부산대학교 도서관

Many institutions of higher education are better known for their athletics programs than their academic offerings. Should a crisis arise, athletics scandal and notoriety can threaten the future trajectory and financial health of the campus. As such, lapses in intercollegiate athletics oversight can create fractures and tensions within institutions and cascade to create system shocks within the industry. The most fundamental governance tension is the mismatch between an institution's academic mission and the "edutainment" performance and moneymaking associated with intercollegiate athletics. Institutions' efforts to address these conflicting logics are often underpinned by the prestige economy markers associated with athletics, including the potential for making or losing money. Presidents and boards' governance successes often go unnoticed, and missteps are archived in sports infamy by the media and fan folklore. This comparative case study researched the governance practices at two public institutions with Division I athletics and membership in Power 5 athletic conferences. The goal of the study was to delineate the processes by which intercollegiate athletics was governed by boards and presidents and whether those practices differed across institutions. The qualitative methodology employed a document analysis and semi-structured interviews with board members, presidents, senior administrators, and athletics department leaders. I developed a conceptual framework that outlined the anticipated factors that influence the senior-most leaders' athletics governance, leadership, and decision-making. While the conceptual framework may apply in different ways to different institutions, it proved a broad-based, literature-informed model to compare the case study sites. This focus allowed me to develop a transferable governance framework and series of questions for higher education leaders to apply to their institutions to review and refine their athletics governance processes. Implementing the transferable governance framework is intended to bolster the relationship among and between board members and the president, and to strengthen the effectiveness of their governance work together. Finally, the empirical findings from this research can assist presidents and boards as they respond to external pressures related to the oversight of intercollegiate athletics and work together to address the rapidly changing athletics environment. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]