Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2013

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

EdD

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies

Committee Chair

Sebastian R. Diaz

Committee Co-Chair

Gonzalo A. Bravo

Committee Member

Paul E. Chapman

Committee Member

Ernest R. Goeres

Committee Member

Jack C. Watson, II

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe and compare the perceptions of NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III college and university presidents regarding the impacts of intercollegiate athletics at their institutions. The data were collected with an anonymous online survey instrument developed by the researcher and sent via email using SurveyMonkey. The survey included Likert-type items that were divided into four subscales constructed from phenomena that were gleaned from the literature: (1) Financial Impact subscale, (2) Enrollment Impact subscale, (3) Marketing Impact subscale, and (4) Student Impact subscale.;The survey was emailed to the entire population of all NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III college and university presidents (N=760). When data collection was complete, 323 responses (42.5%) were determined to be usable---147 NCAA Division II responses and 176 NCAA Division III responses. Four separate independent samples t-tests were used to compare the presidents' perceptions regarding the impacts of athletics on each of the four subscales.;The t-tests revealed that statistically significant differences do not exist between the two groups on the Financial Impact subscale and the Student Impact subscale, but a statistically significant difference between the two groups does exist for both the Enrollment Impact subscale (p=.014) and for the Marketing Impact subscale (p<.001).;Descriptive statistics revealed that both the NCAA Division II presidents and the NCAA Division III presidents perceive that intercollegiate athletics impacts their institutions positively. The items from each subscale to which the presidents responded most strongly are also reported. Descriptive statistics also revealed that the presidents' perceptions do not always align with the literature regarding athletics in higher education. Finally, descriptive statistics revealed that the NCAA Division III presidents' perceptions are more divided regarding these issues than the NCAA Division II presidents. Implications for practice and future research are provided.

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