Blog #12- Outline

Intro:
Discuss Academic Dishonesty in general and its prevalence. Introduce the subject of academic dishonesty among college athletes and the application of Neutralization Theory to understanding why athletes cheat. REVISION to first rough draft: give specific instances of why academic dishonesty of athletes is so popular e.g. stricter requirements set down by NCAA, yet the increasing graduation rate and how does that line up with the increasing focus that is put on sports at many schools- it just does not line up
Body:
1. Discussion of the Neutralization Theory and the controversy that exists between the studies done by Bouville and Storch.
2. Specific Cases such as FSU and Sports Illustrated case involving cheating on SATs; analyze the cases as to whether or not they fit in with the Storch interpretation of Neutralization Theory or Bouville's.
3. Talk about (using Dowling) how academics have come second to athletics in some colleges. (use statistic regarding how long it takes for an athlete to graduate in most cases) This causes the athletic programs to become too powerful and it undermines the academic basis of the institution.
4. Talk about how the athletes are influenced by the corrupt nature that has inevitably and undeniably become a part of college athletics. Introduce the idea that regardless of whether or not an athlete neutralizes his behavior (based on the application or non-application of the Neutralization Theory), the athletes behavior is largely influenced and guided by the bad behavior of the higher authorities of college athletics.
Conclusion:
College athletics cultivates an environment that in a multitude of cases down plays the academic side of college and reinforces the concept of being an athlete first and a student second. This accompanied with the corruption that exists in college athletics becomes a lethal combination and may be the explanation of why academic dishonesty is so prevalent among college athletes.

Blog #11- The Case

The Case I am most interested in for my research paper is the FSU Cheating Scandal in which about 60 student athletes (varying from 10 different sports) were involved in academic dishonesty in an online course. This case got a good amount of press coverage and the transcripts from the NCAA hearing involving the president and other authorities of Florida State and the tutor/learning specialist at FSU, Brenda Monk. Brenda Monk supposedly encouraged the student athletes to cheat by providing them with answers to an online exam in a music history course. The allegations also say that the athletes allowed staff members to type their papers during the 2006/2007 school year.
The interesting thing with this case is that a good deal of the blame is put on the tutor/learning specialist rather than the athletes themselves. Even though about 10 scholarships were relinquished from athletes who were proven to have cheated, the question arises of whether that was really a just punishment considering that Brenda Monk (someone not really involved with athletics at FSU) has become the scapegoat for the whole incident. The case requires more investigating; however at first sight this is my interpretation of this case.
This case can fit in with the Neutralization Theory/ Corruption theme that I am hoping to develop in my paper. The corruption side can fit in with why Brenda Monk has become the face of the scandal and the academic dishonesty of the athletes can be used to better understand if the Neutralization Theory can accurately be applied in order to understand academic dishonesty among athletes.

Some useful links include articles about the scandal and the official transcripts:
1. /www.associatedcontent.com/article/1542209/florida_state_cheating_scandal_results_pg2.html?cat=14
2. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113840355
3. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/sports/15ncaa.html
4. http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/sports/20091015-ncaa.pdf

Blog #10- The Debate

The debate that I have centered my paper around is whether or not the Neutralization Theory can be applied to the rationalizations athletes have when it comes to committing acts of academic dishonesty. One side of the debate is Storch with is study of the application of Neutralization Theory directly to academic dishonesty among athletes. The other side of the debate comes from Bouville who insists that Neutralization Theory can not be applied to academic dishonesty, regardless of who commits it. Obviously the Storch argument is one of the center pieces of my paper; however the Bouville piece provides an interesting insight. In that piece he writes about how academic dishonesty cannot be studied in terms of Neutralization Theory because students know that cheating is wrong. One of the articles that I have found that discusses the key concepts of Neutralization Theory says that Neutralization Theory is contingent on the fact that the individual knows the difference between right and wrong. Bouville's argument about Neutralization Theory did get me thinking though that maybe students cheat because they think they are expected to and even though they know its wrong, that's why they still do it. After thinking about this, I started thinking about the public perception of athletes and how that must affect the athletes. Maybe the athletes get involved in bad behaviors because they feel that that is what they are expected to do. They are not expected to succeed morally, but rather to get involved in bad behaviors such as academic dishonesty or maybe something much worse. Using this idea and the Neutralization Theory, I feel that the two sides of the Neutralization Theory debate can almost be meshed in a way while introducing a new concept of public perception of athletics into the mix.

Here is the link for the transcripts from the FSU cheating case: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/sports/20091015-ncaa.pdf

Blog #9- My Project as of now

As of now, I feel that I have most of my key resources and a frame for my paper. I still need to find a couple of more resources because I feel that there must be some more out there that would be extremely valuable. I am going to look into some documentaries about student athletes and try to see if I can grab anything for a primary source from these resources. I am planning on using next week (spring break) to catch up on a lot of the reading I have to do for the books and articles that I have not had a chance to get to yet. I feel like there is plenty of information based on this topic or useful for this topic, it is my responsibility to actively seek it out. That's where my project stands now and I am excited to begin the final drafting stage!

Blog #8- Research Question in Conversation

I feel that one of the most prevalent and most interesting debates within the spectrum of college sports is the corruption that exists on many levels of college sports. It is true with college sports, and many other situations such as politics, that not all people who are involved are corrupt however in the eyes of the public a "few sour apples can spoil the bunch". With the direction of corruption that exists in college sports, I want to bring it down another level to research how people's perceptions of the college sports world effects the ways that athletes act. It has been researched and documented many times that athletes are more likely to commit academically dishonest acts than non athletes. These findings can be based on many different reasons as to why a student athlete would cheat; however I want to focus specifically on the Neutralization Theory and how it seems that student athletes unconsciously apply this method of rationalization to committing acts of academic dishonesty. I know that not all athletes cheat and not all college sports authorities are corrupt; however it is important to research why close to a majority of these people are involved in less then honest dealings. I will be using a study conducted by Storch et al. regarding the application of the Neutralization Theory, proposed by Gresham Sykes and David Matza to originally understand the reasons behind criminal's actions, to academic dishonesty. This study will provide the frame for my paper. However, I will also be using information from books such as, Unpaid Professionals by Andrew Zimbalist and Confessions of a Spoil Sport by William Dowling, to investigate the findings that other researchers/ journalists have found in regards to corruption in college sports. I have recently found a new article entitled "Learning Theories of Crime" by Robert Hale which focuses on the social theories ( specifically the Social Learning Theory and the Neutralization Theory) and I think that this resource (and the resources used as references for the writing) will be very useful in providing background for the theories behind social behavior and will make it easier to see how it can be applied to college sports and the actions of college athletes.