This article explores how the ideology of individualism sustains a conflictual school/sport intercollegiate system within the neoliberalism university [Giroux, Henry A. 2014. "Neoliberalism's War Against Higher Education." Chicago: Haymarket Press]. Life-history interview with 47 U.S. collegiate athletes reveal how institutional…

This study uses Bourdieusian (1977, 1978, 2011) approaches to reproduction to position athletic bureaucracies as legitimating institutions that convert capital. I examine how the cultural production of amateurism in U.S. college sports facilitates class reproduction by enabling a direct conversion between accrued economic, social, and physical…

Creating racially just campuses requires dismantling the cultural imperialism of Whiteness--how Whiteness becomes the norm to which all else is measured, compared, and excluded. Little is known about how Whiteness shapes the most prevalent athletic cultures: non-revenue teams. Using critical Whiteness studies and life-history interviews with 47…

Research into racism and college sports largely explores how universities profit off the undercompensated labor of predominately Black men in Division I football and basketball. This research frames college sports as an institution that dehumanizes, marginalizes, and exploits athletes of color (Beamon, 2014; Eitzen, 2016; Hawkins, 2010; Sack &…

US college sports are prime cultural sites of racist and sexist ideological production [Coakley, Jay. 2015. "Sport in Society: Issues and Controversies." 11th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill; Eitzen, Stanley D. 2016. "Fair and Foul: Beyond the Myths and Paradoxes of Sport." 5th ed. Landham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield]. Much of…

"Operation Varsity Blues" (OVB) indicted coaches and administrators from eight universities for accepting bribes in exchange for admitting fraudulent athletes. As part of the conspiracy parents paid university officials to admit students with little-to-no sport experience as college athletes. Court filings in the case contrasted OVB to…

Background/Context: School-sponsored sports programs are seen in both the public and policy spheres as meritocratic mobility institutions. In the U.S. context, athletic participation can yield access to college via sports performance. Meritocratic mobility would be achieved as individuals use their athletic ability and effort to enter universities…

In this article, Kirsten Hextrum considers institutional avenues that limit upward mobility opportunities by revealing a hidden curriculum of athletic recruiting that favors students from privileged backgrounds. The study's data center on forty-seven life history interviews with National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I athletes from an…

This white paper was prepared at the request of the Advisory Committee to the Athletic Study Center as a result of their concern over poor graduation rates in football as released by the NCAA in 2012. The paper received extensive review by the members of that committee as well as several other knowledgeable faculty and senior administrators before…