Master of Arts / Department of Economics / Yang M. Chang / College football thrives on the ideas that each school has what it takes to be the best, rivalries are of major importance, and either team can win the game. Competitive balance is what keeps these thoughts alive, offering the last team in the conference the chance to beat their top-ranked opponent, or the mediocre middle-rank team the chance to win a post-season bowl game. Competitive balance provides the level of uncertainty of game outcome that keeps fans coming back every season. Previous research has examined many variables that have an effect on competitive balance. The purpose of this report is to step forward from where previous studies left off and examine the effect of the conference championship game on competitive balance. Five of the eleven NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision conferences currently determine their conference champion by holding a championship game at the end of the season. Recent conference realignments bring about the possibility for two more conferences to establish championship games. Does hosting a conference championship game improve competitive balance within the league? This study examined several measures of competitive balance, including standard deviation measures, the competitive balance ratio, and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Results suggest a slightly higher level of competitive balance for conferences hosting championship games versus those that do not. However, these results are not statistically significant, and this higher level of competitive balance could be explained by the larger membership of conferences hosting championship games.

In this ethnography (anthropology thesis) I explored the binary gender division in modern sports culture through the analysis of stereotypes shaped by the history of women's sport, iconography of female athletes portrayed by mainstream media, and the reinforcement of stigma and pressure to conform to social norms by the normalized everyday discourse of college men and women at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges. Even though Title IX brought significant gender equality to sport in terms of women's access to athletic participation and facilities, I argue that there is still much work to do to modify social attitudes toward women's sports. While CMS female student-athletes have a keen awareness of the existing gender disparity of athleticism and make criticisms of the male-dominated hegemony, they sometimes reproduce the very same disparity they are subjected to by reinforcing internalized stereotypes through articulations of female homosocial spaces, feminine ideals, and the worthy emulation of men's sports. Thus, I argue that women hold a great deal of agency to promote gender equality in sports culture through a reevaluation of the way they think and talk about traditional masculinity and femininity, athletic performance, body image, and sexuality.

Title IX was enacted over 40 years ago, and although there have been marked increases in the number of girls and women participating in athletics at every level, gender equity in athletics continues to be a concern. This is especially evident at the community college level. Title IX requires equity in the areas of opportunities for participation, opportunities for financial aid, and equity in benefits and services. This study sought to ascertain perceptions of equity held by community college coaches of women’s teams. A cross-sectional design was used to survey coaches from all regions of the NJCAA who were listed in the National Directory of in regard to their perceptions of equity in opportunities for participation, opportunities for scholarships, awareness and understanding of Title IX and related compliance issues, including whistleblower protection, and their level of comfort in discussing gender equity issues with supervisors. Multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences in perceptions regarding gender equity in terms of opportunities for participation, opportunities for financial aid by means of athletic scholarships, benefits and services, awareness and understanding and level of comfort in discussing perceptions regarding gender equity issues or Title IX non-compliance based on gender, years’ experience coaching, sport coached and region, although effect sizes for each analysis were determined to be small. Without question, women are in a better position to recognize gender inequities in athletics on college campuses. It is essential that women are recruited and hired into leadership positions in athletic departments and into executive positions in educational administrations at community colleges. Without a voice at the decision-making levels, the pace at which community colleges move toward equity will continue to lag.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate factors in the work environment that impact job burnout among academic support professionals who work with college student-athletes. Specifically, the factors of job control match, fairness march, rewards match, and workload match were explored. Additionally, the extent to which emotional exhaustion and depersonalization had an effect on turnover intention was explored. Job burnout has been found to have negative impacts on professionals in human services professions. The sample consisted of academic advisors and learning specialists affiliated with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I programs. Results suggest academic support professionals experience a high level of emotional exhaustion related to a mismatch in perceived job control, rewards, and workload. Additionally, higher levels of emotional exhaustion were found to significantly impact turnover intention. Practical solutions that address job mismatches are discussed along with theoretical implications for the person-environment fit framework applied in the context of the sport industry.

This thesis addresses universities’ image repair strategies when a student athlete is accused of sexual assault and the media’s coverage of these strategies. This is a particularly important issue due to the prevalence of campus sexual assault, as recent studies have shown that one in five women is sexually assaulted in college. Sexual assaults involving college athletes typically receive more media attention due to their high-profile nature. Athletic programs are typically sites of hegemonic masculinity, where men take action to maintain dominance over women. They may do this through misogynistic and homophobic talk or committing violence against women. Athletic departments’ image repair strategies when male athletes are accused of sexual assault also sometimes uphold hegemonic masculinity if their main goal is to maintain the team, which may generate significant revenue for the university. As such, their image repair strategies may allow male athletes to continue to partake in misogynistic practices, including committing violence against women. The media also has been accused of upholding masculine dominance by supporting rape myths or blaming the accuser in sexual assault incidents. This thesis consists of two case studies: the University of Colorado, which faced several allegations of sexual assault by football players in the early 2000’s; and Baylor University, which underwent a similar scandal starting in late 2015. It contains textual analysis of officials’ image repair strategies at both schools and the media’s responses to them. Ultimately, both Colorado and Baylor upheld hegemonic masculinity through their image repair strategies, though Colorado did so on a larger scale. In both instances, journalists were largely critical of their image repair strategies and argued that the strategies were not enough to change the structure of masculine dominance.

The sport industry has become an enormous cultural and economic force across the globe. Yet it is one that is largely understudied in regards to public relations. In the United States, intercollegiate athletics—particularly football and men’s and women’s basketball—garners a tremendous amount of attention from media, the government, sports fan communities, merchandisers and scholars. However, there is scant research on public relations within intercollegiate athletics departments. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to learn how intercollegiate athletics directors (ADs) from National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I institutions with major basketball programs understand public relations, overall and in the context of men’s and women’s basketball coaches. For this study, a phenomenological approach was used. Twelve ADs were interviewed, and their transcripts were analyzed using comparative analysis procedures. The findings show that the overall understanding of public relations to the participants is integrated impression management: a combination of image, message, and action/interaction. The ADs associated public relations with marketing, branding, communication, media relations, community/university relations, fundraising and crisis management. They expressed a range of responsibility within their organizations for public relations, as well as related issues and challenges. They also associated some specific responsibilities and challenges regarding public relations to the context of men’s and women’s basketball coaching. The results of this study imply that despite some scholars’ insistence that public relations is a distinct discipline from marketing, executives do not necessarily separate the two. The findings of this study aid in understanding how public relations might be evolving within intercollegiate athletics. Learning how those with power and influence in this industry understand public relations can help intercollegiate athletics departments with the root and ramifications of some major challenges. For scholars, this presents an opportunity to test and develop theory, as well as to identify trends, changes and solutions for public relations in an industry with cultural power and influence.

This paper seeks to examine how major college athletics have grown into a billion dollar industry, and the way businesses, advertisers and the schools themselves can effectively grow their brands. By understanding the theoretical framework referenced by the social identity theory, disposition theory and identity through mass media, this paper offers a look into the reasoning for America’s strong affinity towards college athletics. Resulting in a mass market for intercollegiate sports delivered though various media outlets, and the business models that conferences and television networks operate in an effort to capitalize on their demand. In addition, the observation and analysis for organizational dissension between conferences and membership is explored in order to better understand the reasoning for shifts between university teams and conferences. / text

During a period in American history when the racial landscape was rapidly changing, racial advances in collegiate athletics were taking place across the South in the 1950s and 1960s. At the University of Texas, that process proved harder to achieve than many expected as it would take nearly two decades to integrate athletics following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that admitted blacks to the university in 1950. Caught in the middle of the decade-long struggle, as blacks finally began integrating various UT athletic teams, was a group of black basketball players whose story reflects the racial progress made not just in Austin, but also across the United States. / text

Informed by the words and experiences of 41 Division I-Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) student-athletes, this qualitative study reveals the complexities of the student-athlete academic experience shaped by the expectations of their athletic role, the campus climate, and the NCAA Academic Reform Package. Using role-identity as a theoretical framework, it examines how, over time, these student-athletes have shaped their athletic and academic role-identities, and the roles played in such shaping by those in their academic and athletic role-sets. The study critically examines the academic decisions made by these student-athletes, questions the isomorphic academic and athletic rubric, and proposes suggestions for the enhancement of the student-athlete experience within the confines of the academic reform policies.

In "One Foot In: Student-Athlete Advocacy and Social Movement Rhetoric in the Margins of American College Athletics," the author explores student-athlete advocacy of black male student-athletes in revenue generating sports and educational and cultural reforms to NCAA policies and bylaws over approximately two decades (1985-2006). The author examines non-profit organizations--Black Coaches Association, Drake Group, Institute for Diversity and Ethics and Sport, and Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics--who pressured the NCAA to enact measures to restore order and balance to American college athletics. In addition, these measures are designed to increase student-athlete graduation rates, increase opportunities for minority coaches and administrators, and protect college educators who blow the whistle on institutions who commit infractions. The author begins by identifying social movement rhetorical strategies--the "Triple Front" strategy of Harold Cruse and Agitation/Control Rhetoric of Bowers, Ochs, and Jensen--to analyze rhetorical interactions between non-profit organizations and the NCAA, especially how the NCAA responds by using control rhetoric in order to protect itself from outside influences. Finally, the author ends the discussion by using autoethnography to analyze my own experiences as a writing program administrator challenging NCAA hegemony by running a progressive writing program within a traditional student-athlete study hall.