NCAA Violations and Institutional Self-Sanctions: Assessing the Impact on Alumni Charitable Contributions

• Main Author: Thomas-Seltzer, Ashley
• Other Authors: Taylor, Barrett J.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2019
• Subjects: Athletics; NCAA; Major infractions; NCAA violations; Scandal; Intercollegiate Sports; FBS Football; Men's Basketball; Division I Athletics; Self-Sanctions; Neo-Institutional Theory; Resource Dependence Theory
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1505204/

The growing commercialism within Division I big-time athletics has raised the financial stakes for universities, as successful athletic programs benefit from increased opportunities for financial gain. This has contributed to a pervasive "win culture" that drives institutions to seek competitive advantages, and as a side effect, NCAA rule violations have become incentivized. Programs whose infractions go unnoticed may benefit from the competitive advantage gained, but for programs investigated by the NCAA, the financial penalties incurred may far outweigh the potential revenues from undetected violations. The purpose of this study was to address institutional self-sanctions as an organizational behavior in response to NCAA major infractions and the impact of self-sanctioning on alumni charitable giving. Through the use of neo-institutional and resource dependence theories, this study aimed to further examine the role of institutional self-sanctions as a crisis management strategy in containing financial fallout of athletic scandal. While researchers have addressed scandal and alumni charitable giving in relation to athletics and institutional self-sanctions, respectively, no research exists linking the two bodies of literature. This study employed a two-way fixed effects analysis of 10 years of panel data to address the effect of key variables on alumni charitable giving. Analysis results indicated no significant relationship between institutional self-sanctions and alumni charitable giving. However, alumni charitable giving was mitigated by institutional endowment per FTE, suggesting that larger scale financial structures of an institution serve as the best predictor for alumni charitable giving during athletic scandal.