Sarah Stokowski

Clemson University | CU · Department of Educational and Organizational Leadership Development

The lack of connectedness experienced by college students during the COVID-19 pandemic was problematic. An innovative approach undertaken in a (virtual) graduate classroom at Clemson University was the concept of team teaching. Team teaching allows a group of instructors to work together to enhance student learning. Upon course completion, students...

The revered tradition of amateurism has transformed due to legal and legislative challenges initiated by the name, image, and likeness landscape. In contrast to the traditional National Collegiate Athletic Association model, college athletes have now gained the opportunity to benefit financially from their notoriety by adopting an influencer role....

Football Bowl Subdivision football success (i.e., winning) is predicated on the ability to successfully recruit prospective athletes. Reflective of NCAA rules and regulations, assistant (i.e., position) coaches are relied upon to secure the enrollment of prospective athletes. Extant literature has established that Black position coaches are tasked...

The purpose of this essay is to explore synergy between the pedagogy of teaching group fitness classes and that of teaching in higher education (i.e., undergraduate and graduate courses). The authors are both faculty and group fitness instructors. Through a brief review of literature, personal experiences as group fitness instructors, and perspecti...

Due to the pervasiveness of athletic role engulfment and a salient athletic identity, collegiate athletes often experience difficulties upon conclusion of their competitive athletic career. Such engulfment and fixed athletic identity are detrimental to an athlete's post-athletic transition. Given the role of athletic department institutional member...

Although ticket sales and revenue have remained relatively constant in collegiate athletics over the past decade, attendance has steadily declined. Given the range of entertainment options available, student attendance at collegiate athletic events has, specifically, declined. Athletic administrators are often revenue oriented, and decreasing atten...

Despite federal legislation, gender equity has yet to be achieved, specifically within sport spaces. Although 43.5% of all NCAA student-athletes are women (McGuire, 2023), men are viewed as superior athletes and often given more opportunities and resources than their female counterparts (Coakley, 2016). Informed by distributive justice (Hums & Chel...

The purpose of the study was to document the lived experiences of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I transfer athletes. Researchers conducted semi-structured inter- views with eight male athletes participating in Division I athletics at a comprehensive research university in the Southeast United States. Interviews revealed t...

Background: The changing cannabis legal climate in the United States has been associated with increased prevalence of use, more favorable general attitudes, and cultural norms toward its use among young adults. The purpose of this study was to conceptualize salient beliefs governing illicit cannabis use within a state where medical use is legal and...

College campuses are unique spaces, with college towns having their own distinctive culture. However, attendance at intercollegiate athletic events has declined in recent years. Long-term strategies for building faculty fanbases are uncommon, yet, faculty maintain high organizational identification, positively impacting brand loyalty and purchase i...

Name, image, and likeness (NIL) has altered the landscape of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Specifically at the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level, college athletes are engaging with organizations through NIL opportunities and receiving financial and product-based compensation. While FBS college athletes have acc...

There is an underrepresentation of women in the role of athletic director in the interscholastic sport setting. Utilizing a phenomenological methodology, this study explored the career paths of female interscholastic athletic directors. Through a combination of sampling techniques , 13 female interscholastic athletic directors (FIADs) took part in...

A recent trend among National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) sports is the targeted hiring of younger coaches. Such strategic hiring is, ostensibly, due to the perceived recruiting ability of younger, more energetic coaches. Given the importance of recruiting to overall programmatic success in college athletics, perceived recruiting advanta...

The implementation of Title IX brought hope and infinite possibilities for women in sport; however, less than half of women’s athletic teams are coached by women. Women in sport often face discrimination and harassment, and this population often receive less compensation than their male counterparts. Informed by equity theory, the purpose of this s...

For academic undergraduate sport management programs to thrive at the university level an understanding of curriculum issues should be fostered. Using content analysis, the purposes of the current study were to identify current demographics analysis and curricular trends of undergraduate sport management programs over the past 13 years in the Unite...

As opposition to the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) collegiate model of athletics continue to mount, the next president of the NCAA must adapt to the changing marketplace and social perception of the organization in order to maintain relevancy within the field of collegiate athletics. This article proposes the use of human resour...

Previous studies focused on the role of leisure activities, such as physical activity participation, to analyze how international students can receive social support from their communities to better acculturate in the U.S. This study focused on the role of college sports in providing social support and its effect on international student’s accultur...

Accreditation is a primary metric in determining academic quality. While institutional accreditation is federally mandated, programmatic accreditation is pursued at the discretion of an individual college, school, or department. The Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA) is the sole programmatic accreditor within the field of sport ma...

In the U.S., adaptive sports have existed for more than 100 years, providing opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Despite the growth of adaptive sports in interscholastic and professional spaces, as well as the NCAA’s commitment to inclusion, there are minimal opportunities for students with disabilities to compete in sports at the coll...

While the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) purpose is to protect college athletes within a hypercommercialized institutional setting, the protections prevent college athletes from accessing the lucrative marketplace. Extant literature has conceptualized the operating functions of the NCAA within the context of a patriarchal framewo...

The COVID-19 pandemic required specific protocols (e.g., social distancing, quarantine), which defied the notions of the traditional classroom and called for instructors to adapt content delivery. To empower students, some universities employed a HyFlex model that allowed students to choose their attendance modality (e.g., face-to-face, synchronous...

The replication of successful National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic departments is commonly pursued through the targeted hiring of athletic administrators at successful athletic departments. The significance on replicating organizational success through this transfer of people is indicative of the emphases placed on winning and r...

Head Men's Basketball coaches at the collegiate level are often portrayed as teachers with the ability to dramatically elevate the productivity of their players. However, there is also the perception that perhaps head coaches are only as talented as the players on their team. Thus, a debate has ensued, do Men's Basketball coaches develop the player...

Hall’s Circuit of Culture provided a framework in the context of this case study to help understand and alter cultural systems within an organization. Specifically, the Circuit of Culture was applied to the Stone Kickball League, a hypothetical, nonprofit, adult community sport organization, with nearly 400 participants across the local Keystone Ci...

International college athletes come to the US for enhanced educational as well as athletic opportunities. Despite the fact that the majority of Division II tennis athletes are international, the literature has ignored this population. This study explored Division II international tennis college athletes’ perceptions of transitioning to an instituti...

Journal of Education and Recreation Patterns (JERP) is an international scientific, high quality open access, peer viewed scholarly journal provides a comprehensive range of unique online-only journal submission services to academics, researchers, advanced doctoral students and other professionals in their field. This journal publishes original res...

The role of religious identity has been explored as an important element of self-identity for many individuals. Organized religions are also often recognized as unwelcoming environments for sexual minorities and religious identity can be a source of severe internalized conflict for those that identify as sexual minorities. The purpose of this study...

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore the differences in motivation for sport consumption within a diverse sample of college students with underrepresented identities. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 2,833 students at universities in a mid-major Division I FBS athletic conference through a survey. Two MANOVAs were c...

The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) is comprised of student-athletes that provide insight on their experiences, influencing policies that affect rules and regulations at the institutional, conference, and national level(s). SAAC participation allows student-athletes to transfer the skills learned on the playing field into a professional s...

Mental health is a topic of increasing interest for athletics administrators and sport researchers. Although the majority of student-athletes compete in Divisions II and III, most mental health research has centered on the Division I athlete population, primarily focusing on high-profile sports. Therefore, the goal of this study was to understand D...

When compared with other disciplines, sport management educators are more likely to encounter student-athletes in their classrooms. While faculty mentoring is a key to student success for all, better understanding of this mentoring dynamic between sport management faculty and student-athletes is important to advancing pedagogical knowledge within t...

Athletes have a long history of standing up against social injustices. However, college student-athletes participating in activism is a relatively new phenomenon. The purpose of this study is to analyze student-athletes’ perceptions of boycotting from sport-related activities and potential engagement to force change to NCAA policies. Student-athlet...

Media coverage of the Winter Olympic Games provides an invaluable opportunity for athletes to promote themselves to a global audience that otherwise would not be reached through regular calendar events. An important element of athlete promotion occurs during press conferences when athletes speak to global media after winning a medal. The purpose of...

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) adopted name, image and likeness (NIL) legislation in July 2021. The expectation was for all NCAA student-athletes to have the opportunity to seek compensation for their NIL, but the reality is quite different. International student-athletes are not easily able to benefit from their NIL due to res...

As higher education continues to strive to be inclusive and accepting of all identities, the NCAA must reconsider some of its practices and policies surrounding disability. The NCAA has started to recognize the importance of varying abilities within specific policies and procedures but there is still improvement that must be made to achieve an equi...

Head coaches play a crucial role in shaping both athletes' athletic experiences and the complex team system. Consequently, coaching transitions have a tremendous effect on college athletes. Through the lens of transition theory, the purpose of this case study was to investigate the effect of multiple head coaching changes on NCAA Division I Power F...

Approximately 9 million college students participate in organized sports, with 460,000 college athletes participating at the collegiate level (e.g., NCAA, NAIA) and the remaining 8.5 million playing club and intramural teams. Nationally, an estimated 1.7 to 3 million sports-related concussions (SRCs) occur per year. Despite the overwhelming number...

Gender discrimination within collegiate sport has made it difficult for women to obtain coaching and administrative roles. Federal legislation – including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act, and Title IX of the Education AmendmentsAct of 1972 – has helped combat gender discrimination in many facets of society, including sport. Although...

There has been little to no research conducted to understand the barriers and challenges of generating awareness for the team. Utilizing a case study approach, this study explores the best target market and exposure techniques for a Division I Power Five men's tennis program in the southeastern United States. This study used the planned behavior th...

International students have been continuously transitioning to U.S. colleges in pursuit of high-quality education and social mobility opportunities. Multiple studies have dealt with the adjustment of international students in their process of transitioning to a new environment. The purpose of our study is to explore if college sports fan identifica...

International students often experience difficulties acclimating to campus climates in the United States. While identifying oneself as a fan of college sports has been shown to assist domestic students in their social adjustment to college environments, little is known about the relationship between international students’ college sports team ident...

Sport management programs are disproportionately represented by students and faculty who possess multiple advantaged identities. This trend is indicative of the broader sport industry, which is troublesome given sports’ prominent role in conversations around racial injustice and inequity during the past century. It is incumbent on sport management...

Division III college athletes have been largely ignored in the growing literature involving college sport. Given that the majority of college athletes that participate in high profile sports are athletes of color, there is a need to explore the experiences of this population, specifically at the Division III level. Informed by the Excellence Beyond...

Student-athletes often identify with the athlete role and demonstrate high levels of athlete identity. High athlete identity leads to many unintended consequences such as low career maturity and difficulty adapting to a life beyond sport. Additionally, high athlete identity often leads to mental health concerns among the student-athlete population....

Athlete development is an emerging field. The term itself is broad as athlete development is an all-encompassing expression that represents the overall growth of athletes both in regard to personal and professional development. Athlete development should assist in the overall development of all athletes (e.g., collegiate, elite, interscholastic, pr...

Due to the popularity of sport, the need to have sport management programs that properly train practitioners is justified. However, with 505 sport management bachelor's programs worldwide housed in various academic units, there is little consistency within the field of study. This study strives to explore the field of sport management and to better...

Black college athletes are at an elevated risk of mental health struggles, and yet, have not received the same attention in the literature as their White counterparts. Cognitive-motivational-relational theory of emotion was used as the theoretical foundation to examine the role of mental health in Black college athletes. Through a phenomenological...

While outdoor sports, such as skiing, impact the environment, the environment also impacts the sport. North College is a small, private, liberal arts college in the mountains of New England that sponsors four National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I sports, men’s alpine skiing, women’s alpine skiing, men’s Nordic skiing, and women’s Nord...

COVID-19 provided a uniquely uncharted landscape for sports network programmers who needed to navigate the return of “Live” and “Re-Air” broadcast events. This case study examined the programming schedule of ESPN’s ACC Network during a 28-day period in the Fall of 2020. The ACC Network provided an uncommon opportunity to investigate the trends in s...

Self-perception is the level of competency at which individuals evaluate themselves in certain areas or domains (Marsh & Shavelson, 1985). An individual’s self-perceptions contribute to their global self-worth and even predict performance (Cuellar, 2014; Harter & Neemann, 2012). This study measures the self-perception scores and experiences with ra...

Lesbians in sport may reside in a culture of silence due to the fear of being negatively labeled. Often, ideologies regarding lesbian athletes validate social inequalities through institutional practices. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of NCAA female sexual minority student-athletes. Employing purposeful sampling, nine cur...

To counteract attendance decrease, a graduate sport marketing class collaborated with the NCAA Division I men’s basketball team at their university to develop innovative marketing strategies. By integrating service-learning with Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory students were able provide a benefit to the basketball team by: 1) identifying the ma...

On March 12, 2020, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) made the decision to cancel the coveted men's and women's basketball tournaments over growing concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Schlossberg's (1981) Model of Analyzing Human Adaptation to Transition, the purpose of this study was to examine how men's and women's Di...

Student-athletes are burdened with demands, expectations, and stressors that pose challenges to their personal development, rendering many student-athletes ill-prepared for career choices outside the sports milieu. Internships are vital to the skill development for all students. Clemson's University Professional Internship and Coop (UPIC) Program o...

Gender has been shown to impact self-perception which may influence feelings of self-worth and self-concept among the student-athlete population. Within the student-athlete population, a lack of self-concept may impact athletic and athletic performance. This study measured self-perception scores of 306 Division I student- athletes using the Self-Pe...

The purpose of this study was to better understand women’s perceptions of and barriers to mountain biking in Northwest Arkansas (NWA), known for having some of the best trails in the United States. Using descriptive statistics, the results of an online survey (N = 150) revealed descriptors that detoured women from participating in mountain biking:...

Leadership development training is in demand at institutions of higher learning as students are seeking formal leadership op- portunities to enhance their college experience. No longer is leadership development training seen as an ancillary offering, but rather, institutions are embracing the need to provide skill building leadership training to be...

International students have been continuously transitioning to the U.S. colleges in pursuit of high-quality education and social mobility opportunities. Multiple studies dealt with the adjustment of international students in their process of transitioning to a new environment. The purpose of our study is to explore if college sports fan identificat...

The role of faculty in college student development extends beyond the classroom. Informed by intergroup contact theory, researchers utilized the Mentor Role Instrument to survey 93 faculty, revealing that faculty at institutions outside the power five (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) perceived themselves as role models to student-athletes.

Existing scholarship suggests that faculty, staff, and non-athlete students hold negative views of college athletes' academic abilities, but few studies have examined academic advisers' perceptions. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore primary role advisers' views of college athletes and the athletic department at their institutions...

This transcendental phenomenological study was focused on a NCAA Division I tennis team booster club and eight participants' experiences of reality versus expectation regarding booster involvement. Team identification is an attachment that provides fans with a sense of belonging (Delia & James, 2018; Heere & James, 2007). This study used the social...

Sport management is one of the fastest growing disciplines on college campuses nationwide. Its multifaceted nature suggests that it has a unique blend of students with broad ranging interests. To ensure student success, it is important to understand faculty attitudes toward students. There are two predominant attitudes toward students that occur al...

Increased spending in Campus Recreation and decreases in higher education funding have created a need for Campus Recreation programs to promote their ability to develop students into successful leaders, but little is known regarding how such student development is fostered (Forrester, 2014; Mitchell et al., 2019). Club Sport programs are perceived...

The purpose of this phenomenology study was to explore the lived academic experiences and perceptions of academic success for NCAA Division I collegiate football athletes. This study utilized a qualitative approach informed by Pascarella et al. (1999) model for assessing student change within an intercollegiate athletics environ- ment. Ten semi-str...

The realization for incoming freshmen to be able to balance education and participate in athletics at the college level takes complete dedication. Participation in athletics has been linked with reports of growth in the individual's personality and leadership skills and with their overall satisfaction with the college experience (Ryan, 1989). Using...

The purpose of this study was to explore fairness factors used by NCAA Division I head softball coaches in scholarship distribution. Research by Hums & Chelladurai (1994a, 1994b) introduced Distributive Justice principles to intercollegiate athletics, indicating need was a popular distribution principle. This study used a single scenario of grant-i...

The success of an athletic program is often defined by wins and losses. According to the sporting success framework (De Bosscher et al., 2006) as well as the athlete development literacy (ADL) model (Livengood et al., 2015), athlete development contributes to athletic achievement. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between...

Understanding sport motivation and the different components of motivation (intrinsic, extrinsic, amotivation) heightens athletic performance and allows coaches and athletic administrators to proficiently develop and retain college athletes. The purpose of this study was to examine sport participation motivations of NCAA Division I college athletes...

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of football on student–athletes with education-impacting disabilities. Nine football student–athletes diagnosed with education-impacting disabilities at one NCAA Division I institution participated in this study. Data from the semi-structured interviews revealed three themes: focus development, ma...

Black male student-athletes have endured frequent stereotyping on college campuses (Hawkins, 2010). Additionally, Black student-athletes have experienced educational, campus, and athletic stressors (Miller & Hoffman, 2009). Many student-athletes do not seek mental health services because of their status on campus (Watson, 2005). The general populat...

This research explored maladaptive parasocial interaction (PSI) expressed toward Chicago Bears kicker Cody Parkey after he missed a potential game-winning field goal in the 2019 NFL (National Football League) playoffs. Using a sample of 512 tweets posted during the week after the game, qualitative analysis revealed that maladaptive PSI manifested i...

Research Methods and Design in Sport Management, Second Edition, explains research design, implementation, and assessment criteria with a focus on procedures unique to the discipline of sport management.

The first preparatory institution was founded in 1635 to prepare elite men for public service, a role in the church, or admission to Harvard (Boyer, 1983). Nearly 400 years later, the objective of such institutions is no longer Harvard, but often an avenue for potential student-athletes (PSAs) to participate in intercollegiate sport (Thamel, 2007)....

Scholars long have been perplexed with how groups of people navigate change. Due to time demands and high levels of athlete identity, college athletes often struggle adapting to a new environment beyond sport. Informed by Schlossberg's (1981) Model of Analyzing Human Adaptation to Transition, this study explored former college athletes' perceived e...

The focus of this study was to understand perceptions of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletic director (ADs) skills and experiences and their relative importance to their current position. Division I ADs hold the highest position of authority in intercollegiate athletic departments at the highest level of competition...

This mixed-method study, using the theoretical construct of Digel, Burk and Fahrner’s Success Resources Model (2016), analyzed data gleaned from perceptions of European Union (EU) citizens who attended American colleges and universities to not only further their education, but to also compete in American intercollegiate athletics. This study furthe...

This study explored the relationship between the athletic identity and career maturity of women’s basketball student-athletes. It specifically looked at the differences in athletic identity and career maturity based on the student- athlete’s level of competition, race, year in school, socioeconomic status, and professional athletic career aspiratio...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of star power on game attendance. The essential aspect of demand for sport events is fan interest, which can be shown through match attendance, watching contests, buying team-related products, and following a team on media. To conduct this study, all attendance data from the 2015, 2016, and 2017 se...

________________________________________________________ Few academic studies have explored the intersection of sexuality, religion and sport specifically within the collegiate setting; however, with more than 8,000 NCAA student-athletes that identify as something other than heterosexual (Turk, 2018) there is a need to investigate this marginalized...

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of star power on game attendance. The essential aspect of demand for sport events is fan interest, which can be shown through match attendance, watching contests, buying team-related products, and following a team on media. To conduct this study, all attendance data from the 2015, 2016, and 2017 se...

Informed by self-determination theory, this study builds on previous research to examine the work motivation and job satisfaction levels of sport management faculty members, as well as any relationship between their job satisfaction levels and work motivations. A total of 193 sport management faculty responded to a survey consisting of the Job Sati...

Social media platforms provide a space where sport fans can interact directly with sport organizations; however, researchers have not empirically examined users’ motivation and usage. Guided by uses and gratifications theory, the authors explored whether social media users’ motivations differed when following a sport organization on two similar mic...

Sexual satisfaction is an important component of sexuality, yet rarely discussed in sexuality education. In an effort to better understand young adult women's experiences and thoughts about sexual pleasure and satisfaction, we conducted interviews with heterosexual young women (N = 30, ages 18–25) attending college, asking their recommendations on...

Coach turnover is frequent, especially in collegiate sports in the United States. To date, however, there is limited research on how coach turnover might affect student-athletes. Accordingly, we aimed to qualitatively explore how coach turnover might influence student-athletes’ psychosocial states and team dynamics in collegiate sports. Eleven athl...

Many scholars believe that due to the intensity of college sport, student-athletes are denied a well-rounded experience. Although previous research has focused on the educational experiences of the general student-athlete population, few studies have focused on the culture that constructs the overall student-athlete experience. The authors utilized...