College Students' Perceptions On The Payment Of Intercollegiate Student-Athletes - Statistical Data Included

College Student Journal, June, 2001 by Raymond G. Schneider

Instrumentation

The instrument used in this study was comprised of a questionnaire with two sections. The first section elicited responses to four forced choice questions: (a) Should student-athletes receive direct cash payments for intercollegiate athletics participation? (b) Why should student-athletes receive direct cash payments? (c) Why should student-athletes not receive direct cash payments? and (d) If cash payments were permitted, what revenue stream(s) should provide the additional money? Section I of the instrument was derived from the literature that has discussed the concept of paying intercollegiate student-athletes (Beauchamp, 1996; DeVenzio, 1986; Fish, 1997; Rushin, 1997: Sheehan, 1996; Steiber, 1991; VanderZwaag, 1988). A comprehensive list of choices for each question was gained through the literature review. Participants in the study were asked to select the choice(s) to each question based on their perception. Subjects were also allowed to write in additional responses if their choice was not found on the list provided.

The second section of the questionnaire included respondents' demographics (age, gender, year in school) and socioeconomies (methods) of paying for college.

Procedure

Questionnaires were mailed to each of the 2,000 randomly selected college students along with a cover letter and a pre-addressed, stamped envelope. The cover letter included the purpose of this investigation, directions to complete the questionnaire, and assurance of confidentiality. A total of 458 useable surveys were returned for an overall response rate of 23%.

Data Analysis

First, the returned questionnaires were screened for completeness. Second the data were entered into a database using the SPSS Statistical Package. Overall frequencies to each of the four questions were analyzed to determine college students' perceptions on the issue. Additional analysis was competed to determine if there was a difference in perceptions between female and male college students. Chi-square tests of homogeneity (alpha=.01) were used to determine whether there was a significant difference in perceptions between females and males on each of the questions.

Results

Complete and useable questionnaires were received from 458 college students for a response rate of 23%. A majority of the students were male (60%). The distribution of education level was consistent with 28% seniors, 27% juniors, 26% sophomores, and 19% freshmen.

Overall, 54% of all respondents believed student-athletes should be paid for intercollegiate athletics participation. A chi-square test of homogeneity revealed males (57%) and females (49%) were equally likely to support payment ([X.sup.2](1), N=458) = 2.99, p [is less than] .001). The most often advanced reasons that student-athletes should be paid were cheating would decline if student-athletes were paid (76%) and student-athletes generate large amounts of revenue and deserve payment (63%). As shown in Table 1, chi-square analysis also revealed that of those who supported cash payments, females (41%) were significantly more likely than males (23%) to base their position of the perception that a scholarship does not cover the total cost of attending college ([X.sup.2](1), N=248) = 9.13, p [is less than] .001).