College football is one of the most loved and followed sports in the United States. College football has become so important that it brings a significant amount of revenue to the team's college or university, as well as reputation and credibility. However, due to the high income that collegiate football earns for universities, these are cases where inappropriate misconduct occurs and is overlooked by university authorities. For such cases, as well as other cases where misconduct is evident within college athletics teams or staff, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) was founded so that when ethical and inappropriate violations occur all Within collegiate sports, the correct set of sanctions is given in order to promote an ethical environment in which the rights of student-athletes are protected and excellence and fair play are expected (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2014, p. . 444). This article will seek to explain how the NCAA encourages collegiate football programs to develop a culture of ethics and compliance, while analyzing criticism that the NCAA is based more on compliance than ethical values, as well as the question of how student-athletes , college coaches and administrators can demonstrate a proactive response to ethics and compliance. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The NCAA was an organization founded in 1906 with the initial goal of protecting student-athletes from exploitation and danger. It is with the passage of time and the growth of collegiate sports themselves that the NCAA has also grown and its goals, as well as rules and policies, have expanded. Table 1 in the Appendix provides a list of principles of conduct expected of student-athletes and personnel involved in collegiate sports, and it can be clearly seen from this table that the NCAA does not tolerate unethical events within collegiate sports . In order to promote an ethical environment within collegiate sports, the NCAA not only establishes rules and policies regarding college teams, but also actively enforces them in cases of violations of the NCAA, where university authorities are ultimately deemed responsible for their lack of action and control over the football department within their university. The NCAA's role is critical in creating an ethical environment within collegiate sports. However, although the NCAA strictly enforces its own rules and policies and does not discriminate when it comes to imposing sanctions, it is still criticized by some for not being tough enough and by others for being too tough. Criticism of the NCAA is valid because there have been instances where NCAA investigators conducted their investigations inappropriately, as well as the indisputable increase in unethical conduct within collegiate football. For example, one of the criticisms of the NCAA concerns one of its former investigators, Ameen Najjar, who was reprimanded and fired by the NCAA for attempting to obtain and provide inappropriately and falsely collected court evidence. Although the NCAA quickly fired Najjar, the case still damaged the organization's credibility and reputation. Additionally, as previously mentioned, there have been increasing reports of ethical misconduct within collegiate football, such as match-fixing where the sport is fraudulently run in order to gain increased funds from a booster, who is a wealthy fan of the team that is willing to do it. make payments to see what he wants insideof a game. Thus, critics have support for the arguments they make when they complain about the lack of harshness of the sanctions imposed by the NCAA. Because of the damage Najjar has done to the NCAA's reputation, as well as the increase in sports game misconduct, it is even more significant that the NCAA fully and proactively enforces its rules and sanctions on colleges and universities that request it, without making the student-athlete team uncomfortable. It cannot be said to be a valid criticism that the NCAA relies more on compliance than ethical values, because the reason the NCAA even has a compliance suite is due to their emphasis on ethical values. The NCAA, an organization initially founded to embed ethical values ​​within collegiate sports, regardless of the criticism it receives, continues to actively ensure, to the best of its ability, that it enforces the correct rules for the situations required. Below are two examples of when the NCAA issued sanctions appropriately, and also show the investigative process the NCAA prefers to follow when making decisions, to ensure fairness is carried out. In 2011, allegations arose within the Penn State football team that a former assistant coach named Jerry Sandusky had "sexually assaulted at least eight young boys over the course of many years," and furthermore, it wasn't long before he found that the school showed a lack of action and contributed to why Sandusky was able to get away with it for so long. An initial report first came in 1998, alleging potential misconduct between the former assistant coach and an underage boy, and was dismissed for lack of evidence. However, in 2001, when a graduate assistant allegedly witnessed Sandusky sexually assault another boy and reported it to coach Joe Paterno, the school made the huge mistake of not taking the report further and investigating, when Paterno informed and denounced Sandusky. It was eventually discovered that Penn State authorities and officials, as well as the coach, Joe Paterno, were primarily responsible for the events within their football team, which cost Penn State "60 million dollars in fines, a four-year postseason ban barring eligibility for any postgames through 2016, and four-year scholarship reductions of ten scholarships per year for the football program” (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2014, p. 450).After these sanctions were imposed by the NCAA, the football team's ability to win games and practice effectively was damaged and was unable to compete successfully with other teams, the which shows how harsh the sanctions imposed by the NCAA can be. The most significant corrective measure taken against Penn State was to make them sign the Athletic Integrity Agreement, an agreement formulated specifically for Penn State authorities and staff. Penn State's signing of the Athletic Integrity Agreement allowed the NCAA to require the college to take certain corrective measures, such as "adding a compliance officer for the athletics department, creating a compliance council and a comprehensive dialogue program, adding accountability and certification for that accountability, implementing an external compliance review/certification process, drafting a code of conduct for athletics, conducting training and education, and appointing an independent supervisor of integrity of athletics” (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2014, p. 450) . You can see from the actions taken by the NCAA with Penn State, not only has the NCAA imposed sanctions on Penn.