Intercollegiate athletics continue to bedevil American higher education. This book explores the complexities of intercollegiate athletics while explaining the organizational structures, key players, terms, and important issues relevant to the growing fields of recreational studies, sports management, and athletic administration.

This practical, comprehensive book combines solid theoretical concepts with relevant examples, extensive factual information, and important insider perspectives to help prepare students who are interested in pursuing a career in collegiate athletics management. The authors' in-depth discussions reveal the inner workings of athletic departments and the conferences and governing organizations that impact them. Using examples from institutions of varying sizes and representing numerous conferences, associations, and divisions, Managing Intercollegiate Athletics, second edition, provides an extensive view of management processes such as generating revenue to cover expenses; recruiting and its mechanics and regulations; the role of the conferences and national governing bodies; and academic standards, reform, and fraud. New to the second edition is an increased emphasis on the impact of division, institution, and department missions and goals on decision making. The book also includes new discussions of the application of management functions--including goal setting, decision making, and strategic management--on intercollegiate athletics at various levels. Adding to the practical nature of the book, and providing an important critical-thinking component to each chapter, are "Practitioner Perspectives." These contributions demonstrate how and why administrators make and implement their decisions, and they present creative problem-solving ideas for readers that they can use in their own careers. New Practitioner Perspectives in this edition provide, for example, an insider's view from an NCAA vice president, a conference commissioner, and a Division I athletic director. Chapters also feature one or more Case Studies offering an in-depth look at how institutions grapple with management challenges. In the second edition, new case studies look at the NCAA's leadership role in the Penn State University abuse case, the role of the TRAC model to ensure data-based decision making in terminating the University of Alabama at Birmingham football program, and others. These case studies and accompanying questions can serve as starting points for class discussion.

In an era when college football coaches frequently command higher salaries than university presidents, many call for reform to restore the balance between amateur athletics and the educational mission of schools. This book traces attempts at college athletics reform from 1855 through the early twenty-first century while analyzing the different roles played by students, faculty, conferences, university presidents, the NCAA, legislatures, and the Supreme Court. Pay for Play: A History of Big-Time College Athletic Reform also tackles critically important questions about eligibility, compensation, recruiting, sponsorship, and rules enforcement. Discussing reasons for reform--to combat corruption, to level the playing field, and to make sports more accessible to minorities and women--Ronald A. Smith candidly explains why attempts at change have often failed. Of interest to historians, athletic reformers, college administrators, NCAA officials, and sports journalists, this thoughtful book considers the difficulty in balancing the principles of amateurism with the need to draw income from sporting events.

​For several decades in America, athletic programs in colleges and universities received financial support and resources primarily from their respective schools and such sources as alumni and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). More recently, however, college coaches assigned to athletic departments and the presidents and marketing or public relations officials of schools organize, initiate, and participate in fund-raising campaigns and thus obtain a portion of revenue for their sports programs from local, regional and national businesses, and from other private donors, groups, and organizations. Because of this inflow of assets and financial capital, intercollegiate athletic budgets and types of sports expanded and in turn, these programs became increasingly important, popular, and reputable as revenue and cost centers within American schools of higher education.​​

"College Athletes' Rights and Well-Being covers major policy issues in collegiate sports and seeks to address the issue of college athletics from the perspective of the athlete's well-being. It is written for those who seek to enhance their understanding of the intercollegiate athletics landscape. This textbook is intended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, though scholars, teachers, practitioners, athletic administrators, and advocates of intercollegiate athletics will also find it essential. The book is arranged into 16 individual chapters that cover a range of topics on college athletes' rights and well-being. It is not exhaustive, but the editor believes that current concerns, challenges, and themes of relevance to higher education researchers and practitioners will certainly be well addressed" -- Provided by publisher.

Many books have been written on the evils of commercialism in college sport, and the hypocrisy of payments to athletes from alumni and other sources outside the university. Almost no attention, however, has been given to the way that the National Collegiate Athletic Association has embraced professionalism through its athletic scholarship policy. Because of this gap in the historical record, the NCAA is often cast as an embattled defender of amateurism, rather than as the architect of a nationwide money-laundering scheme. Sack and Staurowsky show that the NCAA formally abandoned amateurism in the 1950s and passed rules in subsequent years that literally transformed scholarship athletes into university employees. In addition, by purposefully fashioning an amateur mythology to mask the reality of this employer-employee relationship, the NCAA has done a disservice to student-athletes and to higher education. A major subtheme is that women, such as those who created the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW), opposed this hypocrisy, but lacked the power to sustain an alternative model. After tracing the evolution of college athletes into professional entertainers, and the harmful effects it has caused, the authors propose an alternative approach that places college sport on a firm educational foundation and defend the rights of both male and female college athletes. This is a provocative analysis for anyone interested in college sports in America and its subversion of traditional educational and amateur principles.

Explores the history of college athletics and examines the position of sports relative to academics within the university.

The dynamic world of collegiate sports has seen seismic changes since the previous edition of Administration of Intercollegiate Athletics was published. Conference realignments; name, image, and likeness (NIL) advancements; multibillion-dollar media rights deals; expanded bowl games and tournaments; and big-money corporate sponsorships have all been arisen out of the burgeoning popularity of college sports. The growing complexities of the sport administrator’s role necessitate a college text that reflects the times. And that’s exactly what Administration of Intercollegiate Athletics, Second Edition, does. Some of the most informed and experienced professionals in the field of athletics administration have lent their expertise to the updated second edition, making it the most comprehensive resource available today for students aspiring to work in the field and for professionals navigating an increasingly demanding environment. The text offers students a deep dive into the day-to-day operations of collegiate athletics departments. With chapters covering governing bodies and conference governance; leadership and management; rules compliance; academics, eligibility, and student-athlete development; media relations and production; financial operations and budgeting; marketing, ticketing, licensing, and sponsorships; facility and event management; alumni relations; and support services, the text provides students with the essential underpinnings of an athletics administration position. New to this edition is a chapter dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion to provide broader discussions of athlete social justice activism, gender equity, Title IX compliance, feminist theory, and allyship. In addition, the second edition discusses the rise of NIL deals, legalized sports wagering, and esports, as well as the lasting financial impacts of COVID-19 on athletics departments at all levels of intercollegiate sport. While Division I schools grab the spotlight, administrators in Division II, Division III, junior colleges, and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) athletics departments share the same responsibilities as their Division I counterparts. Throughout the text, Administration of Intercollegiate Athletics, Second Edition, takes care to address the needs and concerns of administrators at these levels, even more so than in the previous edition. New and updated features include Leadership Lesson sidebars, discussion questions, learning activities, and case studies designed to enhance learning and provide practical application of the concepts presented. Also included are Industry Profile sidebars that highlight prominent athletics administrators, Technology Tools sidebars that showcase the latest advancements assisting administrators in their roles, and Professional Development sidebars that provide students with direction on how to enter and succeed in the industry. Administration of Intercollegiate Athletics, Second Edition, is an essential textbook for courses on intercollegiate athletics, sport management, or sport marketing and is a relied-on resource for current sport administrators.

A critical look at the tension between the larger role of the university and the commercialization of college sports Unwinding Madness is the most comprehensive examination to date of how the NCAA has lost its way in the governance of intercollegiate athletics—and why it is incapable of achieving reform and must be replaced. The NCAA has placed commercial success above its responsibilities to protect the academic primacy, health and well-being of college athletes and fallen into an educational, ethical, and economic crisis. As long as intercollegiate athletics reside in the higher education environment, these programs must be academically compatible with their larger institutions, subordinate to their educational mission, and defensible from a not-for-profit organizational standpoint. The issue has never been a matter of whether intercollegiate athletics belongs in higher education as an extracurricular offering. Rather, the perennial challenge has been how these programs have been governed and conducted. The authors propose detailed solutions, starting with the creation of a new national governance organization to replace the NCAA. At the college level, these proposals will not diminish the revenue production capacity of sports programs but will restore academic integrity to the enterprise, provide fairer treatment of college athletes with better health protections, and restore the rights and freedoms of athletes, which have been taken away by a professionalized athletics mentality that controls the cost of its athlete labor force and overpays coaches and athletic directors. Unwinding Madness recognizes that there is no easy fix to the problems now facing college athletics. But the book does offer common sense, doable solutions that respect the rights of athletes, protects their health and well-being while delivering on the promise of a bona fide educational degree program.