Introduction
The National Collegiate Academic Association was established approximately one hundred years ago with the principal objective of monitoring and regulating athletic sports practices at the collegiate level and universities. The main purpose of the organization is to ensure fairness, safety, equitability and sportsmanlike conduct in intercollegiate athletics (NCAA, 2011).
NCCA also aims at ensuring the integration of intercollegiate athletics into higher education in order to ensure that the educational experience of the student-athlete is supreme. This implies that the policies adopted by the body embraces both academics and athletics excellence.
In the light of this view, there is need for institutional control, which broadly refers to efforts adopted by the institutions to comply with the NCCA rules and look into violations that may take place (NCAA, 2011).
Intercollegiate athletics in the present day is characterized by a number of complex legislations, administrative processes and laws. Effective implementation of these needs comprehensive knowledge and feasible advice in order to foster compliance in an area that is often characterized by extreme public scrutiny (Bill, 2011).
In addition, effective implementation within the context of higher education needs a cost-effective implementation of the resources in a manner that is consistent with the educational goals of NCCA.
The current state of collegiate sports is characterized with cases of increasing scandals, improper benefits, violations by the sports agents and those in charge of recruitment poses the need to investigate the effectiveness of the NCAA to foster compliance and monitoring of the collegiate institutions and their respective sports practices (Taylor, 2011). The real problem is within the organizational structure of the collegiate sports.
Cases of malpractices within the collegiate sports are on the increase. For instance, during 2010, the National Collegiate Athletic Association summoned the University of Southern California after finding out cases of improper benefits. According to reports by Yahoo Sports, millions of dollars had been given to at least seventy Hurricanes Football players in a period of at least 8 years.
The real scandal cannot be attributed to the improper benefits and malpractice by the agents and recruiter, rather with the structure and the principles that NCAA justifies its establishment basing on the principles of amateurism and student athlete.
Notable violations include the skeptical hoaxes, legalistic confections that are initiated by higher institutions in order to exploit the fame and the skills of the youthful athletes (Smith, 2011). This culminates to unfair and unequal treatment of the college athletes due to the fact that some are paid while others are not.
There will be a number of ethical and legal issues concerning this research including the principle of voluntary participation, preservation and anonymity of the respondents and the potential harm or good that may be as a result of the research (Ruane, 2005).
This research will serve to add to the current knowledge regarding the status of the collegiate sports and to determine whether the NCAA should continue monitoring and reinforcing compliance.
Variables
Independent Variables:
- The types of collegiate athletics malpractices: the various types of malpractices will be used as a major indicator of the compliance and regulative failures associated with the structure and objectives of NCAA.
- Number of college institutions complying with the NCAA rules: This variable will be used to evaluate the prevalence of college athletics malpractices between complying and non-complying institutions
- The number of students involved in sports malpractices: This will be used to assess the rate of involvement of students in the violations of NCAA rules and the underlying causation factors for their involvement in malpractices in college sports. This will be vital in assessing the structural failures of the institutions that are not complying with the NCAA rules
- Unfairness among the college athletes and the NCAA rules and regulations: this will indicate the ineffectiveness of the implementation of the NCAA rules and regulations by the colleges.
- The documented number of violations by the college institutions in the United States.
Dependent Variables:
- The need to reinforce monitoring and compliance by the NCAA: this will depend on the extremities of the identified malpractices due to non-compliance
- The effectiveness of NCAA in reducing malpractices in collegiate sports, which will depend on the overall extent of the violations of the NCAA.
Summary
The increase in violations and malpractices in collegiate sports questions the effectiveness of the NCAA in fostering monitoring and compliance of the college institutions (Bill, 2011).
Notable areas of concern include cases of increasing scandals, improper benefits, violations by the sports agents and those in charge of recruitment poses the need to investigate the effectiveness of the NCAA to foster compliance and monitoring of the collegiate institutions and their respective sports.
Ethical and legal issues identified that are associated with carrying out of this research include principle of voluntary participation, preservation and anonymity of the respondents and the potential harm or good that may be as a result of the research. This research will be an effective tool that can be used for recommendations regarding the reinforcement of compliance by the NCAA.
Review Of Literature
An increase in the number of scandals entailing college athletes receiving money and other types of improper benefits and with the increase in the cases of violations by the sports agents and the recruiting personnel has tainted the reputation that college sports had.
Collegiate institutions such as the University of Miami, University of South Carolina and the University of North Carolina have been on the limelight for violation of the NCAA rules rather than administering education to students (Elkin, 2011).
The NCAA has the sole responsibility of enforcing accountability within the college; however, it has been hesitant to adopt strategies to address the increasing cases of the violations of the established rules and regulations.
Mc Millen (2011) considers the assumption that the National Collegiate Athletic Association can implement safeguards and administer punishments for the institutions that violate its rules as a wishful thinking.
In the light of this, Mc Millen (2011) asserts that the NCAA is not ready to address the problems that it created; as a result, the college trustees should play a forefront role in ensuring the goals of NCAA are achieved together with the educational excellence of student athletes.
Reforms in the NCAA to constrain colleges’ expenditure in sports have failed since most of such transactions are carried off the book, making it hard to detect and administer punishments (Taylor, 2011).
The situation is worsened by the perception that college athletics is a multi-billion dollar industry characterized by sports budgets that are bloated and highly paid trainers and coaches and recruiters who use the funds available to recruit the top talent in the sport.
The ineffectiveness of the NCAA in punishment administration is worsened by the fact that the most of culprits often move on after the punishment for administration have been issued. For instance, Mc Millen (2011) notes the USD 4 million annual pay for football coach within the University of South Carolina.
While the NCAA was investigating the matter, the accused coach was given another contract as the head coach for a five year contract at Seattle Seahawks worth USD 30 million. By the time the sanctions against the football team at the USC were issued, the coach was already gone.
This is a clear indication of structural failures with the organization. Mc Millen (2011) says that colleges usually take pride when their sports teams are successful. Cases of scandals usually affect their reputations. In the light of this view, Mc Millen (2011) proposes that colleges have the inherent capacity and capability to deploy measures to eliminate the malpractices in collegiate sport programs.
This implies that the college trustees and the college regents can effectively adopt effective solutions when compared to the NCAA president s who are less conversant in collegiate sports programs and are faced with intense economic pressure from the fans (Mc Millen, 2011).
Presently, most of the boards are extremely comfortable with their athletic departments; as a result, most of the board members tend to forget that their responsibility is to safeguard the institutions and not the trainers and coaches and satisfying the fans. This puts the college trustees in a position that they can effectively maintain the standards (Smith, 2011).
In addition, a significant number of the colleges are laxative in relation to their sports programs due to the high profits accrued from the sports broadcasting and the revenue received from the fans. This results in reluctance towards the policing of the practices of the coaches, the players and the directors of athletic departments (Fleisher, 1992).
Therefore, the trustees and regents of collegiate institutions have a legal and moral obligation to ensure that they are involved in practices that are deemed right for their institutions (Fiutak, 2011). The adoption of the recommendations by the Association of Governing Boards and Colleges will help in minimizing cases associated with the violations of the NCAA legislations and the law.
Some of the recommendations by Mc Millen (2011) to eliminate malpractices in the collegiate sports include annual approval of the budgets for the sports programs and their most important capital expenses by the college regents; annual auditing of the expenditures incurred by the athletic department by external auditors who are independent; establishment of a committee that have the responsibility of monitoring compliance with the NCAA legislations and the academic performance of the student athlete and the approval of coach and directors compensation by the board (Yaeger, 1991).
A survey conducted by Mc Millen (2011) concluded that a number of colleges are starting to acknowledge the significance of these recommendations. For instance, regents undertake annual auditing of the athletic department within the Kansas State University. Similar practices were adopted at the University of Michigan through the signing off on the operating and capital budgets adopted by the athletic department.
In addition, panels have been established to address athletic problems have been established in the University of Colorado and Georgetown University, University of Wisconsin, University of Oklahoma and Texas A&M University (Taylor, 2011). These colleges are also embarking on the approval of any adjustments in the compensation for their athletic personnel.
Mc Millen (2011) therefore concluded that the NCAA requires to be more careful in ensuring that colleges comply with its legislations and foster accountability within the college boards.
In addressing the issues in college sports, schools do not have the responsibility in addressing the violations of the rules, but can help in preventing their occurrences, which serves to take place of the void created by the incapability of the NCAA (Mc Millen, 2011).
The increasing number of sanctions adopted by the NCAA issued to Ohio, Texas, Auburn and Tennessee denotes the nature of the present college sports. This poses significant concerns as to who is to be blamed, and the steps that NCAA can implement in order to fix all the problems that are facing college athletics.
Fiutak (2011) argues that the NCAA is responsible for the present state of affairs in college athletics and argues that the problem is mainly due to rules that are deemed unrealistic and unfair. In addition, the situation is worsened by the fact that the NCAA openly admitted that it lacks the capability to reinforce the rules that it established.
Fiutak further argues that the NCAA has not adopted fruitful efforts in preventing sports programs from engaging in cheating and ensuring that there are minimal cases of improper benefits and incentives. Fiutak (2011) agrees with Mc Millen (2011) that NCAA lacks that the capability to fix the issues of compliance and monitoring of the college institutions with regard to college sports.
Fiutak notes that most of the scandals in college sports are usually uncovered by the media and concludes that the legislative measures adopted by NCAA are not effective in imposing some level of deterrence. There are no simple solutions to address the complex issues rocking college athletics (Mc Millen, 2011). There are number of limitations of the NCAA in addressing this issue of compliance and monitoring of college sports programs.
A practical limitation that NCAA faces is the manpower and the resources required for investigating scandals in the college sports programs. Unless the media is legalized to blow up the scandals, this task is considered as too big for the NCAA; a fact that the organization has already admitted. The second constraint is that the NCAA can be provided with wrong facts.
This is worsened by the fact that there are no legal provisions at the federal and state level that can result to perjury charges for providing the NCAA with falsified information (NCAA, 2011). This means that lack of appropriate and accurate evidence makes it hard for the NCAA to administer punishment and reinforce its compliance and monitoring goals.
It is important for the NCAA to have an understanding of its limitations, and exploit them to develop effective solutions to the problems facing college sports programs. Fiutak (2011) suggests the granting of amnesty for the scandals that took place in the past as a starting point, after which the colleges, coaches and administrators must engage in self-reporting by collaborative working with the NCAA.
According to this approach, compliance, monitoring and accountability rests with the college, and the NCAA only steps in during cases of the violations of the legislations. Case by case analysis is needed for violations that are done off-the-book without the involvement of the major parties (Mc Millen, 2011).
Leniency is guaranteed provided that there are self-reporting efforts and corrective steps aimed at making the situation right. Any potential cases of violations and deviations from the principles of NCAA are adequate enough to amount to ban from participation in the NCAA championships.
Fiutak notes that the current steps adopted by the NCAA are not effective and it is time to step out of the line and use stringent legislations that have no provisions for future scandals and malpractices. In addition, Fiutak recommends that the players are also supposed to be allocated a fair share of the blame and face the consequences.
This approach however requires much effort from the coaches in terms of individual monitoring of the players. The focus should also aim at helping the student athletes achieve their academic goals. Fiutak concludes that the issues of compliance and monitoring are fixable, although NCAA has to be more realistic due to the fact that times have changed and its approaches also need a review (Fiutak, 2011).
Lack of institutional control by the NCAA is also a significant issue that imposes significant impacts on the compliance and monitoring of college sports programs. The NCAA has been on the forefront in highlighting the institutions that have violated its legislations and engaged in malpractices (Mc Millen, 2011). The outcome of this is there is increasing frenzy while there are no feasible solutions.
As a result, NCAA has managed to escape scrutiny, yet the real issue rests within its administrative structure. The NCAA is considered corrupt, which is a significant constraint towards effective implementation of compliance and monitoring by the colleges. In addition, the NCAA establishes the rules as times goes by.
Most of the justification for the sanctions adopted by NCAA base on a reasoning that is post hoc, making it almost impractical for the colleges to navigate (Elkin, 2011). For instance, in the case of the sanctions imposed on the University of South Carolina, heavy penalties were imposed due to lack of compliance.
A survey by Fiutak (2011) reported that the NCAA does not have guidelines in its legislations stating the minimum number of compliance officers that the individual colleges must have. In the case of USC, the NCAA did not state prior to the sanction that the college did not have sufficient compliance officers.
Lack of clarity in the NCAA legislations makes it difficult to implement effective compliance and monitoring in sports programs in colleges. Lack of institutional control is one of the principal reasons why NCAA is not effective in ensuring compliance and monitoring of the colleges and their respective athletics programs.
The semi-voluntary nature of the organization imposes significant limitations regarding its level of institutional control and its susceptibility to manipulation by the colleges (Taylor, 2011).
It is arguably evident that most of elements of theoretical framework have focused on the role that the colleges’ trustees and regents can play in ensuring compliance and monitoring frameworks. The existing and proposed solutions on the issue have shifted focus from the structural role of NCAA in fostering compliance and monitoring of the college sports programs (Taylor, 2011).
This creates a void between the institutional roles and accountability and the role of the NCAA in ensuring that the colleges comply with its regulations in order to eliminate cases of malpractices in collegiate athletics.
Despite the efforts adopted by colleges to enhance accountability and compliance, the NCAA has a responsibility of ensuring that compliance is actually taking places according to the reports by the colleges (Taylor, 2011).
Effective implementation needs adequate institutional control for this strategy to be effective. This poses the need to determine whether the NCAA should continue monitoring and enforcing compliance at the collegiate level, which is the primary focus of this research.
Research Question
Owing to the current status of athletic at collegiate level, it is vital to deploy appropriate structural policies to ensure that institutions at collegiate level are complying with the legislations established by the NCAA. Prior to reaching a conclusive opinion, it is also important to assess the effectiveness of the current monitoring and compliance strategies.
This will provide a theoretical framework that describes the conditions under which the proposed monitoring and compliance enforcement should take place. Basing on this framework, the following is the research question.
Should the NCAA continue to monitor and enforce compliance on the collegiate level?
Method
Purpose
When assessing the effectiveness of the NCAA in eliminating malpractice in college sports programs and the attainment of educational excellence for student athlete, most authors relied on qualitative approaches for their surveys and the resulting conclusions. This study will deploy a qualitative approach to determine the answer to the established research question (Ruane, 2005).
A significant body of research in relation to the topic based on the roles and responsibilities of the colleges in enhancing accountability and fostering compliance with the rules and legislations of the NCAA.
This leaves a void in assessing the effectiveness of the NCAA in monitoring and enforcing compliance. This is the framework adopted in this research, which focuses on the role of the role of the NCAA in monitoring and enforcing compliance at the collegiate level.
On a wider perspective, the purpose of this research is to assess the effectiveness of the NCAA in addressing the problems associated with the sports programs at the collegiate level. On a narrow perspective, this research aims at determining whether or not the NCAA should continue monitoring and enforcing compliance on the collegiate level.
Paradigm
The knowledge acquisition for this method will be based on actual research and primary sources. The research will make use of previous theoretical frameworks as a philosophical model for knowledge acquisition (Ruane, 2005). This implies that the actual findings from the research will be compared with the existing findings and theoretical model as a framework for arriving at the answer of the research questions.
This implies that the research will significantly rely on primary data sources, which will be achieved using the data collection methods outlined later in this research proposal (Maxwell, 1996).
In order to determine the accuracy of the discussion of the findings and recommendations, a comparative approach is recommended through the analysis of the influences of the research methodologies on the research findings and conclusions. Primary research involves the data acquisition based on first-hand information by the researcher (Fisher, 2007).
This will be carried out using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, which will be based on a one-on-one approach with the respondent. Primary data sources serves as an effective method of carrying out a research because the information gathered is usually raw and has not been manipulated, this in turn increases the accuracy of the research study (Ruane, 2005).
In addition, the primary data collected can be used to match against the secondary sources for accuracy purposes (Maxfield & Babbie, 2009). The various ways of gathering primary data that were used during the research include questionnaires and interviews.
Study design
Research method is determined by the structure of the research question and the research context. Social research aims at providing an explanation for current state of affairs using predetermined variables (May, 2001). Research significantly depends on probability; therefore, providing an explanation why a given variable plays a significant role in determining the outcome is vital (Ruane, 2005).
This implies that it is imperative for the research to put more emphasis on the findings, coupled with a correlation to the available theoretical frameworks to explain the effectiveness of the NCAA in addressing issues associated lack of institutional control and compliance (Nardi, 2003). When carrying out a research, the researcher can choose between qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Quantitative approach entails the compilation and breakdown of experimental data and statistics to result to infer a conclusion; it involves collecting data through investigative units such as questionnaires (Maxfield & Babbie, 2009). Qualitative approach on the other hand utilizes analysis and evaluation of qualitative data through interviews and observation to reach a conclusion.
This research requires the analysis of qualitative data that will be collected from the coaching staff, college administrators, compliance officials and personnel of the NCAA in relation to its effectiveness in enforcing compliance and monitoring the athletics programs at the collegiate level (Maxfield & Earl, 2011).
In addition, data collected will also entail the opinions of the players regarding the need for the NCAA to continue monitoring and enforcing compliance (Ruane, 2005). The data acquisition methods will incorporate both primary and secondary sources. This are because the data collected was in form of questionnaires and interviews, which are both quantitative and qualitative respectively.
The deductive approach will be used since the research will begin with a description of concepts such as the variables affecting the effectiveness of NCAA, after which it will involve an analysis of empirical evidence.
Therefore, a deductive approach was used because the research study commences with a research hypothesis and terminates with empirical measurement, analysis and evaluation of research findings (Ruane, 2005).
Population and sample
The target population for this research will mainly include college institutions in the state of South Carolina. The sample population will include the compliance officers in the colleges, staffs of athletic departments, NCAA personnel and the players.
This implies that the sampling approach to be used in the research will be quota sampling in the sense that the respondents are grouped in accordance with their roles and responsibilities in ensuring accountability and compliance with the regulations of the NCAA (Ritchie & Lewis, 2003).
Investigative techniques
Data consists of two types: primary data which is collected by the researcher and secondary data which is collected by other researchers (Neuman, 2003). The research will utilize mainly primary data sources. Data collection is a significant requirement for the success of any social research since it determines the success of the research in terms of facilitating the inference of conclusions.
This implies that a research should significantly rely on statistical data since it deploys a probabilistic approach to offer a rational explanation to the ways things are currently in the social context (Fisher, 2007).
Questionnaires
Ruane (2005, p.123) defines questionnaire as “self-contained, self-administered instrument for asking questions”. The questionnaire will be used to gather information on the perceptions of police workforce basing on gender orientations. The use of questionnaire is preferred because it facilitates the researchers to acquire enormous amounts of data within a limited time frame.
The use of questionnaire will also provide a first-hand data from the respondents regarding the effectiveness of the NCAA in addressing the problems facing athletic programs at the collegiate level (Neuman & Kreuger, 2006). The primary objective of a questionnaire is to encourage and offer motivation to the respondent to actively participate in the interview.
This will be achieved through the use of interesting questions and visual aid representations for clarity. The respondents will be asked their opinions as to whether the NCAA should continue to monitor and enforce compliance at collegiate level. This will be aimed at captivating the motivation of the respondents to actively participate in the research study.
The questionnaire will comprise of structured and unstructured (open) questions. A structured question can be either in form of multiple choices, dichotomous questions or scales (Ruane, 2005).
Dichotomous questions are designed to collect the fundamental data from respondents such as Male or Female, age and other basic personal information. Dichotomous questions will save time required for the respondents to answer the questions. They will be in a simple format involving Yes or No multiple choice questions (Fisher, 2007).
Checklists will be used to obtain diverse information from the respondents such as the minimum number of compliance officers required, whether monitoring and compliance is required or not, and whether the NCAA should be disbanded altogether. All these will be helpful in determining the need for monitoring and compliance enforcement within the colleges (Neuman W. L., 2003).
Ratio Scales will be designed as a five-point scale range between 0 and 5 to indicate extremes of the need for changes in the structural and administrative organization of the NCAA.
The will also be the open ended questions where the respondents will be able to open clarify and express their opinions in detail concerning the overall effectiveness of the NCAA in meeting specific requirements posed by collegiate sports requirements. This research aims to collect approximately 100 questionnaires from the various regions in the state of South Carolina.
Semi-structured interviews
Semi-structured interviews provide a large number of qualitative data. However, the limiting factor towards this approach is that interviews a lot of time. The semi-structured interviews will mainly involve selected players at collegiate level. Willing players will be interviewed immediately (Maxfield & Babbie, 2009).
Focus groups
Ruane (2005) argues that focus groups are one of the most effective methods of gathering collective data. In addition, it offers an interactive approach to research. Focus groups used in the research will comprise of six individuals; three females and three males, with one facilitator. The proposed duration for a focus group meeting will range from forty five minutes to one hour.
Instrumentation
An Initial pilot study will be done in order to ensure the quality and accuracy of the questionnaire and interview’s questions. It will also be used to test the reliability and validity of the primary research through discussions with friends.
The initial pilot study will be aimed at detecting and rectification of the difficulties concerning the questionnaires such as cases of ambiguity in the questions and lack of clarity (Neuman, 2003). It will be carried within the surroundings of the university and the neighbourhood.
Data collections
The collections will be collected within duration of one week after being issued to the respondents. In cases where possible, questionnaires will be distributed electronically to the target respondents. For electronic submissions, mail alerts will be used, while call alerts will be used for individual submission of the questionnaire (Maxfield & Babbie, 2009).
Data analysis plan
Data analysis is an essential phase in research because it is used to infer conclusions. The research findings will offer a framework for determining the answer to the research question. It is therefore important that the data collected should be as accurate as possible to facilitate the process of data analysis. The data collected during the research will mainly entail qualitative data.
This implies that both inferential and descriptive statistics was used to arrive at the conclusion (Maxfield & Babbie, 2009). Descriptive statistics in research usually serve to summarize and describe data with quantities such as percentage, proportion, mean, mode, mode and other descriptive statistical quantities.
Inferential statistics on the other hand was used to generalize on the sample population; it will generally entail the use of statistical tests such as variance, chi-square, standard deviation and other statistical test variables (Fisher, 2007).
The approach for data analysis will consist of mainly univariate data analysis, which examines the distribution of one statistical variable at a time. Bivariate data analysis will also be deployed in analysis cases that will require the evaluation of the relationship between two variables, for example, the relationship that exists between compliance enforcement and the occurrence of violations and scandals (Fisher, 2007).
Ethical consideration (Human Subject Protections)
Any social research must put into consideration the various ethical and legal concerns associated with conducting a social research (Neuman, 2003). Firstly, the questionnaire and interview questions should be devoid of sensitive questions. Majority of people fear for their views to be known and they seek confidentiality. The following is an outline of the ethical and legal issues associated with the research.
- The principle of voluntary participation: it requires that no correspondent will be forced into participating. In order to achieve these, the questionnaires will be issued to only participants who will be willing to participate in the research study.
- Preservation and anonymity of the respondents: all social research studies should aim at guaranteeing the anonymity and confidentiality of the respondents. All the information gathered will not be revealed to anyone under any circumstance. In addition the questionnaires will not be asking the respondents their names and associated personal information.
- The social research should guarantee no harm to participants and researchers before, during and after the research study. It is an ethical requirement of a social research study that the researcher should not put the respondent in a harmful situation through his participation in the project. All participant shall receive equal treatment without prejudice and they will be informed the reasons for the research prior to their participation.
Assumptions
- The responses from the participants will be honest
- The number of the responses is adequate enough to carry out accurate data analysis and answer the research question
- The data distribution will be normal
Limitations
The significant constraint that the research will face is the time constraints. This may result to inadequate collection of questionnaires. This may result to a higher marginal error.
Another problem was that some target respondents might not be interested in answering the questions during the research and during interview. Some respondents may also provide inaccurate information, which will affect the accuracy of the findings and their respective interpretation.
Data analysis and interpretation will deploy adequate provisions in order to addresses the anticipated marginal error imposed by the research methodology.
Timeline
References
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