Administration of Intercollegiate Athletics

Book excerpt: Administration of Intercollegiate Athletics brings together some of the most knowledgeable professionals in the field of athletics administration to create an essential resource for all who aspire to work in this exciting field. This wide-ranging compilation of vital material on the subject of athletics administration is the most comprehensive textbook available to instructors of upper-level courses in sport management and a valuable resource for those in Division I, Division II, Division III, junior college, and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics levels. This textbook takes a unique approach in the domain of sport education. Contributors to the text, chosen for their widely acknowledged expertise in collegiate athletics administration, provide students with access to ideas from top researchers in the field to incorporate into their evolving professional philosophy. The text offers practical considerations and applications for financial operations, budgeting, marketing, corporate sponsorship, safety and risk assessment, ticketing, licensing, and alumni relations. These topics, in addition to those on media relations, facility and event management, and athlete services are unparalleled to any other text in the industry. There is detailed information on expectations in academics and status of standards for athletic eligibility and discussions of the importance of publicity and promotion, public relations, and media production in today’s college athletics. Learning tools in Administration of Intercollegiate Athletics enrich students’ understanding: • Leadership Lessons provide key points, inspiring a leadership mind-set that is critical to success in today’s world of college athletics administration. • Opening scenarios and chapter objectives create a framework for learning, highlighting critical points and translating material to a real-world setting. • Sidebars and case studies call out important concepts from readings. • Industry Profile Q&As offer students a chance to see how working administrators reached their present roles. • Learning activities for each chapter present real-life situations and direct students in applying what they have learned. • Instructor ancillary materials include a test package for evaluating students’ comprehension and an image bank of content for lecture slides. With content developed in partnership with working practitioners, the information presented in Administration of Intercollegiate Athletics is foundational knowledge essential to professional administrators. After reading this text, students will understand each unit in an athletics department and be able to hit the ground running in any one of these units while understanding the broader organizational context.