Introduction to Intercollegiate Athletics

Intercollegiate athletics continue to bedevil American higher education. At once tied closely with their institutions, athletic programs often operate outside the traditional university governance structure while contributing significantly to a school's culture, identity, and financial outlook. Introduction to Intercollegiate Athletics, edited by Eddie Comeaux, explores the complexities of intercollegiate athletics while explaining the organizational structures, key players, terms, and important issues most relevant to the growing but often misunderstood fields of recreational studies, sports management, and athletic administration.

The book is divided into eight sections, the first three of which describe the foundations, overarching structures, and conditions that shape athletics and higher education. Three others explore the ways college athletes experience life on campus, and the final two delve into the current and future policy contexts of intercollegiate athletics.

Written by a diverse group of expert scholars, the book's twenty-eight chapters are enhanced with useful glossaries, reflections from athletics stakeholders, relevant case studies, and conversation-provoking discussion questions. Aimed at upper-level undergraduate and graduate students, scholars, teachers, practitioners, athletic administrators, and advocates of intercollegiate athletics, Introduction to Intercollegiate Athletics provides readers with up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge about the changes to—and challenges faced by—university athletics programs.

Eddie Comeaux is an assistant professor of higher education at the University of California–Riverside. The cofounder of the American Educational Research Association’s Research Focus on Education and Sport Special Interest Group, he played Division I baseball at the University of California–Berkeley, then spent four years playing baseball with the Texas Rangers prior to earning his Ph.D.