Sports Studies Commons^™

“We Need To Do More” To “This Is All Bullsh**” : A Continuum Of Race-Related Social Media Activism In College Athletics, Natalie N. Bunch, Lauren Beasley, Beth Cianfrone

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) member institutions have addressed social issues, such as racial justice, via team or athletic department social media platforms. Often the social media strategy is managed by a content creator within the athletic department. However, coaching staff members may be concerned with what is posted to team or athletic department accounts because of the public facing nature of their job, their use of social media in recruitment efforts, and their role in creating a positive environment for current athletes. We surveyed 128 coaches across divisions to determine perceptions of their athletic department’s race-related activism on social …

The Mental Health Literacy Of Ncaa College Coaches: Knowledge, Beliefs, And Resources, Lauren Beasley, Steven Hoffman, Jackson Sears

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) college athletes in the United States (U.S.) are at risk for diminished mental health, and stigma may be a barrier to these athletes seeking professional mental health care. Coaches can create a team environment that prioritizes athlete mental health and destigmatizes help-seeking; however, this requires coaches to have appropriate mental health knowledge, operationalized as mental health literacy (MHL). Therefore, the purpose of this exploratory study was to explore three different constructs of MHL of NCAA coaches across Divisions I, II, and III. The Multicomponent Mental Health Literacy Scale (MMHLS), which measures MHL within three domains—knowledge, …

An Exploration Of Factors Impacting First-Generation College Athlete Retention At Small Colleges And Universities, Adam R. Cocco, Alan Grosbach

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Retention is an increasing area of concern for higher education institutions as enrollments continue to decrease. This is especially germane for small colleges and universities given their lower enrollments and limited resources. First-generation students and college athletes are populations with enhanced susceptibility to attrition due to additional challenges and burdens placed upon them as they navigate the college environment. Therefore, there is a need to understand the factors influencing retention among those at the intersection of these student demographics. The purpose of this study is to examine the association of individual (gender, race, and academic performance) and athletic (financial aid, …

Investigating Ticket Price Determination Of Collegiate Athletics: Insights From Pricing Professionals In Non-Football Bowl Subdivision Schools, Jason D. Reese, Yang Xu

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

This study aims to investigate how ticket prices are set in Division I (DI) college athletics, how the individuals making pricing decisions perceive the purpose of athletics, what objectives pricing managers are trying to achieve with both revenue and non-revenue sports, and the factors that influence how the final price is set. Structured interviews were conducted with 12 athletic department external operations staff from 12 non-FBS DI institutions, representing seven different conferences. Results showed that price is determined through either a bottom-up hierarchical model or a committee-based model. Patronage-Oriented objectives were shown to dominate the pricing strategy in non-FBS programs, …

Do “In The Family” Coaching Hires Outperform External Hires In Ncaa Division I Men’S Basketball, Maxfield Lane, Nels Popp, Jonathan A. Jensen

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

When conducting searches to fill head coaching positions, many college athletics directors frequently look to candidates who have a connection to the university; former players, assistant coaches, or students. Hiring someone from a university’s “family” is often a popular decision among stakeholders, but utilizing such parameters in a search severely restricts candidate pools. More importantly, little empirical evidence suggesting such hires perform better. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether NCAA Division I men’s basketball coaches who are “In the Family” hires perform better than “External” hires in measures of (a) team success and (b) recruiting. The …

The Role Of Sport For Adolescents: The Effect Of Sport Participation As A Unique Form Of Physical Activity On Mental Health And Overall Subjective Well-Being During Adolescence, Caleb M. Rogers

Senior Theses

Well-being is an extremely multifaceted domain, as there are numerous factors that contribute to one’s way of life. Objective well-being focuses primarily on material factors such as access to food, housing, and a steady household income. Although these factors play a large role, it is important to analyze well-being from the perspective of the individual. Subjective well-being focuses on how one perceives one's own well-being. Physical activity has been well established as one factor associated with improvements within this domain for adolescents. This project investigates the role of one specific form of physical activity during adolescence: sport. The general assumption …

Attitudes Of Intercollegiate Athletes Toward Transgender Individuals And Transgender Athletic Participation, Austin R. Anderson, Eric Knee, Alison Fridley

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Debate around the participation of transgender athletes in competitive sport has been increasing recently. These debates, and the discourse surrounding transgender athletes, have had wide ranging consequences, including changes to gender participation policies by sport governing bodies. While policy changes are being made, little data exists around the attitudes of athletes on the participation of transgender persons. This study explores the attitudes of intercollegiate student-athletes on transgender individuals and transgender collegiate athletic participation, using a sample of three collegiate athletic programs. Findings suggest that attitudes towards transgender persons and political ideology are significant factors in the acceptance of transgender athletic …

The Making Of Modern-Day Nil Laws: The Past, Present, And Future Of Amateurism And Commercialization In College Sport, W. Andrew Czekanski, Amanda Siegrist

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

The purpose of this study was to increase the understanding of state laws governing collegiate student-athletes’ name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights and place the laws within the framework of the NCAA’s historic and current views on amateurism and commercialization. To accomplish such, a content analysis of the 30 existing NIL laws/executive orders was performed to identify trends in the statutes and establish what commonalities and differences exist across states. The analysis found five themes/sections common across state laws (i.e., definitions, basic NIL rules, limitations, disclosures and review processes, agent and representation rules, and required workshops). Moreover, the evaluation revealed …

Does All Work And No Play Make Me A Winner? Institutionalized Perceptions Of Hours Worked And Athletic Program Success, Matt R. Huml, Elizabeth A. Taylor, Calvin Nite, Jacob Ackermann, Elenor Ishida

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

The belief that more hours worked equate to higher levels of success has been institutionalized within sport. However, research has yet to interrogate this taken for granted notion. The current study examined the relationship between hours worked and athletic department success. Data were drawn from college coaches and athletic administrators in the United States and consisted of self-reported work hours, team postseason appearances, Directors’ Cup points, and Directors’ Cup rankings to determine if higher work hours were predictive of success. This study also examined the moderated effects of work/family conflict between gender and number of hours worked. The findings show …

"Is He My Boss? I Don’T Know”: The (Ambiguous) Role Of The Sport Supervisor In Ncaa Division I Intercollegiate Athletics, Ehren R. Green, Meg G. Hancock

Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics

Behind every intercollegiate athletic team is an often-unknown athletic administrator known as the sport supervisor (sport administrator). As middle managers, these administrators are key organizational connectors, connecting the individual team(s) to the department, and are vital to organizational success. Understanding the role of sport supervisor is crucial to the success of athletic departments. Thus, the purpose of this study was to define and understand the role of the sport supervisor in NCAA division I intercollegiate athletics utilizing role theory. Through a descriptive phenomenological approach, 22 participants (11 sport supervisors and 11 head coaches) from NCAA Division I institutions were interviewed. …

Looking Back To Look Forward: Exploring Crenshaw’S Political, Structural, And Representational Intersectionality In Sport, Allison Anders Ph.D., James M. Devita, Leslee A. Fisher, Chris Corr, Christina L. Myers

Faculty Publications

Engaging with Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality, the authors (re)turn to its genesis in critical race theory (CRT) and specifically, its forms of structural intersectionality, political intersectionality, and representational intersectionality. Discussing each form in relation to contemporary issues in sport that Black women and women of Color navigate, they argue that Crenshaw’s intersectionality provides additional compelling layers of engagement with existing intersectional scholarship and scholarship about activism in sport, invites structural and discursive change through intersectional policies and practice, and promotes coalition building toward intersectional racial justice in sport.

Simplified Ranking Model For The College Football Playoff Through Weighted Ranking, Edward Buckhouse

Senior Theses

This research project looks to create a better system to rank college football teams in playoff contention. It uses surveys of coaches to create a weighted guideline to evaluate wins and losses for each team. This constructs a value for adjusted wins that is based on coaches’ data but strays away from the inherent bias that any single coach would have when ranking teams. The resulting Top 25 were then compared to the College Football Playoff final regular season rankings to gauge the success of the new system. The Adjusted Wins system that was established properly picked 13 out of …

The Effect Of Covid-19 On The Mental Health Of College Athletes, Molly Mcardle

Senior Theses

This research aimed to explore how the mental status of student athletes at the University of South Carolina has been affected by the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 61 student athletes between the ages of 17 and 24 participated in the study and completed a series of questions including the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21) and the Group Environment Questionnaire (GEQ). Independent samples t-tests and descriptive analyses were used for comparisons between gender and age. The results showed that female athletes reported statistically significantly higher levels of anxiety and stress than male athletes (p = 0.049 and p = …

The Female Sports Fan Experience: How Women Consume Sports And How Sports Are Marketed To Women, Natalie Elser

Senior Theses

This study analyzes the growing subsection of female sports fans. Through a review of scholarly research articles, this study examines female sports fan motivations and behaviors and how they differ from the classic male sports fan. Additionally, this study aims to investigate how sports marketing executives try to appeal to women as sports consumers and how these practices have begun to change in recent years. This study will provide a summary of existing research on female sports fans along with a review of marketing initiatives used to engage female sports fans.

Boom Or Bust: Examining The Relationship Between High School Recruiting Rankings And The Nfl Draft, Nicholas E. Tice

Senior Theses

The goal of this thesis is to model the probability of a high school football player’s chance of being drafted based on information taken from their recruiting profile. The response variable is binary and defined as drafted (1) or undrafted (0). The independent variables were collected by scraping data from the recruiting websites including height, weight, position, hometown, recruiting grade and other socioeconomic factors based on the player’s high school. 247Sports and ESPN were the two recruiting services used and compared in this study. Because of the binary nature of the dependent variable, logistic regression and decision trees were chosen …

Athletic Success And Its Influence On Freshman Enrollment, Grace E. Meadows

Senior Theses

NCAA Division I athletics have always been important, though in as recent as the early 2000s, athletic success did not have an effect on the number of freshmen enrolled at a university. This study shows between the years of 2010 and 2020, success in baseball, basketball, and football has begun to influence freshman enrollment at top universities in the United States. Using freshman enrollment data from the years before and after the university’s athletic success, this study analyzes percent change using regression analysis in order to determine if there is a significant increase in freshman enrollment following athletic success at …

Never Enough: Assessing Body Image In College-Age Males, Austin T. Coale

Senior Theses

Body image issues are a prevalent issue among college-age students. College-age males specifically suffer from societal pressures of masculinity which manifest in different body image threats and coping strategies that focus on over-exercising and increased muscularity. This study aims to look at two distinct athletic populations of males at the University of South Carolina: yoga and weightlifting. An eleven item survey interrogated three types of coping strategies: avoidance, appearance fixing, and positive rational acceptance. Thirty males were surveyed and found that males participating in yoga reported rates of appearance fixing that were statistically significantly higher than those in the weightlifting …

The Effect Of Professional Sports Success On Youth Participation: Growing The Game Of Women's Ice Hockey, Kiley C. Burns

Senior Theses

In February of 2018, the United States Women’s National Ice Hockey Team (Team USA) won gold at the Winter Olympics for the first time since 1998. The problem surrounds the unique components of the sport of ice hockey and identifying how to capitalize on international success to increase youth participation. The purpose of this study is to 1) identify the components needed to grow the game of female youth ice hockey, and in doing so, 2) identify the main barriers inhibiting the growth of female youth ice hockey. The research relies on semi-structured interviews with ice hockey experts including current …

#Readyforrio: How A Revised Rule 40 Impacted Sponsorship At The 2016 Summer Olympics, Anthony Carson

Senior Theses

When planning and executing the Olympic Games, a premier event in modern sport, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) relies heavily on sponsorship revenue from their official sponsors. “Worldwide Olympic Partners,” the top 11 sponsors of the 2016 Olympics, had exclusive rights during the Olympic cycle from 2013-2016.

With the purchase of these expensive sponsorship deals, brands are looking to capitalize on the “glow” of the Olympics, and use excusive Olympic intellectual property to make ties from their brand to the Games. In order to make these sponsorship deals more valuable, the IOC has historically provided official partners with added exclusivity …

The Role Of Soccer In The Post-Colonial Relationship Between Brazil And Portugal, Hunter Johnson

Senior Theses

This thesis analyses the role of soccer in the post-colonial relationship between Brazil and Portugal. It begins by discussing the history of the two countries, in particular the discovery and colonization of Brazil by Portugal. It then examines notable Brazilian-born Portuguese players, and then analyzes Brazilian player transfers to Portugal in the 2011- 12 season. It concludes by discussing the wider impact of the results, and the effect of globalization on the modern-day soccer world.

The Effect Of Winning Football And League Affiliation On Academic Achievement In The Southeastern Conference (Sec) Does Winning Football And Conference Improve Student Related Academic Indicators ?, A. Wayne Alexander Ii

Theses and Dissertations

Numerous researchers have attempted to study the effect of winning football on a university’s academic standing. To this point, the results have been varied and inconclusive. The answer is unclear and the research does not examine a conference as a whole in comparison to other conferences since the Bowl Championship Series (BCS)- era (1998-2012). The current study examines whether the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the success of the conference’s football teams, in terms of winning games and conference membership, improves the conference's member schools academic indicators. Using factors such as SAT scores, application rate, retention rates, and graduation rates, this …