Bases for Determining Need: Perspectives of Intercollegiate Athletic Directors and Athletic Board Chairs
The distribution of resources in intercollegiate athletics has been controversial for many years. Prior research indicated various stakeholders believed need-based distributions were fair and were more likely to be used. It was not clear, however, how the stakeholders determined need or which sports had the greatest needs. The results of the current study indicate that athletic administrators believe programs need more resources when they lack resources, have high program costs, or lack adequate resources to be competitively successful. Although these three reasons were each identified by all groups, Division I administrators cited competitive success more often, and Division III administrators cited high program costs more often. The current study also found that football was the sport believed to have the greatest needs at both the NCAA Division I and Division III levels, and men’s sports were generally believed to have greater needs.