Friday, December 3, 2010

Would Women's basketball really get more exposure if they dunked??

I've been an avid fan of women's basketball since I was in grade school. Just seeing the game that I love played by other women like myself is uplifting. A lot of people don't have the same views I have about women's basketball. The WNBA has been on the rocks of demolishing these last couple of years, because people just don't watch the sport. How can we make this better? Would females dunking really change the way female basketball is viewed? In my opinion I really don't think so..People will still have the same mind set that womens basketball is to passive and not aggressive enough. I would love to see to see women dunking the ball, alley-oops, and 360's but it really is not genetically impossible for every women to dunk. I hope womens basketball can be revived . Is going to complicated to figure out how........

Title IX..Fair for other Division 1 male sports?

Don't get me wrong. I'm very forunate and blessed that Title IX was created. Because I would'nt be at the University of Texas on a track & field scholarship. Title IX gave women's athletics the same oppurnitues has males in college athletics. The reason I ask is it fair to other male sports with exception of football, is because they hardly recieve any scholarships. Division 1 football is rewarded eighty-five fulls scholarships. While swimming & diving result with a measly 10 scholarships, swimming and diving have about 40 people on their teams. Track & field is the same way. They are only awarded 12 scholarships, and they have close to 40 people as well. A lot of these athletes are joining sports teams and putting in numerous hours on the field for no finical help with their school. Even though football is the revenue making sport, they dont need that many scholarships to be successful. You can only have eleven people on the field at one time during a game. Half the people that have scholarships will never see the field. In my opinion their needs to be a change in the system. So NCAA athletics can be completely fair across the board.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

When Sport is taking too far...At the end of the day it's still just a game

Sport can really affect people's moral judgement. At the the end of the day it's all just a game, but some people really dont feel that way, especially "fans". Last weeknd Boise State was one of the few undefeated divison 1 football teams left in the nation. Looking for their first chance to play in a National Championship game. In order to do that they had to beat #19 Nevada. Long story short, Field goal kicker Kyle Brotzman choked on not one but two field goal oppurtinities that cost Boise State the game, and the hopes of playing in a BCS title game. After the game Brotzman had reported death threats, and thousands of disgusting facebook comments left on his page. Where do we draw the line? At the end of the day , this is still a kid who just had a bad athletic day...get over it. Sport can really mess with peoples morals. I bet if that was their son or daughter who was the cause of a loss of a game, you would think twice about bashing.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Cam "Cheating" Newton... Will football players ever do things the correct and ethical way?

Webster Dictionary defines ungrateful has, "showing no gratitude and making a poor return to a good gesture". This is how I would like to define a numeorus amount of Division 1 football players. These players are given the oppurtinity to go to school for free, and also play a sport that most of them love for four more years. If someone gave you the oppurtunity like that, wouldnt you try to do everything in your power to put full effort on the field, classroom, and have respect to everyone and everything in the institution? Cam Newton is the perfect example taking a great oppurtunity and wasting it. Newton was caught academically cheating THREE times at the University of Florida and also was arrested for stealing a laptop from a dorm room. The question I ask is, " Should he still have the oppurnity to compete in athletics?" What lesson is being taught if the athlete can just swich schools and continue to represent the NCAA? This in my opinion makes the NCAA look really bad. It gives of the assumption that they just care about athletics. Cam Newton is under a lot of scrutiny because of these incidents. I feel he deserves every single bit of bad press.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Football "student athletes" coming to college just to PLAY

I was very disturbed to learn that less than half of all our football athletes at the University of Texas do not graduate. We have one of the worst gradutae rates in the entire NCAA. It really raises my eyebrows to the athletic department. It seem like they care about the athlete until the January of their senior year, than they say Goodbye. I've seen first hand of this happening. After the Longhorns went to the National Championship game of last year and lost, the next semester, numerous amounts of seniors were missing in action(from school). Dr. Todd put all of things in perspecitive that has me very dissapointed in the NCAA and the University of Texas. Our mission statement is to achieve "academic excellence", how our we achieving this if we have academic counselors, academic teachers, coaches, and most important the athletes who are doing the bare minium for the athletes just to PLAY? In my opinion the NCAA needs to increase the minium requirements for athletes to be able to compete. If that means the less talented are going to be benched...oh well. "Academic Excellence" comes first!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Transgender Athlete in NCAA Basketball, is it fair????

First Openly Trangender NCAA athleteWhen I first heard the story that women was starting the process of turning into a man, it made me question ethics. Is it fair than an overly masculine female who tell "his" teammates to call him "he" and pronounce his name "Kye" instead of "Kay" to still continue to play a womens sport. If I was the teammate of this athlete, I would feel very uncomfortable in the locker room. Knowing the fact that a man is watching me dress, taking showers, and sleeping in the same hotel rooms would make me self conscious. The NCAA allowed her to continue to play because she hasnt started her testosterone therapy yet. This always makes me question some things. If she wanted to become a male so bad why wait until after the season to start? She said in an interview that she probably already has a lot more testosterone than good amount of males. I really do not find this situation to be very female for the women athlete, having to guard a MAN on defense is pretty difficult.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Violence in Sport : Is the NFL Going to become a Professional Flag Football League?


This Wednesday in class we talked about the violence in sport. Dr.Todd used cock fighting and dog fighting to explain to the class that the purpose of those fights are to place harm on the other animal in the fight. These types of fights are very similar to the national football league. Football players are at risk everyday to get in injury (life threatening actually). So the question I ask is, “Should the NFL go to a non-physical game?”  In my opinion I shouldn’t, it would take away from the past time of America’s favorite game! Even the new rule that the NFL has enforced {A player will be suspended are heavenly fined for flagrant hits to the head of an opponent} is a little ridiculous. Fans and players of all types love to see players make big plays, which mean BIG HITS. The players can’t even play their type of game, because in the back of their mind it’s the conscience of being fined for making a big play. NFL needs to go back to the drawing board of making rules, because the NFL will eventually be called the NFFL (National Flag Football League)