to around 82 games like basketball. 162 games is very long for a season. There is a couple of reasons why the MLB season is bad is because of injuries among pitchers. I believe that the long seasons put a lot of stress on pitchers arm causing the injury of Tommy John. This is a severe injury that take at least a year to recover from. According to Pitch Smart USA Baseball, On average  15-20 major league pitchers receive this surgery per year, but over the past three years that average has been raised to 25-30 pitchers. Pitch Smart also indicates that the most important factor to the causes of this injury is the daily, weekly, and annual overuse of playing the game of baseball. Shortening the season would definitely help when it comes to this high frequency of injury. The second way that shortening the season would help is gaining the interest of fans and making the games more important. Baseball is losing many fans because of how long the season and the games are. Young fans have not been engaged with baseball in the past years as the numbers are declining. In the article Red Sox Stepping Up Effort To Attract  Kids To The Game written by Beth Teitell, she states that “Statistics showing that kids are playing less baseball than they once did, and that those who don’t go to games as children are less likely to go to as adults, have prompted the Red Sox to ramp up their marketing efforts to kids — and parents.” This indicates that young fans are losing interest in the sport. So, shortening the season would help this cause. Shortening the season would help increase the importance of games. Making the games more important would bring in more fans because the games would mean more. 

Paying NCAA Athletes

Paying student athletes has been a heavy topic for years in college athletics. NCAA President Mark Emmert has always denied pay for play for athletes because he wants to keep the amateurism in place. In the article, Paying college athletes would hurt traditions, NCAA chief Emmert testifies written by Sara Ganim it reports that Emmert stated “ If college athletes were to start being paid, many schools would leave Division I sports”.  Emmert has always took a hard stand on not allowing payments for athletes.  The reasons why that athletes should be paid is because, number one the NCAA brings in enough money where they can give athletes a share. Secondly, the hours that are put in from the athletes. I’m not saying give the athletes salaries, but stipends could help the athletes in a tremendous way. On April 12, 2016 Turner Sports and the NCAA agreed to a 8 year 8.8 billion dollar contract extension for Television, Digital, and Marketing rights. With that kind of contract, paying players should not be a problem. Also, when universities are racking up cash because of the players, they should be given a cut. Universities use player's likeness by selling their jerseys online to fans. There is a couple of different ways to help solve this problem. The first way is to give stipends of around 2,000 dollars a semester or give them a small percentage of the total net income of the past school year. For example, the University of Florida had a net income of $ 21,720,799 the players could easily receive some portion of that money. The second way is to give the athletes stipends like I said before but now give the student athletes incentives like if you have a 3.5 GPA or above you receive an extra $1000, or if you make the NCAA or Conference Acadmeic team you should receive a bonus. Also, prize money for winning bowl games, or conference and national championships could be an option.

Sources:

Ganim, S. (2014, June 19). Paying college athletes would hurt traditions, NCAA chief Emmert testifies. Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/19/us/ncaa-obannon-lawsuit-trial/

Turner, CBS and the NCAA Reach Long-Term Multimedia Rights Extension for NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. (2016, April 12). Retrieved April 15, 2016, from http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/article/2016-04-12/turner-cbs-and-ncaa-reach-long-term-multimedia-rights

USA TODAY Sports. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

Pitch Smart. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2016, from http://m.mlb.com/pitchsmart/tommy-john-faq

Teitell, B. (2015, March 12). If you build it, will they come? With youth interest in baseball waning, the Red Sox are giving kids free tickets - The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 18, 2016, from https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2015/03/11/you-build-will-they-come-with-youth-interest-baseball-waning-red-sox-are-giving-kids-free-tickets/tc8EgGqaJIus3OTAV5hrKL/story.html