How to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too: Strategic Indulgence in Big-Time Collegiate Sports Among Academically Successful Students

Abstract

Past research on academic success emphasizes the need to avoid pleasurable nonacademic activities. In the context of enjoying big-time collegiate sports, we examined the notion that students, especially academically successful ones, may strategically indulge in sports games to resolve the conflict with academic pursuit. After confirming that high- (vs. low-) grade point average (GPA) students indeed found game-related activities less disruptive (Npilot = 325), we proceeded to study whether strategic indulgence or single-minded avoidance was their preferred means to resolve the game–study conflict. High- (vs. low-) GPA students exhibited three features of strategic indulgence. They were more sensitive to the goodness of the opportunity to partake in collegiate sports (NStudy1 = 216), engaged in compensatory planning to study on nongame days (NSudy2 = 409), and actively engaged and enjoyed the game-related activities (Nstudy3 = 530). These results suggest that understanding strategic indulgence in tempting activities would enrich our knowledge of long-term goal pursuit.