Reference no: EM133746360

Summarize: What does Eitzen mean by "amateurism as an exploitive ideology"? Mateurism is a romantic notion with lofty ideals. In reality, though, sports organizations have sometimes used this concept to exploit the labor of amateurs while amassing considerable wealth for themselves. Two prime examples of thisform of exploitation in sport are found in the prevailing amateur ideology promoted by the dominant organization in the Olympic Games and in big-time American college sports.

I will use the latter as a case study to illustrate the exploitation of athletes through the use of the amateur concept (the following argument is taken primarily from Sack 1980; Sage 1985; and Sage 1987). The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was formed in 1905 (under a different name) to deal with a number of problems that plagued collegiate sports (a high injury rate in football, unstable recruiting practices, and the lack of uniform rules). The NCAA has become a cartel that completely controls the mass commercial entertainment industry that is collegiate big-timesport. The NCAA and its members (the universities) make large sums of money from their enterprises.