The Old College Try

Book excerpt: This book reviews the literature and institutional practice concerned with intercollegiate sports in higher education. Six sections cover the following topics: (1) academics and athletics (e.g., trends in research and scholarship and a framework for institutional analysis); (2) fiscal fitness: the peculiar economics of intercollegiate athletics (e.g. why expenses for college sports are so high and philanthropy and fund raising); (3) public policy and intercollegiate athletics programs (e.g., accountability, compliance, and other aspects of paying the price of nonprofit status, and colleges and the courts as illustrated by the case of television); (4) presidential leadership (e.g., the prescribed presidential role and problems of presidential leadership); (5) intercollegiate athletics and institutionalized administration (e.g. faculty involvement and the athletics director); and (6) educational mission, academic structure, and intercollegiate athletics policy, including recommendations for reform (e.g. structural models and institutional mission and from mission statements to self-study and accountability). Contains approximately 140 references. (SM)