Proposal:
For my last project, I looked at the NCAA and how they could potentially allow student athletes to benefit off compensation for their added revenue to programs. While I understand I can not just keep using the same topic for each project, I would like to get opinions from Division One athletes. My research question would be “Why specific advantages are there for paying student athletes? Personally, I am not too sure if this question is a good enough research question.
As I have a friend on the Women’s Hockey team here, and my girlfriend plays soccer for the University of Minnesota, I believe I will be able to network and observe the practices of each sport. I can not rely on this, so I might just observe the Wisconsin Spring game for football which is open to the public. As I observe, I would like to see the environment to which they practice in. They sacrifice so much time for each practice, so I need to know what aspects of practice play into their motivation to get better.
I am not too sure how I will be structuring my writing for this project, but I think making a podcast would be rather interesting. With their exact words, it will add to my project. I have to think about this more when I finish my research.
The best way to answer my research question is by receiving multiple different opinions from Division One athletes. While just one opinion will help my research, it is not fair to assume they speak for the entire student athlete population. This needs to be done promptly. My research must be done during spring break, otherwise it will be hard to receive opinions for the athletes. Schedules are busy, so this will open up my time to talk with them.
Questions:
- What is the level of commitment for Division One sports?
- What benefits are there to receiving a paycheck rather than scholarship?
- Define amateurism.
- Why do student athletes need compensation with scholarship?
- During your recruiting process, would your interests change to receiving the most compensation instead of what is best for you?
- Will education be affected?
- Should athletes be allowed to negotiate their compensation?
Recruitment Script:
Hello,
I am performing research for my Writing and Money course at UW-Madison. I would like to know if I have permission to use your words for research. Nothing will be used against you.
If interested, I would like to interview you during spring break.
My topic is compensation for student athletes.
If you would like, I can use your name anonymously to not risk any chance of the NCAA finding out your interests.
Thank you,
Sam Eberhardt
Sam's Blog 