Current and Developing Issues Projects
Extending the Athlete Brand Through NIL Endorsement Fit and Role Congruity
White Paper and Video Presentation
The project’s central question is whether endorsement fit influences student-athlete brand equity through expectations about the student-athlete role. Three initial experiments consistently found stronger brand-equity evaluations for higher-fit endorsements, while athlete gender did not reliably change the fit effect. A related role-congruity experiment distinguished what audiences consider typical from what they consider acceptable for student-athletes. Higher fit endorsements received more favorable evaluations on both dimensions, and injunctive role congruity helped explain the relationship between fit and brand equity. Together, the findings support incorporating brand management into NIL advising. ACC institutions can help athletes evaluate the connection between a proposed partnership, their public identity, and audience expectations while avoiding unsupported assumptions about gender-specific endorsement penalties. For ACC athletic departments, the findings support incorporating endorsement fit and audience approval into NIL advising, helping athletes assess how potential partnerships align with their public identities alongside financial benefits.
2025-2026 Grant Project
Peter Schlittenhardt, Ph.D. Student (Virginia Tech)
Mario Pandelaere, Ph.D. (Virginia Tech)
How Academic and Athletic Status Shape Transfer Portal Responses in Division I Men’s Basketball
White Paper and Video Presentation
This study researched how institutions are responding to this changing environment in the way they recruit and manage team rosters and whether that response differs based on an institution’s academic and athletic status. Findings revealed that Elite Academic institutions engage less with the transfer portal, drawing 13.5% less of their incoming class from other institutions. Academic and Athletically Elite institutions have taken on asymmetric risk of transfer reliance to remain athletically competitive. Transfer reliance pays off modestly on the court, and it pays off about equally regardless of institution type. The costs, however, may not be symmetric. Institutions whose status rests primarily on athletic success may have less to risk by building rosters largely through the portal, while institutions seeking to maintain competitive academic reputations may face additional challenges and compromises—in admission standards, student outcomes, and public metrics—to pursue athletic success in the transfer portal era. The researchers encourage institutions to consider the potential academic costs for student-athletes associated with unrestricted transfer movement and to thoughtfully examine their academic support structures to ensure the growing population of transfer student-athletes have the resources needed to succeed on and off the court.
2025-2026 Grant Project
Francis Pearman, PhD (Stanford University)
Kendall Cole, MA (Stanford University)
Perceptions of Addictions Among ACC Student-Athletes and Administrators
2025-2026 Grant Project
Dr. Colin Lopez (University of North Carolina)
Dr. Jackson Sears (University of North Carolina)
Dr. Bryan Clift (North Carolina State University)
White Paper and Video Presentation
Through interviews with ACC athletes and administrators, this study researched their perceptions of sports gambling in relation to drugs, alcohol, and social media. Both student-athletes and administrators were asked to rank their perception of severity of potentially addictive products or activities: sports betting, drug use, alcohol use, and social media use. Interviews revealed these populations find current gambling and mental health programming weak and “just checking a box”. Additionally, interviewees stated that they agree betting is an issue but think it must be an issue for another population. Finally, student-athletes explained their fear of punishment for gambling strongly limits their attempts at getting help if they are having trouble.
Researchers recommend:
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Departments take a proactive, harm-reduction approach to betting education
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ACC protects athletes who self-report and seek gambling help
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Normalize mental health conversations around problem gambling
National Evidence on the Relationship between Transferring and Athletic Performance within Division I Men’s College Basketball
2024-2025 Grant Project
Francis Pearman, Ph.D., Stanford University
Kendall Cole, M.A., Stanford University
White Paper and Video Presentation
Using national publicly available data on individual- and team-level athletic performance in DI men’s college basketball, this research aims to further understandings of patterns and trends among transfer student athletes between the 2002-03 and 2023-24 seasons. Findings highlight notable changes in rates of transferring relative to recent policy changes but suggest the association between transferring and performance remains unchanged amid the changing policy landscape. Additionally, findings suggest transferring may be beneficial for some student athletes and not others, and one’s prior performance and potential for growth should be considered when deciding whether, and where, to transfer. While the proportion of men’s basketball student athletes transferring each year has significantly increased, the relationship between transferring and athletic performance has held fairly constant. In an environment inundated with public discussion of transfer student athletes, the public, institutions, and student athletes themselves should think more critically about the implications of transferring on their personal outcomes.
NAVIGATING THE WILD, WILD WEST OF NAME, IMAGE, AND LIKENESS (NIL): EXPLORING THE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN COLLEGE ATHLETES
2023-2024 Grant Project
Lindsey Darvin, Ph.D., Syracuse University
This study aims to research the nuances of the NIL experience of women college athletes, as most current research is based on the male athlete experience. Through semi-structured interviews with NIL practitioners and student-athletes. While interviews are ongoing, preliminary findings report varying institutional support for athletes, social media as key driver, and inequalities and unique opportunities between male and female athletes. Recommendations focus on addressing Gender-Based Equity, fostering education and community building between peers, coaches, and NIL practitioners, and creating more comprehensive support structures for women athletes.
AN ANALYSIS OF TRANSFER PORTAL MOVEMENTS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON THE ATHLETIC PERFORMANCES OF ACC REVENUE SPORTS AND STUDENT-ATHLETES
White Paper & Embedded Video Presentation
Given the significance of the transfer portal in college sports and the gaps in understanding that exist, this study collected data on FBS football and DI men’s basketball players who entered the transfer portal from 2019 to 2023 to gain a clearer understanding of how the portal functions and how transfers affect the performances of players and teams. Findings revealed that the ACC and other autonomous conferences have lost more players than they have gained in the portal; however, in relation to outgoing players, players entering the ACC had higher levels of prior performance and experience. Furthermore, teams that were able to play talented transfers, especially in place of freshmen, tended to perform better. At the athlete level, football transfers into ACC programs did not experience significant changes in opportunity or performance, though athletes leaving the ACC tended to earn significantly more snaps at their new destinations. In basketball, players averaged more win-shares per 40 minutes and more minutes per game after leaving ACC programs.
2023-2024 Grant Project
Nathan David Pifer, Ph.D., Florida State University
Sachin Narayan, Florida State University
Dhruv Joglekar, Florida State University
A CONTENT AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF NIL COLLECTIVE WEBSITES: WHAT ARE BOOSTERS AND ATHLETES BEING TOLD?
2022-2023 Grant Project
Molly Harry, Ph.D., The University of Arkansas
Sarah Stokowski, Ph.D., Clemson University
White Paper & Embedded Video Presentation
With the unfolding of era of name, image, and likeness (NIL) comes increased risk and
responsibilities for institutions and athletics departments, particularly concerning donor/sponsors and
athlete involvement in NIL collectives. Through a content and discourse analysis of NIL collective
websites across the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) (N = 26) in Fall 2022, this research examined
content provided for donors/sponsors and athletes and what values were conveyed through this
communication. Four themes emerged from the collective websites, centering values related to
finance/compliance, athlete development, prestige of the collective, and campus/local community care.
With this knowledge, athletic administrators and collective stakeholders can better understand the
underlying purpose of collectives and what that purpose means for supporting—or not supporting
athletes.
How can Student-Athletes Utilize their Media Platforms for Systemic Change? Developing an Evidence-based Leadership Program for Strategic Social Justice Communication
Research shows even though student-athletes often are highly motivated to contribute to their campus community (NCAA, 2014) and want to use their platform for social good (Kluch, 2021), they struggle to translate social values into social action (Gayles et al., 2012) and tend to be less engaged in political activities than their non-athlete peers (Hoffman et al., 2015). This study aimed to create an understanding of contemporary student-athletes’ engagement in activist efforts on social media to empower them to use their communicative platforms for social good. A preliminary inductive thematic analysis of data obtained from nine participants (*) yielded five higher-order themes capturing athletes’ experiences as they navigate various social media spaces for social and racial justice activism: (1) control of athletes’ social media engagement, (2) (social) media as a tool for dialogue on racial justice, (3) lack of protection and coping mechanisms, (4) negotiating self-presentation (s), and (5) moving beyond performative activism towards tangible actions.
2021-2022 Grant Project
Evan Frederick, Ph.D., University of Louisville
Yannick Kluch, Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth University
Letisha Engracia Cardoso Brown, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati
Tomika L. Ferguson, Ph.D., Virginia Commonwealth University
Meg Hancock, Ph.D., University of Louisville
Nina Siegfried, Ph.D., University of Louisville
Putting Athletes First: An Empirical Examination of the Hedonic Well-Being of College Student-Athletes in Response to NIL
2021-2022 Grant Project
Thomas E. Henry, Florida State University
Susmit S. Gulavani, Florida State University
Carter Floyd, Florida State University
James Du, Ph.D., Florida State University
N. David Pifer, Florida State University
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White Paper & Embedded Video Presentation
The present research responds to the calls for an increased need for empirical research on the well-being of student-athletes in the era of NIL. The purpose was to examine the impact of NIL policy on hedonic well-being of student-athletes. The study obtains data from Twitter profiles of 370 student-athletes from January 2021 to December 2021 to examine the elicitation of joy and anger as indicators of hedonic well-being. By leveraging a natural language processing-based decomposition sentiment analysis coupled with difference-in-differences analysis, findings indicate that student-athletes competing in women’s sports experience marginally more joy and anger compared to student-athletes participating in other men’s sports, men’s basketball, and football after the NIL policy implementation. Findings reveal a double-edge impact associated with the NIL policy implementation, with decrease in joy indicating concerns about the policy’s potential detrimental effects on student-athletes and a decrease in anger indicating optimism about opportunities presented by the policy.
ACC Athletes' Perceptions of Coach & Administrative Support in the Fight for Racial & Social Justice
Whitepaper & Embedded Video Presentation
This study surveyed Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) athletes’ perceptions of coach and administrative support during their calls for social and racial justice reform in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. In their advocacy/activism efforts, athletes mostly attended protests and marches, posted on social media, and had conversations with teammates and coaches about racism and racial injustices. Overall, most athletes surveyed noted that administrators and coaches supported their efforts by encouraging them to engage in advocacy/activism, providing educational resources, creating a respectful program or team environment, and offering verbal encouragement.
2020-2021 Grant Project
Molly Harry, M.A., Doctoral Candidate, Curry School of Education, University of Virginia