B BUS 373 Cost Accounting

Homework 2: Reflection Exercise on Day 2

DUE AT THE BEGI NNI NG OF CLASS ON DAY 3

Doogar Page 1 of 3 Spring 2014

In class on Day 2 you heard commentator Frank DeFords views on paying college athletes and discussed
the following hypothetical scenario:

Your team has been asked by the Student Government to prepare a report on a proposal that the UW pay
its student athletes a fair wage. In this reflection exercises, you are posed ten reflection tasks.


Task 1. Discuss the overall approach your report should take to be maximally informative to anyone who
would have to vote on the proposal.










Task 2. Identify the key issues you believe the report should touch upon to be useful to the voters.










Task 3. Identify two or three potential definitions of PAY that could plausibly be used for the purposes
of your report. (Here you should just provide a definition.)

B BUS 373 Cost Accounting
Homework 2: Reflection Exercise on Day 2
DUE AT THE BEGI NNI NG OF CLASS ON DAY 3

Doogar Page 2 of 3 Spring 2014
Task 4 What message would you be sending by using each of the definitions provided above?










Task 5. Identify your preferred definition, justifying your choice.








Task 6. Besides definitions, what principal conceptual challenges will you face in doing the cost benefit
analysis for the proposal?











Task 7. Besides definitions, what principal data challenges will you face in doing the cost benefit
analysis for the proposal?

B BUS 373 Cost Accounting
Homework 2: Reflection Exercise on Day 2
DUE AT THE BEGI NNI NG OF CLASS ON DAY 3

Doogar Page 3 of 3 Spring 2014
Task 8. (Stretch task 1) Suppose your analysis shows that each of the two revenue sports (basketball
and football) generate a surplus. Should the proposal to pay student athletes pass, after accounting for
any additional compensation paid to student workers directly associated with the basketball operations,
that sport would no longer contribute a positive surplus to the overall athletics department budget. The
athletic director, who is a no-nonsense pragmatist, has announced that should this be the case, he will
have no choice but to shut down the basketball program. How would you advise the President of the
University to evaluate the ADs position?











Task 9. (Stretch task 2) Besides financial considerations, as embodied in your cost-benefit analysis, are
there other important considerations that you would advise the President of the University to take into
account when deciding whether to pay student athletes?












Task 10. (Stretch task 3) Is the current system of college athletics truly immoral, as DeFord suggests?
Why or why not? Is the comparison to the pre-agency baseball days appropriate? Why or why not?