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CITIZENSFORVOLUNTARYTRADE
OFFICIAL REPORTS
T
HE
S
EPARATION OF
S
PORT AND
S
TATE
:A
MATEURISM
,A
NTITRUST
,
AND THE
NCAA
CVT Reports No. 3/ April 2004
By S.M. O
LIVA
1
For more than a century, college athletics has challenged theabilities of student-athletes, entertained the public, and generatedbillions in revenue for sponsoring colleges and universities. Butalmost since the first college football game was played in the 1870s,
academic leaders have decried the influence “commercialism” overcollege sport, and sought to rid their campuses of“professionalism.” But as the power and influence of universitiesgrew in the twentieth century (notably at government-sponsoredinstitutions) college athletics expanded as well, and the influencesof commercialism and professionalism became an even largerproblem for the defenders of amateurism—the idea that collegestudents should not be compensated for athletic participation.Today college athletics face not only the ongoing debate ofcommercialism-versus-amateurism, but also the problem ofexternal regulation from other philosophies that claim to serve the“common good.” The most potent of these external threats comesfrom antitrust law, which seeks to rewrite the conventions ofcollege athletics to serve the interests of third-party, purelycommercial interests. The ethical confusion generated by antitrustonly compounds the existing ethical confusion generated by acentury of amateurism and its shifting priorities.In this report, I discuss the philosophy of amateurism as appliedby the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the impactof recent antitrust cases on amateurism and the NCAA, and the
1
S.M. Oliva is president of Citizens for Voluntary Trade. The author would like to thankSteve Czaban, Thomas Ciavarella, and Eric McErlain.
 
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overall issue of government-supported universities sponsoringathletic programs.
Historical Background
On May 18, 1874, students from Harvard University and
Canada’s McGill University played a two-game football series inCambridge, Massachusetts. One game was played under Harvard’sAssociation Football rules, an American variant of soccer. The othergame was played according to McGill’s rugby-style rules.
2
Therugby version proved so popular among the Harvard players thatthey taught the game to other eastern schools, and on June 4, 1875,Harvard played the first intercollegiate football match againstTufts. One year later, Harvard and Yale began their football rivalry
in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1876, America’s centennial year,student representatives from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, andColumbia formed the Intercollegiate Football Association (IFA) andadopted the first official rules for American football.Among the students at that first IFA meeting was Walter Camp,a Yale freshman. Camp would captain the Yale football team in his junior and senior seasons, but more importantly, he became thedominant figure in Yale athletics and American college football.Camp was credited with numerous rules innovations: Replacingthe rugby scrum with the set play from scrimmage, the down-and-distance system, and limiting each team to 11 players on the field.
3
Camp himself participated in every organized football rulescommittee from 1876 until his death in 1925. He also coached theYale team from 1888 thru 1892, compiling a record of 67 wins and just two losses.Throughout his football career, Camp remained thequintes
sential “amateur,” never playing or coaching for money.Camp earned his living as a New Haven businessman, eventuallybecoming president of a clock company. But he remained apassionate booster of Yale football throughout his life, in manyrespects servingas the forerunner of the modern athletic director.He also served as the sport’s most prominent cheerleader,
2
Rugby itself is a soccer variant, having been created in 1823 when a soccer player pickedup the ball and ran with it.
3
The 11-players-per-side rule was probably adopted from Canadian-style rugby.
 
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inventing the first “All-America team” to boost media interest.Camp’s football advocacy was grounded in student (and alumni)control. Camp and his supporters vehemently resisted efforts bythe Yale administration and faculty to control or abolish football.This resistance set the stage for conflicts at schools throughout thecountry, mostly in the east at this point, over the proper role offootball within an academic institution.The conflict would spread in the late nineteenth century asCamp’s disciples were sent to schools throughout the country toteach and coach the game.
4
The most important of these earlydisciples was Amos Alonzo Stagg, an 1888 Yale graduate, whobecame the first paid professional football coach in 1892, when thetwo-year-old University of Chicago hired him as athletics director,giving him a tenured faculty position and carte blanche to build awinning football program. Chicago president William Harper sawa traveling football team as a means of promoting his newuniversity.
5
Chicago’s early success led to the creation of the firstintercollegiate athletic conference—the Western Conference—in1895, which later became the BigTen Conference.
6
Stagg’s reign atChicago lasted until 1933
7
, when he was forced out by a reformistuniversity president who eventually abolished the football
program, citing conflicts with the university’s academic mission.
8
In contrast to Chicago’s Harper, most university presidents ofthe time did not embrace football. Charles Eliot, Harvard’spresident from 1875 thru 1909, was a leading critic of the sport.Like many academics, Eliot considered football too violent andcommercial (even in the late 1800s) for a university of Harvard’sreputation. In 1885 a faculty committee urged Eliot to ban the sportentirely, but that only lasted a year. Even with Eliot and the
4
“Sent” is an accurate term. Colleges that were building football programs often askedCamp to send a knowledgeable Yale alum (sometimes Camp himself) to come andorganize the team.
5
The University of Chicago was founded in 1890 by the American Baptist EducationSociety and businessman John D. Rockefeller.
6
The original Western Conference consisted of Chicago, Northwestern, Illinois, Michigan,Minnesota, Purdue, and Wisconsin. All but Chicago remain in the Big Ten Conference(which actually has eleven members.)
7
Stagg coached at three other schools after leaving Chicago before retiring in 1960 at age98. He won 314 games as a four-year college head coach, currently the eighth-highest totalin NCAA history.
8
Chicago reestablished its football program in 1968. Today the school competes in NCAADivision III.
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