Determining the odds of NCAA Division I-A football programs being charged with a major violation: A study of selected institutional and programmatic factors

This study examined specified institutional and programmatic variables affecting National Collegiate Athletic Association (hereinafter, NCAA) Division I-A football programs odds of being charged with a major violation from 1991--2002. The subject sample consisted of 113 NCAA Division I-A football programs. Instrumentation utilized in this study were as follows: Sagarin rankings, NCAA Official Website, NFL Report Website, and Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act.;Six independent variables were considered, namely: (1) Sagarin rankings; (2) Percent of athletic department Revenue from football; (3) Number of players drafted into the National Football League (hereinafter, NFL); (4) Number of major violations in all sports, 1953--2002 (excluding football violations from 1991--2002); (5) Average accumulated percent Attendance Capacity; and, (6) Region of the Country. The dependent variable was dichotomous; either a subject was charged or not charged with a major violation of NCAA rules.;As a result of the binary nature of the dependent variable, a binary logistic regression analysis was run. A statistical interpretation is given of the model-developed estimates in terms of the odds ratio concept. Four out of five continuous variables yielded high Pearson r correlations, namely: Sagarin rankings, Percent of athletic department Revenue from football, Number of players drafted into the NFL, and Average accumulated percent Attendance Capacity. The variable, Number of major violations in all sports, 1953--2002 (excluding football violations from 1991--2002), did not yield high Pearson r correlations amongst the other independent variables. As a result of this discovery, the researcher combined the variables, Sagarin rankings, Percent of athletic department Revenue from football, Number of players drafted into the NFL, and Average accumulated percent Attendance Capacity and formed one new variable appropriately named Powerhouse. Binary logistic regression was run testing the effect that Powerhouse along with Number of major violations in all sports, 1953--2002 and Region of the country had on the odds of NCAA Division I-A football programs being charged with a major violation.;Results of this study suggest that NCAA Division I-A Powerhouse football programs that incur a high number of major violations in football and in all other sports have an increased odds of being charged with a major violation.