[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Sports Ethic
Unethical behavior among coaches, student-athletes, and spectators is clearly escalating. Mahony, Fink, and Pastore found both the number of major NCAA violations and the severity of those violations have been continually increasing. This finding is consistent with the number of media reports detailing incidents of unethical behavior exhibited by administrators, coaches, and student-athletes . Incidents of unethical behavior are not just confined to administrators, coaches and student-athletes. For example, inappropriate behavior by spectators at the University of Notre Dame prompted the Big East Conference Commissioner to remind all conference institutions of their responsibilities regarding crowd conduct . These incidents and the others similar in nature have prompted many leaders in higher education to call for intercollegiate athletic reform and improved ethical behavior by sport administrators, coaches, student-athletes, and fans.
One difficulty in initiating this ethical reform is the lack of consensus on what constitutes ethical behavior. Shea believes that the study of ethics attempts to answer the question "Why?" within instances that involve acts that may be judged right or wrong, good or bad. Because the study of ethics deals with value judgments, and the validity of value judgments can be subjected to scrutiny, the most important question is: "What makes decisions or actions right or wrong?" Furthermore, what can be done to both provide information and encourage individuals to make ethically sound decisions? The need to answer these questions and to encourage correct actions has lead many professions to establish codes of ethics.
Due to the increases in unethical behavior in intercollegiate athletics and wide range of ethical dilemmas faced in this setting, it is critical to explore what can be done to promote ethical behavior of groups associated with intercollegiate sport. In reaction to the increased scrutiny mentioned earlier, organizations have established codes and rules intended to govern the conduct of those working within intercollegiate athletics......
