Sports Studies Commons^™

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

Exploring Di College Coaches’ Perceptions Of Holistic Coaching And The Factors Impacting Their Ability To Succeed In The Current College Sports Landscape, Deborah V. Hogan Phd

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

In the highly competitive Division I (DI) college sports system, coaches are expected to produce winning programs while developing their college athletes holistically. Recent changes in NCAA policies complicate the coach-athlete relationship, hindering coaches' ability to serve as effective holistic leaders. This study uses grounded theory to understand how DI coaches in high-profile sports perceive their roles as holistic leaders and manage external challenges to provide holistic college athlete experiences. Semi-structured interviews with 12 football and women’s basketball coaches revealed five main themes: 1) coaches are educators, 2) strategies for holistic coaching, 3) supporting Black college athletes, 4) college sports …

Ncaa Division I Senior Athletic Administrators' Perceptions Of And Experiences With Mental Performance Consultants And Their Services: A Qualitative Investigation, Morgan R. Eckenrod, Rebecca Zakrajsek, Johannes Raabe

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

At the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I (DI) level, senior athletic administrators (SAAs) play a critical role in hiring Mental Performance Consultants (MPCs). Researchers found that NCAA DI administrators generally believe MPCs are beneficial in helping student-athletes manage competition pressures and improve performance, the number of full-time MPCs in NCAA DI athletic departments is still limited. In this study, eleven NCAA DI SAAs with at least one full-time MPC in their athletic department that solely delivered mental performance services were interviewed about their perceptions of and experiences with MPCs and their services. Using reflexive thematic analysis procedures, three …

Investigating The Glass Cliff Phenomenon In Ncaa Division I Women’S Basketball, Nicholas Swim, Adam R Cocco, Meg Hancock, Nick Kopka

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

In 2022-2023, across all Division I women's college sports teams, women only held 42% of all head coaching positions. Women's college basketball represents one of the outlier sports, as almost 70% of their head coaches for NCAA Division I women's basketball teams were women. While women head coaches are well represented in women's college basketball, Gerretsen et al. (2023) suggest inconsistencies exist in past experience, tenure length, and gender perceptions in women's college basketball hiring practices. This study further aimed to investigate these inconsistencies utilizing role congruity theory and the glass cliff phenomenon. To investigate, the researchers collected data on …

Supporting The College Athlete Amidst The Onset Of Name, Image, And Likeness, Brennan K. Berg, Michael Hutchinson, Janelle E. Wells, David W. Walsh, Andre Simmond

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Athletic administrators often assume a distinct stakeholder role that has the most immediate and frequent impact on college athletes’ well-being and retention. The implementation of name, image, and likeness (NIL) represents a historic transformation in college athletics. Utilizing a sport development framework, particularly the retention stage, to examine elite athlete development, how athletic administrators socially support college athletes in the new context of NIL and its impact on administrators’ work experiences were empirically assessed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 athletic administrators at nine universities. The themes of Implementation Challenges, Lack of Uniformity, Holistic Benefits to Athlete Well-Being, and Mostly …

Analysis Of Careers In And Through Intercollegiate Compliance, Michael A. Odio, Grace Wright, Thomas J. Aicher

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

This study examines job movements entering, exiting, and between NCAA compliance-related positions using a sample of 100 LinkedIn profiles. The analysis of the 441 job movements establishes job and organizational tenure figures and patterns in how people matriculate through certain positions. Theory related to career boundaries is used to interpret the job movements and draw conclusions about patterns related to educational backgrounds (e.g., master’s and law degrees), the role of internships and graduate assistantships, and more. The findings provide new insight on career dynamics in NCAA compliance and underscore the need to focus on studying subsectors in college sport to …

Exploring Sport Leaders’ Sensemaking And Enactment Of Inclusive Leadership, Elizabeth Taylor, Sean Dahlin, Janelle Wells, Erika Gray

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

While diversity, inclusion, and leadership shape individual behaviors and organizational culture, historically they have been researched as independent theoretical streams. Examining these lines has been fruitful to advance our understanding of diversity, inclusion, and leadership separately; however, we lack an understanding of how leaders understand and engage in inclusive leadership. Thus, this study explores how college sport leaders make sense of and enact inclusive leadership. Through 16 semi-structured interviews with senior-level athletic administrators we constructed four themes: fostering employees’ uniqueness, strengthening team belongingness, learning centered development, and actioning values-based care. This work both bolsters and extends Korkmaz and colleagues’ (2022) …

House Rules: Athlete, Coach, And Staff Perspectives On The Shifting Ncaa Landscape, Daniel Springer

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

The House settlement is an inflection point in NCAA Division I athletics, ushering in a new model of institutional revenue sharing, roster regulation, and athlete compensation. While legal and financial analyses dominate public discourse, less is known about how these shifts are understood by those working and competing within athletic departments. This study draws on narrative analysis of interviews with 11 athletes, coaches, and staff across five anonymized Power 4 institutions to examine how the House settlement is being interpreted as it takes effect. Three narrative foci emerged: 1) financial prioritization and resource allocation, 2) shifting culture, relationships, and meaning, …

The Impact Of Geographic And Community Diversity On The Transitionary Experiences Of International College Athletes, Marek Taškár, Chris Corr, Nicole Sellars, Sarah Stokowski, Karina Jolly, Trevor Bopp

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

International college athletes migrating to the United States for athletic competition encounter unique challenges such as language barriers, cultural adjustment, and familial detachment. These obstacles can hinder international college athletes’ transition compared to those of domestic athletes. While supportive programming and personnel have been illustrated to ease the transition and foster acculturation among international college athletes, the impact of the geographic location of an institution may impact the acculturation process for international college athletes. Given the importance of acculturation to athletic and academic success, this study examined how cultural diversity within communities hosting NCAA member institutions affects international college athletes’ …

Examining The Evolution Of Coaches Issues In Interscholastic Sport, Tyler J. Ratts, Eric W. Forsyth, Zachary C. T. Evans, James E. Johnson, Michael Fraina, Warren A. Whisenant

Global Sport Business Journal

Central to interscholastic athletic programs are coaches who directly affect the developmental outcomes experienced by student-athletes through their participation (Blanton et al., 2024; Grant, 2024; O’Boyle, 2014). Forsyth et al. (2022) analyzed the key issues perceived by athletic administrators to affect the coaching position, with Coaches Education rated as the single most important issue and Finding Coaches and Retaining Coaches also deemed to be of very high importance. Over time, the coaching role has continued to evolve, as increased role demands (Ratts, 2025), changing stakeholder expectations (Johnson et al., 2019; Stoffer et al., 2021), and growing burnout and turnover (Martin …

The Athlete’S Nil Playbook: The Complete Guide To Owning And Profiting From Your Name, Image, And Likeness, Kelly Brummett

Global Sport Business Journal

This review discusses The Athlete's NIL Playbook: The Complete Guide to Owning and Profiting from Your Name, Image, and Likeness. Though aimed at high school and college students and their parents, the book is a practical guide for anyone interested in learning more about and navigating the Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) marketplace. With examples from current and former student-athletes' lived experiences, Dosh offers guidance for developing a personal brand, contacting sponsors, and seeking NIL opportunities beyond social media marketing. In addition, Dosh shares her legal experience to highlight potentially one-sided contract terms and key questions to ask before signing …

Games Played In The Off-Season: A Teaching Case Study On Major League Baseball Arbitration And Game Theory, Rebekah Ansbro

The COSMA Journal

Each January and February, professional baseball players with three to six years of Major League service time endure a process exclusive to Major League Baseball (MLB): arbitration. Though arbitration itself is not an unfamiliar form of dispute resolution, the structure MLB employs in contract arbitration is unlike any other industry, as it incorporates an all-or-nothing result that does not allow arbitrators to “split the pie” between parties. Because of this, teams and players are not only responsible for preparation of their own arguments and filed salary, but also for anticipation of their opponent’s filed salary. The hurdle of needing to …

Managing User Conflicts In A Water Aerobics Program On Behalf Of A Veteran’S Group: A Short Case Study, Hadley Blankenship, Steven N. Waller Ph.D., Jason L. Scott

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

This article captures an experience in conflict management that happened during the summer of 2024 as a recreational therapy intern with an adaptive sport and recreation organization located in the Southeastern United States. The backdrop to the case is that a recreational therapy intern worked with various special needs populations – mainly with paraplegic (adult and youth) athletes and veterans. In many organizations, user conflicts and poor communication regarding service provision and scheduling hinder the implementation of programs for special populations, such as veteran groups. In this case, a problem occurred with the scheduling of a water aerobics program for …

Diversity In Aquatics:4th Special Issue, Tiffany M. Quash Ph.D., Angela K. Beale-Tawfeeq, Steven N. Waller Ph.D.

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

The theme of this special issue is “Building a Community of Champions.” The purpose of this theme is to highlight and promote a civic engagement perspective that engages, advocates, and supports communities of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in addressing the national, regional, and local evolving health-related issue of drowning. Aquatic Settings have been a pivotal focal point of social justice, water safety, and public health, not only in the past but also in our present day (Beale-Tawfeeq, Quash, et al, 2023 and Waller and Bemiller, 2023). Diversity In Aquatics (DIA) strives to positively impact the field of aquatics …

If We Tear It Down, We Might Build You A New One: The Troublesome Use Of Eminent Domain And Urban Neighborhood Swimming Pools, Steven N. Waller Ph.D., James H. Bemiller

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Public swimming pools are a vital part of America’s recreation and sport culture since the early 1900’s. Municipal swimming pools were initially built to provide recreation and hygiene to urban communities, regardless of race or class. However, a complex history of segregation, civil unrest, suburbanization, and funding challenges has resulted in a significant decline in public pools, depriving many communities of vital recreational spaces. In many communities, options for sustaining the operation of swimming pools have resulted in pool closures. Unfortunately, once swimming pools close, especially those in aging neighborhoods in central city areas, they are seldom resurrected. They quickly …

Promising Practices For Increasing The Number Of Equity-Owed Lifeguards In Canada And The United States Of America, Sofia Pantano, Audrey R. Giles

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Currently a shortage of lifeguards exists in Canada and the United States (US) (Frommer, 2023; Santucci, 2024), and those who are working as lifeguards often do not reflect the diversity of the communities they serve (Martinez, 2020). Increasing the number of lifeguards from equity-owed groups is a potential way of increasing the lifeguard workforce and decreasing the shortage of workers in these important roles, as well as a moral imperative. In this paper I explore challenges to and promising practices aimed at increasing the representation of members equity-owed groups in lifeguarding. I begin with an overview of lifeguarding in Canada …

Adopting Stuart Hall’S “Race, The Floating Signifier” As A Conceptual Framework Within Aquatic Research And Education, Kurt J. Cordice

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

During his 1997 lecture at Goldsmiths College in London, Stuart Hall, renowned for his contributions to sociology and cultural studies, offered his argument that the concept of race functions as a Floating Signifier. In this essay, Stuart Hall’s Race, the Floating Signifier is presented as a strong conceptual framework to support more accurate and effective positioning of race as an important consideration within aquatic research and education. Evidence from a range of disciplines, including historical research, is presented to establish both the importance and challenge of race within aquatic research and education. This evidence is also used to demonstrate …

Building Swimming Skills In A Community Based Program For Black Youth: An Evaluation, Tyler Lennon Md, Mph, Ashley Hayes Mph, Leonardo Barrera Mph, Amy Hill Ms, Mph, Andy Miner, Michelle Macy Md, Ms

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Black youth in the United States disproportionately experience fatal drowning at rates up to five times higher than their white peers. Eliminating these inequities requires new approaches that address historical and structural barriers of learning to swim. The objective of this study was to evaluate the three-week long swimming component of a community-based discovery program to empower Black youth in Evanston, IL. Participants were Black youth ages 8-10 years enrolled in summer 2023 and 2024. Swim skills were assessed by instructors using the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Water Competence (PSPWC). Caregiver surveys, collected post-intervention, also assessed perceived changes in swim …

An Innovative Approach Addressing Childhood Drowning: Making Use Of Collegiate Aquatic Facilities And Expertise, Gennette Cordova, Natasha Lloyd, Chezik Tsunoda

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

The silent epidemic of childhood drowning, and the racial disparities associated with it require scalable and innovative approaches that both break cycles of exclusion and circumvent our societal tendency to overlook drowning as a matter in need of urgent resolution. No More Under, a Seattle-based water safety organization whose mission is to eradicate childhood drowning, has launched the Swim Safely Series. The series is a national program uniquely poised to overcome the various barriers associated with racial and socioeconomic drowning disparities by tapping into underutilized collegiate aquatic spaces and merging water safety with mentorship and social intervention.

An Examination Of The Experiences Of An African American Male Diver On A Power Four Swim Team: An Elite Interview, Steven N. Waller Ph.D., Tiffany M. Quash Ph.D.

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

Despite the incremental increase in the number of Black people who are learning to swim, the number of Black divers has not kept pace. In the NCAA Database, swimmers and divers were not segmented; thus, they all appear in the category of “swimming” by race and sex. When viewing the 2024 Division I NCAA Demographics Database, 89 (.02%) of 4307 student-athletes participating in swimming were Black women. For men, the data is equally dismal, revealing that 81 (.03%) of 2,608 student-athletes who were identified as swimmers were Black. The purpose of this research note is to examine the developmental experiences …

Navigating Leadership: A Qualitative Exploration Of Challenges And Coping Strategies For Women In Sport Management Education, Rachel Silverman, Shanon Kempt, Nita Unruh

The COSMA Journal

Abstract

Women remain significantly underrepresented in senior leadership roles in higher education, a disparity that is particularly pronounced in male-dominated disciplines, such as sport management (Chance, 2023; Lozano et al., 2023). This qualitative study examines the challenges faced by women in leadership positions within sport management education and the strategies they employ to overcome these barriers. Thirteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with biological females holding leadership roles at both teaching- and research-focused institutions. Participants ranged in age from 32 to 74 and had between one and twenty-four years of leadership experience. Using thematic analysis, key challenges identified included male-dominated work …

Artificial Intelligence, Age, And Dynamic Ticket Pricing: A Mixed-Methods Study In Professional Sports, Joshua Greer, Nicholas Zoroya

Global Sport Business Journal

Abstract

This study investigates how age moderates fan perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) and dynamic ticket pricing (DTP) in professional sports. Using a mixed-method design, data was collected from a self-administered online survey (N = 57) and triangulated with secondary sources, including industry reports and academic literature. Survey participants were divided into four generational cohorts and responses were analyzed across three constructs: perceived fairness, accessibility, and willingness to pay. A one-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant difference in willingness to pay across age groups, F(3, 53) = 3.41, p = .015, with the most pronounced disparity between the youngest and …

Cricket, Capitalism And Class: From The Village Green To The Cricket Industry, Martin Barrett

Global Sport Business Journal

Author Chris McMillan, through Cricket, Capitalism and Class: From the Village Green to the Cricket Industry, provides a definitive and compelling critical sociological investigation of modern cricket’s rise from an English leisure pursuit and role in the expanding capitalism of Empire to today’s multi-billion-dollar cricket industry. This account is constructed through a largely Marxist reading of the sport’s entwining with the processes of capitalism and class. Specifically, class and the class structures reproduced by and through cricket are seen as critical in reproducing a system favorable to both historical and contemporary exploitation and expropriation. As the book transitions from exploring …

Book Review: Interrogating Integration: Sport, Celebrity, And Scandal In The Making Of New Germany, Sangchul Park

Global Sport Business Journal

This review discusses Interrogating Integration: Sport, Celebrity, and Scandal in the Making of New Germany by Kate Zambon. Through discourse analysis of media narratives, Zambon demonstrates that athletes and celebrities of immigrant or minority backgrounds become symbolic figures whose successes and failures test the nation’s integration project, with case studies including the 2006 World Cup, the Sarrazin debate, and the Integration Bambi Awards. The book’s originality lies in moving beyond legal or policy frameworks to foreground mediated narratives, offering clear and coherent arguments supported by a logically organized structure. While the absence of comparative perspectives and audience reception studies leaves …

Ditch Tradition...And Move To Case-Based Learning, Emily Dane-Staples

The COSMA Journal

Recent criticisms of higher education include a lack of relevance and alignment with what employers are seeking in new hires. A lecture-based approach to teaching has proved less effective than other active learning strategies and does not adequately mimic the working environment sport professionals face. To better align the classroom and the workplace, a case-based learning approach can be used. This pedagogy blends high impact practices that have been demonstrated to assist students in knowledge acquisition and soft skill development by replacing traditional lecture and chapter readings with real-life scenarios that require student engagement with concepts in application. The technique …

Book Review: The Sports Revolution: How Texas Changed The Culture Of American Athletics, Zachary Beldon

Global Sport Business Journal

This manuscript reviews the book The Sports Revolution: How Texas Changed the Culture of American Athletics by Frank Guridy. The book dives into the state of Texas’s role in changing the sports landscape through the 1960s and 1980s. Guridy does so by focusing on five overarching themes: (1) desegregation and racial progress, (2) commercialization of sports and infrastructure, (3) gender dynamics in sports, (4) influence of media, and (5) community engagement. The book dives into various events that highlight each one of the themes to illustrate how Texas influenced changes to form the modern sports system. Overall, the book provides …

Literary And Artistic Property Rights Between Regular Courts And Administrative Courts: A Comparative Study Of Jordan And Egypt, Noor Al-Hindi

Jordan Journal of Applied Science-Humanities Series

This study addresses literary and artistic property rights within the context of the ordinary and administrative judiciary, focusing on the legal framework for the deposit of these rights under the Jordanian and Egyptian Copyright and Neighboring Rights Protection Laws. The research findings indicate that legal deposit is an obligation of the rights holders of the work to submit a copy of the published work to a government authority. In Egypt, the rights holder is required to submit a licensing application to the General Department for the Control of Works, accompanied by certain data. The department is responsible for maintaining records …

Achieving Empowerment In Transition: Advice From Former Female Athletes, Ashlyn Hardie, Molly Harry, Kristi Oshiro, Marlene A. Dixon

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Scholars have highlighted the various challenges college athletes encounter in their transition from sport. Yet, the strategies athletes adopt to navigate this transitory period require further examination. Thus, we leveraged Zimmerman’s Psychological Empowerment Model and Schlossberg’s Transition Theory to explore these strategies and associated processes in-depth. The sample for this study consisted of 20 former female athletes from the U.S. who played a college sport. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews. Findings revealed numerous strategies current and future female college athletes implement to mitigate the challenges present in their transition, specifically: Finding Acceptance, Be Proactive, Don’t Stop 100%, Embrace the …

Sport Media Consumption In Ncaa Division І Fbs Subdivision: A Panel Regression Model Using X/Twitter, Seungbak Lee, Minsoo Kang, Wonson Lim, Ju-Pil Choe, Brennan K. Berg

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Athletic departments in collegiate sports have increasingly focused on enhancing sport consumer interest through social media. As social media usage continues to grow in college sports, understanding audience behavior on these platforms has become essential for athletic departments. This study examines the factors influencing consumer interest in Division I football teams’ X (formerly Twitter) accounts, utilizing a panel dataset comprising 18,221 team-day observations. Key determinants of changes in X followers were identified, including teams’ social media activity, on-field performance, scheduling events, and timing effects, with a focus on fan interest across temporal patterns such as month-to-month and day-to-day variations. The …

Sport Employees And Resilience: An Examination Of Organizational Change With Ncaa Conference Realignment, Hailee Hernandez, Claire C. Zvosec, Brent D. Oja

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

NCAA conference membership is critically important to institutions as it is closely associated with revenue generation (i.e., conference-wide revenue distribution, ticket sales, fundraising, etc.) in addition to institutional visibility and prestige. Therefore, universities may pursue conference realignment opportunities based on higher potential revenue, institutional and athletics financial stability, and increased notoriety. Over the past 20 years, there have been at least 80 cases of schools moving conferences at the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. As universities move conferences, employees within the athletics department are exposed to rapid change in organizational structure and are forced to adapt to new institutional, athletics …