The NCAA Research Committee and the Sport Science Institute have selected seven research proposals to fund as part of the 2014 cycle of the NCAA Graduate Student Research Grant Program.
Now in its ninth year, the program is aimed at stimulating research on college athletics by providing financial support to graduate students. Their work will help inform NCAA member schools and the general public on key topics by introducing new studies to the field.
The NCAA Research Committee invites research proposals within the general topic areas of student-athlete well-being and college athletics participation. Topics may include, but are not limited to: the impact of participation in athletics on the academic or social experiences of student-athletes; best practices for academic advisement of student-athletes; the relationship between athletics’ time demands and academic success; student-athlete integration into the campus community; the relationship between athletics department finances and on-field success; student-athlete satisfaction with the college experience; and student-athlete mental health and well-being.
Awards for these grants are set at a maximum of $7,500 for one-year projects. Recipients are expected to culminate their project in an article suitable for publication in a scholarly journal, or in a completed thesis or dissertation.
The Research Committee funded four proposals. They were:
- Laura Bernhard (UCLA): “Working Across Difference: Diversity and Cultural Competency in Intercollegiate Athletics.”
- Cheyenne Luzynski (Eastern Michigan University): “Remember the Ladies: A Historical Analysis of Women's Emergence into Intercollegiate Athletic Leadership.”
- Chan Park (University of Alabama): “Lives of Collegiate Student Athletes with Physical Disability and Impact and Potential of Adapted Athletics Program in a Major University in United States of America.”
- Johari Shuck (Indiana University): “’My Story is Unique’: The Processes and Outcomes of Socialization Throughout the Lives of Black University of Michigan Lettermen.”
The NCAA Sport Science Institute funded three proposals. They were:
- Christine Baugh (Harvard University): “Ecological Momentary Assessment of Collegiate Athletes' Physical Health, Mental Health, and Quality of Life and the Potential Relationship with Contact Sustained Through Sports.”
- Bailey Peck (University of North Carolina, Charlotte): “Examination of Risk for Sleep-Disordered Breathing Among College Football Players.”
- Alicia Watson (Lindenwood University): “Determining the Daily Caloric Needs of Female Athletes.”
The 2015 call for proposals will be released in the spring, with proposals due in early August.