Accountability of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Head Coaches Towards Student-Athlete Academics and Graduation

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is dedicated to the education of student-athletes and continues to keep the student first in student-athlete. Conducive to meeting its goals, the NCAA implemented reforms to improve the academic success and graduation rates of student-athletes. Specifically, the NCAA implemented the Academic Progress Rate (APR) and the Head Coach Academic Progress Rate Portfolio (HCAPRP) because the NCAA believed collegiate coaches had a great deal of influence on their student-athletes. The NCAA APR requirements hold head coaches responsible for their student-athletes' academics while failing to supply appropriate direction, the specific problem studied focused on the difficulty mid-major coaches face in order to meet the APR standards and, the attempts they made to adapt their programs and dominating motivators influencing efforts to comply. A multiple cross -sectional case study was conducted examining how mid-major coaches' attempted to comply with the HCAPRP and how their attitudes affected those efforts. The researcher conducted face-to-face interviews and administered the Job Choice Making Exercise (JCE) to catalog multiple Head Coaches' specific dominating motivators, cross examined individual experiences, allowing the researcher to obtain descriptive data pertaining to the APR. The study further examined attempts head coaches tried with their programs, determining coaches' dominating motivators: Power (N-Pow), Achievement (N-Ach), or Affiliation (N-Affil), and how these motivators assisted compliance. The population interviewed comprised 10 Division I head coaches located in the Northeast region of Arkansas. The research participants were selected because the 10 head coaches represented a variety of teams who all work at a mid-major Division I university. Findings from this study indicated over half the participant's dominating motivators were N-Pow. All 10 participants scored above a 930 multi-year APR rate, while two N-Affil participants scored a perfect 1000 for the 2013-14 academic year. Recommendations from this study suggest head coaches should write academic policies and goals easily accessible to their individual team members. These policies should include a minimum cumulative 2.6 GPA for any student-athlete who transfers to ensure the coach does not lose APR Retention Points. The researcher concluded the NCAA has given head coaches minimal guidance to adhere to the HCAPRP, although that lack of guidance did not hinder any of the surveyed coaches in this case study. This study shows it is vital for head coaches to be attuned with their student-athletes' academics, which will most commonly translate into a successful HCAPRP.