The purpose of this research was to examine select psychological (body awareness), educational (health, nutrition, and injury recovery knowledge) and physiological (height, weight, BMI, and body fat percentage) variables within a sample of university students (n = 914) and varsity athletes (n = 435) at three “Power 5” NCAA Division I institutions in an effort to explore the legitimacy of competitive athletics as a holistic educational endeavor worthy of fulfilling the mission of higher education.  Data analysis revealed some support for Kolb’s experiential learning theory, with athletes demonstrating significantly greater nutrition, health, injury knowledge, and body awareness than non-athletes (p < 0.01), though mean scores for both groups revealed limited knowledge. Athletes demonstrated overall superior health and lower susceptibility to future metabolic risk factors than their active non-athlete classmates as demonstrated by a significantly lower body fat percentage despite having higher BMI values. Despite a lack of structured traditional education, it appears that athletes are gaining knowledge and engaging in practices critical to holistic development.  Practitioners must determine how to further cultivate these benefits through structured education for athletes and non-athletes.

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to survey National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I administrators (N=437) in the USA to identify the organizational values that are deemed as having the highest priority by administrators when carrying out the mission of their athletic department. Design/methodology/approach – The research utilized an online survey to examine the organizational values within NCAA athletic departments. The surveys were distributed during a one-month time period. Findings – The data demonstrated that academic excellence, student-athlete experience, and health/safety were rated as the organizational values with the highest priority in athletic departments. In addition, the study also illustrated that that the priority level of the individual values varied when focussing on the different levels of administrators. Originality/value – The understanding of value systems within sport organizations and proper implementation of value-driven leadership can enhance organizational efficiency through providing guidance to practitioners in decision-making processes and strategy development, and through providing consistent organizational philosophies that can influence employee behavior. Additionally, this paper builds upon empirical research exploring values within the intercollegiate athletic industry in the USA through a variety of theoretical frameworks including Schein’s organizational culture model (2010), Fishbein and Ajzen’s theory of reasoned action (1975), and Collins and Porras’s vision framework (2000).

Philosophical debate about the proper role of athletics within the academy has reverberated through each era of collegiate sport, and a growing body of literature points toward an impending tipping point unless radical reform ensues. This study contributes perspective to a proposed reform model through investigating perceptions of National Collegiate Athletics Association Division I coaches (N = 661) about their roles as educators and how this role could be altered through structural and philosophical changes within the academy. Quantitative and qualitative data provided mixed findings related to coach support for an integrated organizational structure with high variance in all structural facets explored except for compensation, where coaches believed structures should not be uniform between athletic and academic units because of the perceived greater workload, hours, media attention, and pressure in athletics.

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