A Comparative Study of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Football Gift-Incentive Infractions and Race/Ethnicity

In today's collegiate sports realm, university athletic compliance officials, coaches, and players are committing multiple rule violations/infractions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rules. In recent cases involving high-profile minority student-athletes and programs, several Division I institutions were penalized for cheating and major infractions of NCAA rules on gifts/incentives. There is evidence based on NCAA actions that student-athletes commit infractions such as academic integrity violations, receiving extra benefits, and/or impermissible gifts and financial funds. The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to examine differences that existed for NCAA gift-incentive violations based on the minority race/ethnicity composition of 128 NCAA Division I football programs. Archival data were gathered from secondary records using purposive sampling method from the NCAA Legislative Services Database (LSDBi) and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Data analysis employed a Kruskal-Wallis test for hypothesis testing using SPSS analysis software. No statistical difference was discerned for the hypothesis between gift/incentive infractions at NCAA Division I football institutions/programs and minority race/ethnicity composition (p = .606). Recommendations for future research included a qualitative case study with minority student-athletes at NCAA Division I Football programs found to have engaged in cheating and major infractions of NCAA rules on gifts, incentives, and inappropriate benefits to determine how they dealt with consequences, and a qualitative case study to explore perceptions of coaches and football program leadership at NCAA Division I football programs that committed prior infractions to explore the impact of national attention and media exposure for NCAA gift-incentive infractions.