Division I Athletic-Academic Support Facilities: Part of the Arms Race?

Background/Purpose: The athletics facility arms race has moved from the stadium and arena to academic support as these services have become critical attributes in attracting student-athletes (Alexander, 2004). Student-Athlete academic support services can include supervised study tables, tutoring, academic monitoring, traveling assistance, and a host of other services (Jordan & Denson, 1990). These services have been developed to help student-athletes better manage the rigors of athletic and academic demands, and they were ranked third among factors influencing an athlete’s college choice (Letawsky et al., 2003). However, academic support services have not been studied sufficiently to determine best practices or types of staffing and facilities needed to best serve the student-athletes. This study sought to examine personnel, budget, and facility information for student-athlete academic support services in NCAA Division I schools. A secondary purpose was to examine differences in these programs and facilities between Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) institutions.

Method: A 55-item survey instrument was developed to explore academic support programs and facilities. A total of 100 academic support program directors completed the online survey including 31 FBS and 69 FCS institutions dispersed among 28 athletic conferences.

Analysis/Results: From a personnel perspective, the directors’ demographic characteristics included a mean age of 40.7 years and 14.2 years experience working with student-athletes. The sample was 60% female, and the majority of these directors held master’s degrees (83%) within three primary fields: education (41%), sport management (28%), and psychology/counseling (20%). From a staffing perspective, the mean staff sizes included: full-time (4.9), part-time (7.2), clerical (0.5), graduate assistant (1.7), and tutors (39.6). From a budgetary standpoint, the average annual budget for tutoring services was $73,892, and the average program operational budget was $476,559.  Regarding academic support facilities, the mean age was 24.3 years with a mean cost of $11.7M. However, 63% of the facilities had significant renovations since 1998. The mean size was 8526 ft² including component allocations of meeting space (2225 ft²), tutoring (1971 ft²), computer labs (1231 ft²), and offices (1020 ft²). Additional ANOVA analyses identified 16 areas of significant differences between FBS/FCS classifications regarding the leadership, staffing, budget, and facilities. 

Conclusions: The size and scope of the academic support services facility can tremendously influence the programming and equipment housed within it. These results should prove beneficial to improving the understanding of the size, scope and nature of this often overlooked aspect of the collegiate athletics arms race.