A factor analytic study of effectiveness criteria in intercollegiate athletics

The study was concerned with developing a set of effectiveness criteria for intercollegiate athletics and assessing the importance of these criteria as viewed by a sample of students in a Canadian University. The responses to 46 items selected from a larger pool of items were factor analyzed. An 11-factor solution was accepted as the most meaningful. Further analysis showed that the students were generally homogeneous in rating Satisfaction of Athletes, Spectator Appeal, Student Recruitment, and Sharing of Costs as the four most important criteria that should be used in evaluating the effectiveness of athletic teams. There were, however, differences among the sexes and among the physical education and general students. Since different criteria will be used by different decision makers reflecting the various objectives they hold for the program, it was stressed that further study be conducted with different sets of decision makers.