The number of college athletes in the US has gradually increased, and in the 2020-2021 academic year, a record high of approximately 480,000 athletes participated in NCAA sports (NCAA Research, 2024). Along with this growth, scholars have highlighted various factors influencing college athletes' career development (e.g., career maturity, athletic…

Despite the growth of attention on racial engagement in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), limited studies have examined Latinx college athletes' participation in activism. Guided by the student leader activist identity continuum framework, this qualitative study interviewed seven NCAA Division I Latinx college athletes to…

Black College athletes mobilized in significant ways in 2020. One noticeable way Black college athletes mobilized was by creating Black student-athlete organizations (BSAOs). Given college athletics' long-standing relationship to racism, capitalism, and exploitation, it is important to understand how BSAOs function within the athletic subculture…

College athletes face a difficult task of balancing their academic and athletic responsibilities while in higher education, which has only increased in difficulty in the recent past. In the past 20 years, the NCAA has passed numerous legislative acts increasing academic requirements to achieve and maintain eligibility, an effort to ensure better…

In this study, we analyzed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index Perspective Taking subscale scores for male college students in a 2008-2011 longitudinal study at a large public university in the Southeast. Findings suggest that empathy is amenable to change among college males in the period of emerging adulthood. Through repeated measures analyses…

Concerns about the educational experiences of Division I athletes are pervasive. Finding meaningful ways to strike a healthy balance between athletics and academics has been an ongoing struggle for colleges and universities, and this article emphasizes the need for and value of innovation in current practices. The article introduces the Career…

This study examined the effects of participation in intercollegiate athletics on leadership development using a multi-institutional, longitudinal sample of students at four-year institutions. Using Astin's (1993) Input-Environment-Outcome model, we examined whether athletic participation influenced leadership development using the Socially…

We examined a student subgroup often absent from diversity research: student-athletes. We explored whether intercollegiate athletic teams are promoting an open and inclusive environment and whether creating such an environment leads to more frequent and more positive cross-racial interactions. Findings reveal that overall, coaches appear to be…

Today higher education student affairs professionals are charged with not only understanding the challenges and needs of a diverse student body, they must also prepare students for careers in life after college. For this empirical study I explored the undergraduate major choices and career aspirations of 29 senior student-athletes at a large,…

Using data from a random sample of first-year students in the 2009 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), we compared engagement in educationally purposeful activities in college, a set of educational outcomes, and the relationship between student engagement and educational outcomes for nonathletes and student-athletes participating in low-…

The exploitation of college athletes has been a topic of controversy within American higher education for over half of a century. Especially in the revenue-generating sports of men's basketball and football, critics have highlighted the surplus gains expropriated by colleges and universities on the backs of these young men, who are…

While past research has documented significant relationships between both athletic and Greek system (fraternity and sorority) membership and negative attitudes toward gays and lesbians, such work seems to vilify membership in athletics and the Greek system as causal mechanisms of homophobia. In this way, athletes and Greeks may be easy targets to…

Data from student-athletes at 15 colleges and universities (N = 4,258) document extensive misperceptions of peer drinking norms and their association with personal quantity of alcohol consumed. Regardless of actual drinking norms at each school, student-athletes commonly overestimated the alcohol consumption norms (both quantity and frequency…

Student affairs personnel are often charged with the task of creating a sense of community on campuses. Sports is among the many activities that historically have been used to meet this need for community among students. Yet, how and when a sense of community is created within a sports context has not been appropriately addressed in literature.…

An undergraduate degree is critical to a student-athlete's transition into life after sports; however, Black male student-athletes are not seizing the opportunities associated with college graduation. Black male student athletes' graduation rates are consistently and substantially lower than those of their White male student-athlete counterparts.…