College Choice Factors and Organizational Effectiveness in Intercollegiate Athletics

The purpose of this study was to find out if winning could be predicted by spending on facilities and coaches’ salaries by NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic departments. Using the goals attainment model (Price, 1972) approach, winning, as measured by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Cup Points, was used as the measure of organizational effectiveness for intercollegiate athletic departments. The results of a hierarchical multiple linear regression suggest that a significant proportion of the total variation in Directors’ Cup points was predicted by the combination of total annual debt service, total outstanding debt, average men’s head coach salary, and average women’s head coach salary (F(4, 284) = 183.962, p \u3c .001. Multiple R2 indicates that approximately 75 percent of the variation in Directors’ Cup points was predicted by the combination of total annual debt service, total outstanding debt, average men’s head coach salary, and average women’s head coach salary

Impact of Student Fees on Winning in the NCAA

The financial picture for most intercollegiate athletic departments involves the use of student fees to help offset the costs of running the department. Students were charged more than $795 million to support sports programs at 222 Division I public schools during the 2008-09 school year (Berkowitz, Upton, McCarthy, & Gillum, 2010). With that level of investment it is prudent to ask what effect on winning these funds may have. Many presidents have cited the indirect benefits athletics brings to a campus as a justification for allocating student fees to athletics. However, while much research has been done on the subject, no consensus has been formed on how much influence athletics has on two of the most prominently cited areas of indirect benefits, which are student applications and donations to the university (Frank, 2004; Getz & Siegfried, 2012). The purpose of this study was to determine if student fees were a good predictor of Directors’ Cups points and subsequently whether or not the direct benefit of a winning athletic program, as judged by Directors Cup points, can be used as a justification for student fees allocation to athletics. Data for this study were obtained from the USA Today (2014) NCAA Finances data base as well as the 2013 Learfield Directors’ Cup standings. The final dataset contains 160 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I schools that had received both student fees for athletics and acquired points in the Directors’ Cup standings. All data analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS 22.0. A multiple linear regression model was conducted to determine if Directors’ Cup points could be predicted from student fees and level of affiliation in NCAA Division I. The results of the study tells us that there is not a significant portion of the total variation in points earned in the Director’s Cup standings predicted by student fees (p = .275). This result leads to the conclusion that it is possible that presidents and athletic departments could find other measures of success that better explain their rationale for use of student fees towards athletics. This is paramount in order for practitioners in intercollegiate athletics to best explain the benefits of their programs to the university and its students. This is especially important now as the cost of higher education for students and their parents continues to rise, leading many to ponder how much of that cost should be dedicated to an endeavor that most college students do not participate in

A large scale prediction of bacteriocin gene blocks suggests a wide functional spectrum for bacteriocins

Bacteriocins are peptide-derived molecules produced by bacteria, whose recently-discovered functions include virulence factors and signalling molecules as well as their better known roles as antibiotics. To date, close to five hundred bacteriocins have been identified and classified. Recent discoveries have shown that bacteriocins are highly diverse and widely distributed among bacterial species. Given the heterogeneity of bacteriocin compounds, many tools struggle with identifying novel bacteriocins due to their vast sequence and structural diversity. Many bacteriocins undergo post-translational processing or modifications necessary for the biosynthesis of the final mature form. Enzymatic modification of bacteriocins as well as their export is achieved by proteins whose genes are often located in a discrete gene cluster proximal to the bacteriocin precursor gene, referred to as \textit{context genes} in this study. Although bacteriocins themselves are structurally diverse, context genes have been shown to be largely conserved across unrelated species. Using this knowledge, we set out to identify new candidates for context genes which may clarify how bacteriocins are synthesized, and identify new candidates for bacteriocins that bear no sequence similarity to known toxins. To achieve these goals, we have developed a software tool, Bacteriocin Operon and gene block Associator (BOA) that can identify homologous bacteriocin associated gene clusters and predict novel ones. We discover that several phyla have a strong preference for bactericon genes, suggesting distinct functions for this group of molecules. Availability: https://github.com/idoerg/BOAComment: Accepted for publication in BMC Bioinformatic

Organizational Effectiveness Measures and Their Relationship to Donor Contributions

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between organizational effectiveness measures and donor contributions for National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I athletic departments. For this study, donor contributions were used as a proxy for donors’ perception of organizational effectiveness for these athletic departments. Using a combination of the goals attainment model (Price, 1972) and the strategic constituencies model (Connolly, Conlon, & Deutsch, 1980) the effectiveness measures used were athletic performance, student athlete welfare, and student athlete academic success. The whole of Division I, as well as the three subdivisions, were examined for the five-year period from 2013 to 2017. The results of hierarchical multiple linear regressions suggested that a significant proportion of the variance in donor contributions was predicted by a combination of athletic performance, student athlete welfare, and student athlete academic success. This was true for all of Division I, but varied by subdivision. Approximately 60% of variance was predicted by the combination of effectiveness measures for the Football Bowl Subdivision, 12% for the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and 20% for Division I without football. Student athlete academic success proved to only be a significant predictor on its own for the FCS

Forecasting Issues in NCAA Division I FBS Athletics

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and its member institutions have been faced with significant changes in the recent past. This study was used to predict issues, caused by some of these changes, which will impact leaders of NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) athletic departments over the next five to seven years. The Delphi technique was employed to obtain expert opinions for the forecast. The expert panel consisted of sport management faculty who were surveyed over three rounds to determine what issues were likely to occur and whether or not those issues would have a significant impact. The purpose of the study was to anticipate the issues stemming from the granting of autonomy to the Power 5 conferences and the recent litigation facing the NCAA and its member institutions. Further, the forecast is meant to aid in stakeholder management and strategic planning for athletic administrators at FBS institutions. The expert panel identified nine possible issues, deeming three of the issues likely to occur and four of the issues as having a significant impact. Based on these results, recommendations and suggestions for future research are discussed

An Examination of the Present and Predictions for the Future of Intercollegiate Athletics

This study forecasts future issues in NCAA Division I FBS intercollegiate athletics. The research design employed the Delphi technique to survey an expert panel, consisting of 12 athletic directors and associate athletic directors from FBS institutions, over three rounds to ascertain what issues are likely to occur over the next five to seven years and whether or not these issues will have a significant impact on the way intercollegiate athletics operates. Results of the study revealed eight issues that were likely to occur over the next five to seven years. Four of these issues related to the economic sector of the environment, one related to the legal sector, and three related to the sociocultural. Further, 14 of the issues were rated by the expert panel as having a significant level of impact if they were to occur. Recommendations are made based on the forecasts by the expert panel

Sport Management Study Abroad and International Exchange Program Innovation for a Post COVID-19 Era

The globalization of the sport industry has required sport management programs to create strategies for internationalizing students. Study abroad programs are a prominent example of those strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on study abroad programs in Spring of 2020. Many students had their study abroad experiences either cut short or canceled all together. The purpose of this essay is to discuss how the student learning process can continue during an interruption or cancellation of study abroad and international exchange programs due to a pandemic or other global issues. Using an observational study, we asked the following research questions: RQ1: What can the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic to higher education teach the sport management community to ensure students are able to engage in experiential and transformative learning? RQ2: What strategies can institutions of higher education implement to provide students with continued opportunities to benefit from the types of engagements traditionally associated with international programming? We offer recommendations that will help sport management programs prepare for future interruptions to study abroad experiences. These recommendations aim at fostering experiential and transformative learning despite disruptions to the traditional study abroad experience