Amateurism in the NCAA

In this blog post, I'll be discussing the concept of amateurism in the NCAA throughout all three main divisions. The rules of amateurism, priorities, and focuses in the NCAA differs greatly amongst all three divisions. For example, Division 1 College sports focus heavily on the athlete, yet still try to maintain a balance between being a student and being the athlete the team needs them to be. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Division 3 sports put a rigorous academic focus first as opposed to athletics; If a player has an important test or project due in a few days, they have the right to skip or miss practice in order to complete said project. Division 1 sports would not allow such liberties. In conclusion, Division 1 sports take a lot of the college experience away from the athlete in order to build a strong athletics program to support the college as well. Division 3 colleges put the student first, then the athlete second.

Amateurism:

The definition of amateurism is someone who engages in a pursuit, especially of a sport, on an unpaid basis. The NCAA is extremely strict about amateurism and athletes who participate in doing activities that break the boundaries of the definition of amateurism.

In general, amateurism requirements do not allow:

1. Contracts with professional teams
2. Salary for participating in athletics
3. Prize money above actual and necessary expenses
4. Play with professionals
5. Tryouts, practice or competition with a professional team
6. Benefits from an agent or prospective agent
7. Agreement to be represented by an agent
8. Delayed initial full-time collegiate enrollment to participate in organized sports competition

Any of these points break the boundaries of Amateurism and will result in a suspension of a player at minimum as a penalty towards the college team

Read more about Amateurism in the NCAA here: Amateurism in the NCAA

Endorsement Deals and Piracy

In this blog post, I'll be discussing several different famous athletes and there endorsement deals, as well as the idea and concept of piracy and how it impacts the economy

Michael Jordan's Endorsements Include: Nike, Gatorade, Bijan Cologne, MCI world com, Rayovac Batteries, Hanes Underwear, Ball Park Franks, Wheaties, Wilson Sporting Equipment, Oakley Sunglasses, AMF Bowling ,CBS, Sports line Chevrolet, McDonalds, Bigsby & Kruthers, NBA Entertainment/CBS-Fox home videos, Upper Deck, Michael Jordan's Restaurant, Chicago Coach, Leather products,Warner Brothers, McI. and Coca Cola

David Ortiz Endorsements Include: Dunkin' Donuts, Fanatics, New Balance, Reebok, and Samsung

Alex Rodriguez's Endorsements Include: Pepsi, Mercedes Benz, and Guitar Hero

Peyton Manning: Nation Wide, MasterCard, Papa Johns, DirecTV, and Krafts

Mike Trout's Endorsements Include: Subway, Nike. Old Hickory Bat Co,, and Body Armor Super Drink

Miguel Cabrera's Endorsements Include:  Chrysler, Maltin Polar, Franklin Batting Gloves, Wilson Fielding Gloves, New Balance Baseball Cleats, Working Publishing, Bozeman Watch Co, Oakley, Sony Playstation and T- Petroleum Corp.

Jonathan Toews Endorsements Include: Bauur, LemonHead, Chevrolet, and Canadian Tires

Andrew Luck has Few Endorsements, such as: Klipsch, Body Armor Sports Drink, Nike, Quaker Oats, and Gatorade and EA Sports


Piracy
There are many different examples of piracy present in the real world. For example, when I was living in China, nearly every single movie that was bought from a vendor off of the street was pirated. This means the product was illegally downloaded or reproduced in a way without consent of the original creator, then sold for a profit.

Sony has recently had a so called "Pirate Attack", meaning that a few of their movies have been stolen and illegally downloaded. This link tells more about the event: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/pirates-hack-sony-movies-article-1.2028470

MGM had a case of piracy when there was a court ruling over whether or not companies like Grokster and Streamcast should be allowed to share movies and music from person to person without consecutive purchase of the product. There were 9 votes for MGM and 0 votes against, justifying the infringement of the company's products

Recently, a very popular torrenting site known as the Pirate Bay was shut down by the government largely due to the fact that it was an extremely popular torrenting site that provided millions of people with free access to movies, music, games and more without cost or charge against the original company. It was shut down temporarily, however, the site was brought back up again by the original creators who found a way to bypass the government firewall.