A regional analysis of academic and athletic reputations of NCAA Division 1-A institutions

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between academic and athletic reputations of institutions in conjunction with examining differences between geographical regions. The population for this study consisted of the 105 institutions comprised by Division l-A of the NCAA during the 1986-1987 academic year. A permission letter to authors for use of the data, where necessary, was sent out in the spring and summer of 1987. A favorable response from authorization letters mailed out in the spring and summer of 1987 permitted the use of derived data from four graduate (quality of graduate faculty rating) and three undergraduate (overall institutional rating) academic reputational studies. These were extracted, modified, and paired with mean (pre- and post-season) football ratings from four rating services for computer analysis. Ten hypotheses were presented. Criterion years included 1959, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1973. 1982, and 1984. Means and standard deviations on six institutional characteristics were also included for descriptive purposes. A Pearson product-moment (two -tailed test at the .05 level) correlation coefficient was computed for the population, regions, and conferences by criterion year. A two-sample test of differences between correlation coefficients was addressed to the null hypotheses that examined regional and conference differences. There is no evidence to suggest that an institution's athletic reputation enhances its academic reputation. From a regional perspective, academically reputable institutions within Division l-A of the NCAA can be identified nationwide. The list of institutions that comprise the academic hierarchy is relatively stable over many years; such is the case with an athletic hierarchy as well. Institutions that have achieved the balance of successful academic and athletic programs can be found in each region despite the absence of a theoretical justification for the relationship between academics and athletics. The following conclusions were reached based on the results of the study: 1. There appears to be a relationship, although minimal, between an institution's academic and athletic reputation. 2. No differences exists in the academic and athletic reputations between regions and conferences for graduate or undergraduate ratings in the criterion years.