Recruiting talented student-athletes is integral to the success of an athletics
program. Yet, some universities and individuals therein have been willing to violate
National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recruiting regulations to lure talented
athletes to play at their institution. Institutional and isomorphic pressures of discouraging
unethical recruiting behavior and practice rely heavily upon the rationalization and
institutionalizing of social phenomena through written policy in NCAA Bylaw 13. These
policies may be identified as cartel agreements, where a group creates rules to control
actions that assure economic profit. Although recruiting top talent may lead to increased
victories and revenues, most NCAA athletic departments do not make a profit and being
sanctioned for violating NCAA recruiting rules may lead to damaged institutional
reputation. In response, universities have invested resources to protect institutional
prestige through a comprehensive NCAA rules compliance program. Nevertheless,
undisclosed recruiting violations transpire because there are financial incentives to
violate NCAA rules.
Three separate works were utilized to examine the economic, institutional, and
individual factors of NCAA institutional control. First, institutional factors of reported
NCAA recruiting violations were analyzed through a series of chi-square tests.
Correlative institutional factors were found in particular types of Bylaw 13 violations
including conference affiliation, geographic region, sports involved in a major infraction,
and size of full-time athletic compliance staff when the violation occurred. Second,
hierarchical loglinear regression was used to analyze the results from a survey of 7,200
current student-athletes regarding undisclosed recruiting violations. Various violation
types of Bylaw 13 correlatively involved institutions from Bowl Championship Series
(BCS) conferences, based on geographic regions, revenue sports, and individual factors
of race, sex, and income level. Third, a qualitative instrumental case study examined the
economic, administrative, and individual relationships regarding NCAA institutional
control of athletics recruiting at a perceivably compliant Division I (FBS), BCS
conference-affiliated institution. Findings from this study suggested that the systemic
pressure to win championships and maintain institutional control become difficult to
balance with the added pressure of high stakes recruiting that can influence the financial
stability of an athletic department. The conclusion of this work will assess systemic
alternatives regarding NCAA recruiting violations and propose legal remedies to curtail
future recruiting violations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2010-05-7738 |
| Date | 2010 May 1900 |
| Creators | Clark, Robert Smith |
| Contributors | Batista, Paul J. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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