The factors affecting the decision to add women's soccer to NCAA Division I institutions

During the 1990's the landscape of program offerings at the NCAA Division I level have seen a tremendous growth in women's sport. The largest increase in any one sport has been that in women's soccer. The growth of women's soccer has spread across the country as almost every NCAA Division I institution offers the sport. Athletic conferences throughout the nation agreed to sponsor women's soccer as a championship sport even before member institutions had programs in place. This along with the pressures to comply with Title IX has made it easy for women's soccer to become the sport of choice for the addition to athletic departments. Other factors such as youth popularity, budgets, and facility availability have had an impact on the addition of women's soccer.;The factors examined in this study were given much attention in their inclusion to the study. Senior Woman Administrators at NCAA member institutions were asked to participate in the study by completing a questionnaire regarding the factors for the addition of women's soccer. Some of the factors hold more importance to the addition of women's soccer than others. The research questions of the study are directed to each of these factors that played a major role in the influence of the addition of women's soccer. Each one of the factors was measured to weigh the importance of each in the decision making process.