Research, Polls & White Papers

Presidential Survey on the Cost and Financing of Intercollegiate Athletics. July 2009.
The survey reports the views of presidents for the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) universities on the costs and financing of intercollegiate athletics. The findings are based on 95 quantitative telephone interviews and 22 qualitative follow-up telephone interviews with presidents. The quantitative component achieved an 80 percent completion rate. The study was conducted by Art & Science Group of Baltimore, MD, from March to July 2009. For Report Appendices, link here.

Executive Summary of Faculty Perceptions of Intercollegiate Athletics Survey. October, 2007.
In a national survey of more than 2,000 faculty members at universities with the country’s most visible athletic programs, a striking number of professors say they don’t know about and are disconnected from issues facing college sports. More than a third say they don’t know about many athletics program policies and practices, including the financial underpinnings of their campuses’ athletics programs. Furthermore, more than a third have no opinion about concerns raised by national faculty athletics reform groups. ...

Faculty Perceptions of Intercollegiate Athletics
The main goal of the Faculty Perceptions of Intercollegiate Athletics Survey is to examine professors’ beliefs about and satisfaction with intercollegiate athletics. The investigation also identifies faculty members’ primary concerns about intercollegiate athletics and gathers preliminary data on whether they would join campus-based initiatives aimed at ameliorating these concerns. Further, the survey assesses whether professors think such activities would lead to meaningful change on their campus...

Public Opinion Poll, Jan. 2006.
The Census-balanced and representative telephone poll of 502 adults among adults 18 years of age and older was conducted in December 2005 for the commission by Widmeyer Research and Polling of Washington, D.C. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 4.4%. Poll findings suggest the following:
Americans believe college sports are like professional sports. ...

Public Opinion Poll, Dec. 2005.
A recent Census-balanced and representative telephone poll among 502 American adults completed in late December 2005 for the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics by Widmeyer Research and Polling of Washington, DC found that: Americans say the NCAA should “stay the course but remain diligent.” ...