Clustering By Academic Major at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) Aaron Goodson Follow-up studies of clustering by academic major, the dynamic of 25% or more of the studentathletes on a roster pursuing the same academic major, indicate that it still occurs in revenuegenerating sports (Fountain & Finley 2009, 2011; Otto, 2012). Clustering challenges the notion that student-athletes have control over their collegiate academic experience and reveals that their educational pursuits may not align with their professional goals or provide a meaningful educational experience (Sharp & Sheilley, 2008). Research on clustering is absent in member institutions of different NCAA divisions, institutions with unique missions and history (such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) or single-sex institutions), and institutions of higher education in other organizations such as junior colleges or community colleges. This study examined the academic majors of student-athletes in football and men's basketball at select HBCUs over four years. The results revealed that clustering occurred within basketball at four institutions, but only occurred within football at one institution. Additionally, clustering by academic major occurred at NCAA Division I and II institutions. From these results, it is clear that clustering by academic major is not just an issue at "big time" institutions, but potentially a widespread issue across collegiate athletics.

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Research has shown that collegiate student-athletes experience stressors that influence their development different from the general college population. Student-athlete development research concludes that constructs such as identity (Yukhymento-Lesocroart, 2013), role conflict (Adler & Adler, 1987; Settles et al., 2002), locus of control (Watson, 2016) impact the academic outcomes and life skills development. However, to date, there is no published research that examines the potential relationships among the different constructs and how they influence overall life skill development for student-athletes. Based on the review of the literature, the purpose of this study was to explore how and to what extent different aspects of student-athlete identity are related to self-efficacy. Additionally, the study aimed to situate the relationship between student-athlete identity and self-efficacy into the context of student-athlete development. More explicitly, the goal of this study is to construct a model that includes the concepts of identity, role conflict, locus of control, and self-efficacy using fit indices of structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that the models have good fit and there are positive and negative associations among variables in models that included identity, role conflict, locus of control, and self-efficacy. The results also have implications for student-athlete behavior, programming efforts from administrators in athletic departments, and anyone who works with collegiate student-athletes.