ArticleAbstract Assignments 05 - Essay Example

The NACC Cartel and Competitive Balance in College Football The NACC Cartel and Competitive Balance in College Football is an article by E. Woodrow Eckard published in 1988. The article labors to investigate the hypothesis that activities of NACC prohibit just competition in the game of football. It uses data gathered 25 years before and after the establishment of NACC in 1952. National Collegiate Athletic Association regulates inter-college football competitions among other athletic sports. The author criticizes regulatory actions of the NACC as constituting a cartel that makes it hard for weak teams to improve and protects strong teams from competition (Woodrow, 347).

His research question is: How does football regulation by NACC constitute a cartel and hinder intercollegiate competition?The study used both empirical and theoretical methods. The author used data collected from published articles and books. He also used raw data from NACC Football Guide and other sport regulatory bodies. The article makes reference to several books and scholarly articles containing analyzed data. Researcher also made use of raw data collected from the field; especially score sheets on football progress from colleges.

Literature on Cartel Enforcement and Competitive Balance are majorly theoretical. Empirical data were obtained from interviews and observations. For example, the author acknowledges valuable comments from seminar participants and referees from CU-Denver and WEA meetings.The article concludes in favor of the research hypothesis. Indeed NACC constitutes an economic cartel that bars fair competition in football. The researcher successfully uses data collected over a period of half a century to put across this point (Woodrow, 369).

By elaborately analyzing the structure and functioning of NACC, the author effectively gives a hint to where concerned authorities should streamline to reinstate fairness in college football. However, the report gives too much weight on mathematical implications of its findings without lucid explanations. This implies that the report may not be of help to many who need to refer from it. Only those with technical knowhow on its exaggerated mathematical analysis make sense of the report.Work CitedWoodrow, Eckard.

“The NACC Cartel and Competitive Balance in College Football” Kluwer Academic Publishers 282.13 (1998): 347-369