“Please Bear with me a Moment as I Write About Sports”: Addressing the Dearth of Sport Scholarship in General, High-Impact Higher Education Journals

A Review of Campus Recreation and Sport-Based Experience Literature in Higher Education Contexts

“…This may seem like a surprise considering that most of the research is published in sport, recreation and leisure related journals. However, scholars have found that sport-related research is noticeably absent in higher education journals (Foster et al, 2021). There has also been a greater number of theories adopted from outside higher education that were not identified in the previous review.…”

Examining Faculty Perspectives on the Role and Value of Intercollegiate Athletics

“…Myles Brand's legacy as a former academician, university president, and NCAA president lends credibility to his Integrated and Standard Views on intercollegiate athletics (Foster et al, 2022;Renfro, 2009). Brand experienced the division between education and athletics firsthand as an academic and university president (Kretchmar, 2023).…”

“…Alternatively, Brand's (2006) SV maintains that faculty and other academics in American higher education are biased against athletics and athletes, seeing the "enterprise" as a distraction to institutions' teaching, research, and service missions (Clotfelter, 2019). Indeed, scholars have argued that such perspectives further divide academics and athletics, causing opposition and tension between the two sides of campus (Foster et al, 2022;Harry & Weight, 2019;Matz, 2020). The SV also contends that athletics is extracurricular, auxiliary, and offers limited educational value (Brand, 2006).…”

“…Stakeholders with an IV tend to couple the importance of mind-body development, similar to in the performing arts (Foster et al, 2022;Matz 2020;Weight et al, 2020), espousing the values athletes cultivate, such as perseverance, teamwork, ethics, and the ability to cope with adversity (Brand, 2006;Harry, 2023;Harry & Weight, 2019). Furthermore, faculty with an IV may find similar value in athletes' abilities to read X's and O's and artists' abilities to decipher sheet music.…”

“…Clotfelter (2019) outlined four ways college sports enhanced university communities, such as improving participants' educational opportunities and experiences, molding campus cultures and traditions, increasing visibility and status, and generat-ing financial benefits for institutions with high-profile athletic programs (Bass et al, 2015;Clotfelter, 2019;Lifschitz et al, 2014). Moreover, Foster et al (2022) noted the potential for a "synergistic effect" (p. 176) on learning to occur when sport and education are appropriately coupled. Further, Anderson (2017) linked a successful March Madness basketball tournament run or success in other high-profile postseason competitions with a subsequent increase in the number of applications a school receives.…”