An examination of division I athletic-academic support services facilities and staffing

ABSTRACT

This study examined athlete academic support services in NCAA Division I schools across three broad areas: 1) program scope and budget, 2) program leadership and staffing, and 3) program facilities and equipment. A secondary purpose was to examine differences in these programs and facilities based upon football status amongst three categories including Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and non-football Division I schools (NFS). A 48-item survey was developed with expert input to explore academic support programs and facilities. A total of 100 academic support program directors completed the online survey, including 29 FBS, 36 FCS, and 35 NFS institutions dispersed among 31 athletic conferences. Descriptive data for the Division I schools for 21 key variables were determined for the whole sample. Additional ANOVA results identified 18 areas of significant difference based upon football classification regarding athletic-academic support facilities and their leadership, staffing, budget, and facilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Academics
• recruitment
• facilities
• college athletics
• advising
• student-athletes
• support staff
• football

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Lawrence W. Judge is the associate chair of Ball State’s School of Kinesiology and coordinator of the Athletic Coaching Education graduate program.

Jeffrey C. Peterson is a professor of Sport Management and director of the School of Education’s Graduate Program in Sport Management.

James Johnson is an associate professor of Sport Administration and the coordinator of the Sport Administration Graduate Program.

David M. Bellar is a Director and Professor of the School of Kinesiology Patrick Rutherford/BoRSF Endowed Professorship in Education.

Brianna Leitzelar is the Ball State University Graduate Assistant with a focus on adapted physical education.

Dagny Zupin is the Ball State University Research Assistant within the Department of Kinesiology.

Nick Nordmann is the Ball State University Research Assistant within the Department of Physiology and Health Science.

Cheryl R. Rode is an Assistant Professor at Ohio Dominican University teaching undergraduate Sport Marketing, Introduction to Sport Management, Facility & Event Management, and Finance & Economics in Sport as well as graduate courses in Sport Marketing & Consumer Behavior, and Sociology & Ethics in Sport.