An estimated 48.9 million Americans have a disability (Bernstein, 2012). Of those 48.9 million people, 24.1 million Americans have a severe disability and 34.2 million have a functional limitation (Bernstein, 2012). The U.S. Government Accountability Office reports an increase in students with disabilities in the post-secondary population (Ridpath, n.d.). Approximately 11% of post-secondary students’ report having a disability (Ridpath, n.d.). This trend has also been reflected within the athletic population at the NCAA Division I, II, and III level (Ridpath, n.d.). This study examined the average disability attitude of NCAA Division I athletes. The average disability attitude among NCAA Division I athletes was 73.99 out of 144. Recently, the physical and mental impact that video games have on video game players has been greatly researched (Oggins, & Sammis, 2012). It has been reported that 8% of U.S. adolescents and young adults are pathological gamers (Gentile, 2009). Additionally, it has been stated that video game play of over 20 hours per week is common, and that it is not unusual for males to engage in video games for over 40 hours per week (Bailey et al., 2010). This study examined the average video gaming tendencies of NCAA Division I athletes. The data collected reports the average video gaming tendencies of athletes based on behavioral functions (attention, escape, tangible, and sensory) to be: Attention = 12.71, Escape 4.64, Tangible = 11.01, and Sensory 7.46.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Economics / Yang M. Chang / The first essay develops a simple sequential-move game to characterize the endogeneity of third-party intervention in conflict. We show how a third party’s “intervention technology” interacts with the canonical “conflict technologies” of two rival parties in affecting the sub-game perfect Nash equilibrium outcome. From the perspective of deterrence strategy, we find that it is more costly for a third party to support an ally to deter a challenger from attacking (i.e., to maintain peace), as compared to the alternative case when the third party supports the ally to gain a disputed territory by attacking (i.e., to create war), ceteris paribus. However, an optimally intervening third party can be either “peace-making,” “peace-breaking,” or neither depending on the characteristics of the conflict and the third party’s stake with each of the rival parties. The second essay develops a simple model to characterize the role that an intervening third party plays in raising the cost of rebellion in an intrastate conflict. Extending the Gershenson-Grossman (2000) framework of conflict in a two-stage game to the case involving outside intervention in a three-stage game, we examine conditions under which an outside party optimally intervenes such that (i) the strength of the rebel group is diminished or (ii) the rebellion is deterred altogether. We also find conditions in which a third party optimally intervenes at a level insufficient to deter rebellion. Such behavior, which improves the incumbent government’s potential to succeed in conflict, is often overlooked in conflict studies evaluating the effectiveness of intervention. One policy implication of the model is that an increase in the strength of inter-governmental trade partnerships increases the likelihood that third-party intervention acts to deter rebellion. In the final essay, a simple model of a college basketball season is constructed to examine the existence of conference bias in college basketball’s Ratings Percentage Index. Given the nature of the RPI formula and the hierarchical structure of college basketball’s 31 conferences, we expect the RPI to be biased against teams playing a difficult conference schedule. The model verifies that, even in a perfect world where teams play to expectation and can be transitively compared based on revealed performance level, the RPI does not necessarily provide an ordinal mapping from revealed team ability level to the real number line. This result has important implications on NCAA tournament selection and seeding.

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Numerous studies have been completed on the academic ability of student athletes. Since the mid 1980s, the NCAA has emphasized the importance of academics and mandated more stringent requirements to be able to participate in intercollegiate athletics. These initial-eligibility standards have been successful in increasing overall graduation rates of student-athletes, but there remain a number of concerns. The purpose of the study was to determine if an NCAA D-I freshman student athlete's place of residency on campus, as opposed to off campus, while attending college during his/her freshman year had a statistically significant relationship to achievement as it relates to academic performance. The continued purpose of the study examined the relationship between selected socio-demographic components to academic performance in NCAA D-I freshman student athletes and how this relationship may have directly related to their academic performance during their freshman year. Participants completed the informed consent along with a questionnaire to aid in determining what academic and socio-demographic variables were related to academic performance (N = 205). Based on the results of this study, it was concluded that living on or off campus had no relationship with how the freshman student athletes performed academically. The best individual correlations with academic performance were high school GPA, gender, and ACT scores. These relationships proved to be a moderate relationship because an r value of .75 or greater was not reached. High school GPA, ethnicity, gender, absences unexcused, and ACT scores did enter a stepwise multiple regression equation, but could only explain 55% of the variance for that equation. Statistically 60% is an acceptable level for predicting academic performance in the study. However, it should be noted that 55% of the variance is relevant for those individuals who deal with the academic performance (i.e., athletic administrators, academic advisors, university faculty, parents, etc.) of student athletes to encourage the use of these variables to predict a student athlete's academic success. The other remaining variables showed only a low or very low relationship to a freshman student athlete's academic performance.

In the game of water polo, it is generally accepted that the shooting position of the offensive player and the tactic employed are both important in generating goals. Despite their importance, little is known about the relationship between shooting position and offensive tactics and their impact on the probability of goal scoring. In this research, a sequence of hierarchical mixed logistic regression models is applied to a unique data set from 2016 and 2017 NCAA men’s water polo seasons to analyze the relationship between goal generating tactics and different shooting positions. The primary result reveals that the closer a player is the “midline” of the pool and the closer a player is to the goal, the higher the percentage of scoring by offensive tactic. Furthermore, statistically significant relationships reveal (i) direct shots are better than perimeter shots, (ii) left-handed shooters are more efficient at scoring goals that right-handed shooters, and (iii) counterattack opportunities are better than power plays (player advantage). Understanding the best goal-scoring positions in the pool for each offensive tactic will assist coaches and players in devising more successful offensive and defensive strategies.

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Scholars have pointed to numerous struggles retiring college athletes face as they transition out of sport (e.g., anxiety, isolation, body image issues; Kiefer et al., 2021; Lavallee et al., 1997; McKnight et al., 2009; Papathomas & Lavallee, 2010; Papathomas et al., 2018; Semaia, n.d.; Smith & Hardin, 2018, 2020; Stokowski et al., 2019). Though research has explored individual transition experiences, what is missing is an investigation into existing programming offered by NCAA athletic departments and its effectiveness on athletes’ biopsychosocial (i.e., social, mental, and physical) well-being. This mixed-methods study examines programming available from institutions across NCAA divisions, its effectiveness, and areas of need. Research findings provide insight into the impact that current programming can have on athlete biopsychosocial well-being, specifically areas of nutrition, physical activity, and alumni participation. However, more consideration needs to be given to distributing these types of programmings across all three divisions. / Tourism and Sport

The purpose of this study was to determine if NCAA Division I-A football program success had a relationship to student-athlete graduation rates. Graduation rate data for 2001 were obtained from the NCAA and cumulative five-year records of selected NCAA Division I-A football programs determined winning percentage for the years 1996-2000. The data were examined by correlating the two variables of winning percentage and graduation rate. The findings show no significant correlation at a probability level of .05. The results of this study indicate the success of a football programs do not have any relationship to low football team graduation rates. Therefore, other factors such as athletic department ideals, commercialization of sport, or the preconceived notion that collegiate football athletes are only enrolled to compete in football may play a factor in graduation rates among NCAA Division I-A football players.

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College athletics have faced a lot of challenges and changes in the last two decades. Sports like football and basketball have been the main money-making streams for NCAA. With the popularity of college athletics growing, members of the business community have seen this as an opportunity to make money, especially members of the media. In turn, student-athletes have factored the ability to make money off of their own name, image, and likeness (NIL) into their college education decision. In order to explore this relationship between college athletics and the media industry, I analyzed how media rights in college basketball have affected college basketball recruiting over the last five years. Teams are not only recruiting players from high school, but they have to work hard and recruit players from the transfer portal, which allows for mid-collegiate-career changes. With the introduction of NIL, recruiting highly ranked players has become a complex process in that teams with smaller budgets feel helpless because money is not an issue for the bigger schools. In my research, I analyzed players and teams from all levels within Division 1 basketball, and through statistical analysis, The research found that better players are attracted by more affluent athletic programs. Teams with higher media rights revenue and overall revenue have a big advantage when it comes to recruiting highly rated high-school players or transfers. School enrollment does not play a significant role in some cases because student-athletes are mostly focused on their athletic experience.