Post #2

When thinking about refining my topic, i considered researching the profitability of college sports. At first thought i did not see much of an argument in that topic, because sports programs are either profitable or not. In an accounting sense, sports programs will either make or lose money, and you cant argue with a spreadsheet. However, college sports can be profitable (or unprofitable) to a university in more ways than just on their bank roll. Sports programs have a great deal to do with a university's image, so they can be beneficial even if they do not make money.

I believe my topic is going to be the benefits and detriments of college sports. This will include both financial aspects, as well as how sports programs can affect a university's image. The image or reputation of a university will undoubtedly affect many other things. Depending on the information I am able to gather, I will argue that college sports are either beneficial or detrimental to colleges and universities.

A google search for "benefits of college sports" brought back a plethora of news and magazine articles that mention how college sports do a great deal to build the cultural side of colleges, can bring in more taxpayer dollars, but also that colleges must be wary of being in the "entertainment business".

These are two links that generally outline the issues that i could be dealing with when researching this topic.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/03/1457042/hazards-benefits-of-sports.html
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/2010-01-13-ncaa-athletics-subsidies_N.htm

A scan of the book "

The business of sports: 

a primer for journalists (Google eBook)" made it appear that the book mentioned many of the topics I am interested in, and it maybe worth reading into.


Undoubtedly this should be a fine topic. There is major controversy as to whether or not public universities should invest so much into their sports programs, when their mission should be education. I look forward to discovering the pros and cons of college sports programs 

Topics I am Considering for My Class Project, and Why

For the topic of my final project, I am very interested in researching college sports as a revenue stream. Being an avid sports fan, I assumed the large schools with big time sports programs made millions of dollars off of their teams, because it certainly appears that way from the outside.  Having never looked into the subject, I was unaware that most schools lose money on their sports programs, until it was mentioned in class. I am very interested in finding out more about the financial aspect of college sports.  It would also be interesting to research the sponsorship of college sports teams by private corporations such as Nike, Under Armour, and Easton. I hope to select one of the two topics, or something similar.