Research + News | Topic: Athletics

New Endorsements For College Athletes Resurface An Old Concern: Sex Sells

Female college athletes are making millions thanks to their large social media followings. But some who have fought for equity in women’s sports worry that their brand building is regressive. Read the article here.

Video Games As Varsity Sports At Some Colleges

Student-athletes compete in online games such as League of Legends, Overwatch and Hearthstone with other teams in the National Association of Collegiate Esports. Read the article here.

College Students Seem To Take Longer To Recover From Concussion

Average is 1-2 weeks, but study found some kids needed more than 3 weeks to get better.

Read the article here.

Does Selling Alcohol At College Sporting Events Make The Drinking Problem Worse?

From the article from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse:

“With the knowledge of the dangers of college binge drinking, many campuses have cracked down on student alcohol consumption. Yet others have begun selling alcohol at sporting events. The number of schools selling alcohol at football games more than doubled over the past six to seven years.”

Read the post here.

Split Image

ESPN takes a look at the life of Madison Holleran, a college student who, according to her Instagram account, seemed to have it all together. The truth was much different as she committed suicide in 2014.

Read the article here.

What Student-Athletes Should Know Before Entering College

Graduate student and college athlete Alicia Whittle writes a post for the Growing Leaders blog about what she wished she had known before heading off to college. Read the post here.

Are Parents Spending Too Much on Athletics?

Research from sports psychologist Travis Dorsch studied the effect of parental spending on young athletes. The study found that greater parental spending is associated with lower levels of young-athlete enjoyment and motivation. Parents often justify high levels of spending in hopes that the investment will lead to a college scholarship. Kevin Helliker, an editor for The Wall Street Journal, reports:

“The study adds to a small but growing body of research suggesting that parents ought to temper their investments in youth athletics. The problem, at root, isn’t financial: It is that big expenditures tend to elevate parental expectations. ‘The more parents do, the more they expect a return on their investment,’ possibly reducing their chances of a favorable outcome, says Daniel Gould, director of Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports…

Other researchers say heavy spending is problematic only if parents expect a performance-related return on investment. ‘When you take your kids to Disneyland, you hope it enriches their day—not that they’ll win a competition to take Mickey Mouse home with them,’ says Dr. Dorsch, a former Cincinnati Bengals kicker who attributes his own athletic success in part to his parents’ relaxed approach.”

Read the full report here.

Some College Athletes Reading at 8th Grade Level?

CNN conducted an investigation looking into the reading ability of athletes at major colleges and universities. From the report:

“A CNN investigation found public universities across the country where many students in the basketball and football programs could read only up to an eighth-grade level. The data obtained through open records requests also showed a staggering achievement gap between college athletes and their peers at the same institution.

This is not an exhaustive survey of all universities with major sports programs; CNN chose a sampling of public universities where open records laws apply. We sought data from a total of 37 institutions, of which 21 schools responded.”

Read the full report here.

Watch a video about the report here.

Fans Think College Sports Programs Break NCAA Rules

According to a recent Marist Poll, more than two-thirds of sports fans nationally — 67% — think it is common practice for college sports programs to break NCAA rules when recruiting and training college athletes.

Read the report here.

Download the full report (.pdf) here.

Warped Incentives in College Sports?

According to U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan and Tom McMillen, chairman and CEO of the Timios National Corp., “The current path of big-time college sports is neither economically sustainable nor morally defensible.”

Read full report here.

Report is also featured in USA Today here.