Athletic Conference Research Articles

TV Networks for College Sports: Implications for Institutional Subsidies.

University athletics because of its reporting structure, regulation by the NCAA, and relationship to the academic enterprise of institutions, provides a unique look into postsecondary institutional behavior. Using a difference-in-difference design, this study tests the introduction of new television networks dedicated to college sports on institutional subsidy levels for athletics. Overall, our findings show that institutions are responsive to the introduction of new college-sports-dedicated television networks. When considering institutions in the Power Five athletic conferences, we find an average decline in subsidy levels of approximately $1.2 million. When considering different types of subsidies, we find significant declines in direct subsidies and student fees, but no significant change for indirect subsidies.

It effects everything we do: Collegiate athlete’s perceptions of sport-related travel

ABSTRACT Conference realignment is the practice of universities moving from one athletic conference to another in hopes of increased media exposure and revenue. One aspect of conference realignment that does not garner as much attention is the travel demands that are placed upon the athletes. The purpose of the study was to understand how athletes perceive the effects of travel on their performance on the playing field and in the classroom. Football players from the Big Ten and Big 12 and hockey players from the WCHA and Hockey East conferences completed a qualitative questionnaire about their perceptions about the travel demands of their sport. Results indicated that most of the athletes felt the travel had a negative impact on their athletic performance, academics, and personal relationships. The findings could be useful for university and athletic administrators when deciding whether to change conferences for one that may require longer travel distances.

Leadership Journeys: Reflections on Experiences and Challenges from Women in Academic Leadership

Although the number of women holding administrative positions in higher education has risen over the past two decades, the gender gap in academic leadership in higher education institutions persists. Barriers exist to prevent women from entering these positions, including those related to workplace culture and personal considerations. This qualitative exploratory study interviewed 38 women leaders in positions ranging from Assistant Dean to President at universities in a mid-west athletic conference. It asked the following research questions: How did they enter academic leadership? What were their experiences in leadership positions? What advice would they offer to other women considering leadership positions and what skills should they foster? These women described diverse journeys into their current academic leadership positions. Although every woman described a unique journey, few entered academia with the goal of transitioning from faculty to administration and instead became accidental leaders. Their experiences in these leadership positions included accomplishments, especially around student success, but also tangible, intangible, and self-imposed inequities. They recognized the value leadership development including formal mentoring, informal advice, and systemic training but also indicated receiving inadequate amounts of this development. This study offers implications to recognize, support, and foster the presence of women in academic leadership positions.

Did court dismiss fraudulent misrepresentation claims filed by student‐athletes on squash team?

The men's and women's varsity squash teams at Brown University played in the Ivy League, a Division I athletic conference. Both teams were composed of students who joined the squad after enrolling at Brown or who matriculated with the anticipation of playing on the team. The ones who matriculated with the intent of playing received a recruitment offer or some form of application support (typically a recommendation letter from the coach).

There is no nil in NIL: examining the social media value of student-athletes’ names, images, and likeness

ABSTRACT This research contributes to our understanding of the name, image, and likeness (NIL) value of student-athletes’ social media profiles. In Study 1, we scraped data from the Twitter (N f = 3,880; N b = 757) and Instagram (N f = 2,223; N b = 647) profiles of male collegiate-level football and basketball athletes. In Study 2, we scraped data from the Twitter (N = 1,058; posts = 20,978) and Instagram (N = 1,410; posts = 16,453) profiles of all student-athletes of four (two top-tier and two mid-tier) representative universities. Applying influencer marketing industry standard rates, the current research shows that student-athletes possess NIL value. Results further indicate student-athletes’ NIL value has a relationship with, but is not solely generated at, the institution level. Thus, this research contributes to student-athlete personal branding knowledge, and informs discussion around policy and industry practice related to student-athletes, university athletics departments, athletic conferences, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

315 Athlete Sleep and Mental Health: Differences by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity

Abstract Introduction Sleep is important for athletic and academic performance, injury risk and recovery, and physical and mental health. However, athletes commonly have poor and insufficient sleep, which may be worsened by their inflexible schedules, stress, traveling, and timing of competition. To date, little is known about the relationship between sleep problems and risk for mental health problems in college student athletes. Almost nothing is known about gender, racial and ethnic sleep disparities in this group. The current study aimed to examine the cross-sectional relationships between sleep disorder symptoms and mental health symptoms, further examining differences by gender, race, and ethnicity. Methods Student athletes (N = 1033) from four universities within the Pacific Athletic Conference (PAC-12) were surveyed using previously-validated mental health questionnaires. Since few individuals self-identified as Asian, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, or “Other,” the race variable was recoded into three groups: White, Black, and Other Underrepresented groups. Gender, race, and ethnicity differences on Athlete Sleep Screening Questionnaire (ASSQ) total scores were examined using a three separate MANOVAs. Next, sleep-disorder symptoms were classified as clinically relevant (n=174) or not (n=733) based on established cutoff values on the ASSQ. Gender and sleep disorder differences on mental health total scores were examined using a MANOVA. Results Women athletes reported significantly worse sleep disorder symptoms as a whole. In addition, Black athletes had worse sleep disorder symptoms. There was a trend for women with sleep problems to have higher PC-PTSD scores than women without sleep problems. In addition, athletes in the Other Underrepresented race group with sleep problems also had greater depression, PTSD, and psychotic symptom severity than White or Black student athletes. There was also a trend for Hispanic athletes with sleep disorder symptoms to have greater ADHD symptom severity. Conclusion To further examine individual differences in specific components of sleep symptoms, sleep duration, insomnia symptoms, medication, quality will be reported in the poster presentation. Future studies are needed to understand whether frequency and chronicity of athletic and external stressors, explain elevations in sleep and other psychiatrics symptoms in student athletes. Support (if any) This project was funded by a PAC-12, Mental Health Coordinating Unit Grant.

There Is No Nil in NIL: Examining the Social Media Value of Student-Athletes’ Names, Images, and Likeness

This research contributes to our understanding of the name, image, and likeness (NIL) value of student-athletes’ social media profiles. In Study 1, we scraped data from the Twitter (Nf = 3,880; Nb =757) and Instagram (Nf = 2,223; Nb = 647) profiles of male collegiate-level football and basketball athletes. In Study 2, we scraped data from the Twitter (N =1,058; posts = 20,978) and Instagram (N = 1,410; posts = 16,453) profiles of all student-athletes of four (two top-tier and two mid-tier) representative universities. Applying influencer marketing industry standard rates, the current research shows that student-athletes possess NIL value. Results further indicate student-athletes’ NIL value has a relationship with, but is not solely generated at, the institution level. Thus, this research contributes to student-athlete personal branding knowledge and informs discussion around policy and industry practice related to student-athletes, university athletics departments, athletic conferences, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Time from Start of Quarantine to SARS-CoV-2 Positive Test Among Quarantined College and University Athletes - 17 States, June-October 2020.

To safely resume sports, college and university athletic programs and regional athletic conferences created plans to mitigate transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Mitigation measures included physical distancing, universal masking, and maximizing outdoor activity during training; routine testing; 10-day isolation of persons with COVID-19; and 14-day quarantine of athletes identified as close contacts* of persons with confirmed COVID-19. Regional athletic conferences created testing and quarantine policies based on National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) guidance (1); testing policies varied by conference, school, and sport. To improve compliance with quarantine and reduce the personal and economic burden of quarantine adherence, the quarantine period has been reduced in several countries from 14 days to as few as 5 days with testing (2) or 10 days without testing (3). Data on quarantined athletes participating in NCAA sports were used to characterize COVID-19 exposures and assess the amount of time between quarantine start and first positive SARS-CoV-2 test result. Despite the potential risk for transmission from frequent, close contact associated with athletic activities (4), more athletes reported exposure to COVID-19 at social gatherings (40.7%) and from roommates (31.7%) than they did from exposures associated with athletic activities (12.7%). Among 1,830 quarantined athletes, 458 (25%) received positive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results during the 14-day quarantine, with a mean of 3.8 days from quarantine start (range=0-14 days) until the positive test result. Among athletes who had not received a positive test result by quarantine day 5, the probability of having a positive test result decreased from 27% after day 5 to <5% after day 10. These findings support new guidance from CDC (5) in which different options are provided to shorten quarantine for persons such as collegiate athletes, especially if doing so will increase compliance, balancing the reduced duration of quarantine against a small but nonzero risk for postquarantine transmission. Improved adherence to mitigation measures (e.g., universal masking, physical distancing, and hand hygiene) at all times could further reduce exposures to SARS-CoV-2 and disruptions to athletic activities because of infections and quarantine (1,6).

What NCAA v. Alston Means for Professional Sports Leagues

The Supreme Court in Alston held that the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its member conferences violated the antitrust laws by collectively restricting, in the name of amateurism, the education-related benefits offered to college athletes. While the Court accepted that NCAA amateurism serves consumers by offering a brand of athletic contests distinct from professional sports, it found the NCAA’s fluctuating and incoherent definition of amateurism insufficient to justify the breadth of its student-athlete compensation rules. As a result, student athletes will now have access to, for example, graduate or vocational school tuition, payments for academic tutoring, paid post-eligibility internships, and similar education-related benefits, as long as these benefits are not tantamount to a professional athlete’s salary. Despite this defeat for the NCAA joint venture, the Court recognized the value of joint ventures generally, and clarified the framework for evaluating their competitive impact. Specifically referring to sports leagues, the unanimous Alston Court warned the lower courts against reflexively condemning joint venture arrangements that are necessary to create a product and advised deference to the business judgments of venture participants. Mining that vein of thought, this essay identifies three significant take-aways for professional sports leagues from the Alston decision: (1) “quick look” review is generally not appropriate to summarily disapprove sports league coordinated conduct under the antitrust laws; (2) “rule of reason” antitrust analysis does not require sports leagues to structure their business in the “least restrictive” way; and (3) to the extent a professional sports league is more analogous to an individual college athletic conference, as opposed to the entire NCAA, member clubs may have more latitude to coordinate their conduct without violating the antitrust laws.

Reframing the Collegiate Facilities Arms Race: The Looming Impact of NIL and Conference Realignment

Amidst the backdrop of an ongoing global pandemic, the summer of 2021 brought forth two events teetering the Division I college sport landscape at the precipice of unprecedented change due to two fundamental shifts: the first being the opening of revenue streams to collegiate athletes through use of name, image and likeness (NIL), and the second being the latest round of athletic conference realignment. With the impacts of these changes just beginning to be manifested, it is important to consider how these potentially seismic shifts in the collegiate landscape may influence existing issues of prior scholarly examination as well as potential new areas of research. As such, the purpose of this paper is to identify areas of potential future research and inquiry associated with the NIL and conference realignment that could be addressed from the facilities perspective.

The Chance to Be Champions: Discrediting the Myth That Transgender Athletes Are Not Damaging to Women’s Sports

Have you ever stopped to consider whether unfair competition in sports can be a form of discrimination? The federal case Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools grapples with this very question. This case tells the story of three high school track and field athletes – Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, and Chelsea Mitchell – whose journeys to becoming champions were cut short when the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) allowed transgender female athletes to run in the girl’s events and dominate the competition. On May 15, 2020, the Civil Rights Office of the U.S. Department of Education determined that the CIAC’s policy discriminated against women and violated Title IX, a federal law designed to provide equal opportunity for girls and women in federally funded educational institutions. While this decision is a small victory for female athletes in Connecticut, across the country the transgender athlete controversy is far from over. The question remains whether it is possible to provide gender inclusion while maintaining a level playing field for cisgender athletes in sports. There is a significant amount of research to suggest that transgender athletes competing according to their gender identity threaten to dissolve women’s sports as we know it. Both history and traditional values illustrate that the word “sex” means a person’s biological makeup as male or female, and redefining its meaning to be gender inclusive opens the door for case law and politics to manipulate the legal protections afforded female athletes. Science and psychology provide clear evidence that men and women have biological distinctions that keep individuals from ever fully changing their birth sex and that transgender female athletes put the most elite cisgender female athletes at a big disadvantage. Ultimately, the goal of this article is to explain how protections for transgender female athletes in the name of “equality” actually set back the women’s rights movement and could permanently eliminate the social and economic benefits that women receive when participating in competitive sports.

Predicting the 2016 US News & World Report rankings using a reputation and prestige model

IntroductionThe objective was to determine institutional, faculty, and student attributes predictive of the 2016 US News & World Report (USNWR) pharmacy rankings and to explore if student attributes modify program rankings. MethodsInstitutional attributes and student and faculty resources and outcomes were obtained from various sources. Regression analyses predicted rankings. ResultsUSNWR rankings were higher for older programs, those located at an academic health center or classified as a research-intensive institution, and members of a Power Five athletic conference. Number of fulltime equivalent faculty, Pharmacy College Admissions Test composite percentile, pharmacy practice h-index score, funding rank, and first time North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) pass rate predicted higher rankings. Nearly 45% of programs in the empiric models left or entered the top 25 rankings compared with the existing USNWR method (range 31 place increase to 22 place decrease). Among USNWR top 25 ranked programs, 16 remained in the top 25 in all four empiric models and three were not included in any of the models. Six USNWF unranked programs moved into the top 25 by one or more of the empiric models. ConclusionsFaculty and student attributes significantly impact program rankings, while impact of institutional attributes is negligible if independent of student and faculty attributes. Faculty numbers and productivity influence USNWR rankings more than student academic preparation and success on NAPLEX. These findings will inform efforts to improve the validity of the USNWR rankings and identify programs that are both prestigious and of high quality.

Geographical Accuracy of Place-Based Collegiate Athletic Conference Names in the United States

College athletic competition constitutes a significant aspect of life in the United States. Virtually, every institution of higher learning fields intercollegiate teams in a multitude of sporting activities. Most colleges and universities join an organization, a conference of similar institutions, to enhance competition. Some also join single-sport conferences in order to participate in sports that their principal conferences do not accommodate. All conferences have names, often place-based names. Many place-based names convey their conference locations well; others fail in this regard. This essay examines the names of all 184 baccalaureate-level conferences in the United States, excludes those conference names that do not have a place basis, and divides the remaining conferences into two categories: those whose names are place appropriate and those that are not.

Conceptualizing “Small-Time” College Athletics: The Fracture of the “Little Nineteen” Conference in the 1930s

Abstract The Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC), formed in the early 1900s, oversaw athletic relations among most of Illinois’s colleges and universities. At one point, the so-called Little Nineteen had over twenty members. In the 1930s, though, the conference fell apart, largely due to internecine conflicts over freshman eligibility. The IIAC’s fracture is a case study illustrating the impact of the Great Depression on small-college athletics. In particular, it shows how private schools sought to distinguish themselves both athletically and educationally from publicly funded institutions, including teachers colleges and junior colleges. Ultimately, by forming a new conference in 1937—and by limiting competition against public institutions or nonaccredited colleges—these small, private “liberal arts colleges” helped conceptualize a distinctive type of small-time intercollegiate athletics that rejected big-time athletic commercialization.

“This Is Ghetto Row”: Musical Segregation in American College Football

AbstractA historical overview of college football's participants exemplifies the diversification of mainstream American culture from the late nineteenth century to the twenty-first. The same cannot be said for the sport's audience, which remains largely white American. Gerald Gems maintains that football culture reinforces the construction of American identity as “an aggressive, commercial, white, Protestant, male society.” Ken McLeod echoes this perspective in his description of college football's musical soundscape, “white-dominated hard rock, heavy metal, and country music—in addition to marching bands.” This article examines musical segregation in college football, drawing from case studies and interviews conducted in 2013 with university music coordinators from the five largest collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. These case studies reveal several trends in which music is used as a tool to manipulate and divide college football fans and players along racial lines, including special sections for music associated with blackness, musical selections targeted at recruits, and the continued position of the marching band—a European military ensemble—as the musical representative of the sport. These areas reinforce college football culture as a bastion of white strength despite the diversity among player demographics.

The Psychological And Academic Impact Of Athletic Injury

PURPOSE: Awareness and research on the mental health of student athletes has been rapidly increasing and recently become a primary focus of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Athletic Trainers’ Association. Although many see athletes as individuals who have grit and strength, the impact of injury and sport can have drastic effects on an athlete’s mental health, as well as academic performance and social participation. Without proper support, critical negative secondary effects could occur during and after the rehabilitation process. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the psychological and academic impact of athletic injury, specifically NCAA Division III athletes. METHODS: A total of 34 collegiate student-athletes participated in the study (19 male, 15 female) from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Participants completed a mixed-methods questionnaire on the perceived mental impact of previous or current sport injuries. The questions required short answer and likert scale rating responses. A seven layer thematic analysis using three coders and triangulation to control for bias was used to analyze short answer responses and develop primary and subthemes. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Thematic analysis revealed major changes occurred in: Mental Health, Physical Health, Daily Habits, and Perceived Social Support following sport injury. Critical findings included: 38% of participants perceived negative social interactions from coaches, 35% had symptoms of depression, 74% had some type of emotional disruption, and 29% had a reduction in academic motivation. CONCLUSIONS: High reports of depressive feelings, overall disruption to emotions and habits, and lack of social support alongside these mental health changes are a cause for great concern for collegiate athletes and their institutions. It is recommended that NCAA institutions utilize sports psychologists or mental health professionals to allow athletes to have a larger support system and work through mental health and academic issues they may face.

Gender Equity in NESCAC Varsity Athletics and Title IX Compliance

Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments to the 1964 Civil Rights Act now includes a proportionality standard, that is, the percentage of women who participate in sports at a university should approximate the percentage of female undergraduates at the school. The authors examine whether New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) schools were compliant with the proportionality standard during the 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-17 academic years. The results show that practically all NESCAC schools were in compliance with the proportionality standard all three years, but only when 5 percentage points were added to the school’s percentage of women who participate in varsity sports.

Glenn Killinger, All American: Penn State's World War I Sports Hero

Glenn Killinger, All American: Penn State's World War I Sports Hero

Preventing Sexual Violence on College Campuses: An Investigation of Current Practices of Conducting Background Checks on Student-Athletes

Instances of sexual violence against women on college campuses is a major concern for university administrators. One approach to reducing instances of sexual violence on college campuses has been conducting background checks with more focused attention on student-athletes, though this approach is not without risk. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate current practices of conducting background checks on student-athletes, and to present risk management strategies to reducing sexual violence on campus. Through a systematic data collection approach that included Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests of NCAA Division I public institutions, we found the implementation of background checks for student-athletes is a widely accepted practice, where policies were mandated by the athletic conference, state administrative law, or within the university. Recommendations for addressing sexual violence on campus include comprehensive sexual violence prevention education for students and student-athletes, including bystander intervention training. Additionally, if schools opt to utilize background checks, policies and procedures must be created to ensure due process, consistency for admissions, and staff training.

Observational Study of Prevention and Intervention Strategies That Help Speed Return to Play Post-Concussion in Division I College Football

ObjectiveWe present evidence that a neurovisual oriented training program is associated with decreased concussion incidence and faster return to play (RTP) post injury in this observational cohort study.BackgroundSports concussion has been in the public eye and has been associated with heightened fear concerning playing football and other collision based sports. Protecting from concussion and rehabilitating the brain after a concussion is a high priority for many sports medical practitioners as well as for athletes wanting to play. For these reasons researchers associated with the American Athletic Conference (AAC) have been monitoring concussion incidence in football.Design/MethodsThe 12 schools of the AAC were surveyed for 2014, 2015, and 2016 concerning football induced concussions.ResultsThe average seasonal concussion rate was 10.4 ± 1.02 concussions per year and average RTP time was 13.2 ± 1.21 days. In the one team where there was an aggressive neuro visual conditioning and rehabilitation post-concussion program employed the concussion rate was 3.0 ± 1.0 concussions per year and the RTP time was 6.5 ± 0.5 days. Both numbers are significantly lower than in the other AAC teams.ConclusionsThe current paper reports that there may be mitigation strategies that can be employed to decrease concussion incidence as well as aid in faster RTP times. Such attempts to make football safer are needed as brain injury has been associated with long term consequences. Improving safety and brain health through mitigation strategies along with rehabilitation methods may aid in keeping athletes safer during play and throughout the lifespan.