Identifying Athlete’s Majors and Career Aspirations: The Next Step in Clustering Research

The purpose of the study was to examine current collegiate athlete’s academic majors and identify their career plans after graduation. The goal was to see if the athlete’s academic major was congruent with their career aspirations. Previous research studies have shown that academic clustering, when 25% or more of an athletic team are in the same academic major, exists within a variety of athletic teams. However, there has not been a study done that assesses whether the athletes are majoring in disciplines that are related to their ultimate career goal. A total of 605 athletes from eight sports in the BIG10 and MAC conferences participated in the study. The results revealed that 192 of the 605 participants (31.7%) did not have majors and career aspirations that aligned. This study provides further insight into the academic puzzle of collegiate athletics

Not a Student, Not an Athlete, a Person

College athletics can place immense demands on athletes in terms of time commitment, physical conditioning, and pressure to perform. However, one important but less visible dimension affected by participation is one’s identity. College athletes hold multiple identities (Sturm et al., 2011) and these identities are further refined through their experiences (Chang et al., 2018). However, much less is known about athletes’ cognitive awareness of others’ perceptions and how those opinions influence athletes’ sense of self. In the present work, 52 Division I collegiate basketball players took part in a qualitative survey focused on understanding their athletic experience based on interactions with others. Responses revealed that athletes had dichotomous beliefs when addressing their perceptions of self and how they believed others viewed them, primarily based on the influence of sport. Conversely, athletes had more differing thoughts when discussing their aspirations and wishes for their future and often discussed professional goals, personality traits, and connections to others. Taken together, these results corroborate the desire (and need) for athletes to foster identities beyond their sport world (Stokowski et al., 2019) and for those who shape the sport experience to proactively work on behalf of athletes in this domain

The Social-Psychological Implications of a Coaching Change at the Collegiate Level: Perceptions of Athletes

The purpose of this study was to better understand the social-psychological processes and outcomes athletes experience during a head coaching change. The authors conducted semistructured interviews with 47 NCAA Division I athletes, representing 11 different sports at 20 distinct institutions. Following inductive analysis of transcribed interviews, seven higher order themes emerged: emotions, academics, goals, leadership, negative effects, positive effects, and changing culture and structure of the team. According to the perceptions of athletes, results showed that coaches stressed the importance of academics and used goal setting principles with their new team. However, athletes also spoke to deficiencies in leadership and the emotional instability that resulted in a loss of confidence, increased stress, and feeling ignored by the new staff. Thus, open and honest lines of communication need to be formed early with athletes—by multiple athletic personnel—so that individuals have the support system necessary to prevent maladaptive results

He\u27s an Asshole : Power 5 College Football Athletes Navigating a Shady Coaching Transition

Head coaches play a crucial role in shaping both athletes’ athletic experiences and the complex team system. Consequently, coaching transitions have a tremendous effect on college athletes. Through the lens of transition theory, the purpose of this case study was to investigate the effect of multiple head coaching changes on NCAA Division I Power Five football athletes. Eight football athletes completed a 27- item open-ended questionnaire. Data analysis revealed three explicit, meaningful themes: support, achievement, and consistency. This study strives to assist athletic administrators and coaches in becoming increasingly aware of the potential impact that these abrupt coaching transitions can have on the athlete experience. Additionally, through the voices of the participants, this study attempts to assist college athletes in navigating a coaching transition