The NCAA’s legalization of athletes to profit off of their own name, image, and likeness (NIL) was met with mixed response from fans of collegiate sports. A popular talking point among people against NIL was that its legalization would cause talented athletes to “follow the money” and increase the recruiting quality at schools where NIL opportunities were plentiful. In essence, a theoretical “talent gap” would form due to this movement of athlete talent. The goal of this paper is to determine the talent gap’s existence or lack thereof while also setting stakeholders directly involved with NIL deals (colleges, businesses, companies) up for success in the age of NIL. This was executed first through the issuance of a survey that collected five categories of data: fandom and interest in college sports, industry sector interest, NIL preferences (structure, money, form), NIL recruiting preferences, and demographics. Following this collection of survey data, recruiting and transfer data for the years 2011-2023 was obtained and analyzed to determine the influence of specific variables in the recruiting process. The survey used in this paper was sent out to over 300 Arizona State University students from Dr. Eaton’s fall semester marketing class, with 158 participants filtered out in order to exclusively measure the responses of students with a similar perspective to athletes. The recruiting and transfer data was derived from the recruiting websites 247 Sports, Rivals, and On3 sports, with On3 Sports additionally providing NIL valuation estimates. Findings from the survey and recruiting data analysis could neither prove or disprove the existence of the theorized athletic talent gap. Results suggest that football or basketball program prestige is the true primary driver of talent movement, not NIL. Businesses looking to issue NIL deals should focus on the marketing obligations and payment structure of the deal rather than payment value, as money does not significantly influence the decision to take an NIL deal offer.

This paper analyzes different issues within collegiate athletics. Further, it provides a roadmap for how leaders in collegiate athletics can better make decisions involving conference membership and media rights decisions that directly serve the interests of student-athletes, the athletic department, and the entire university community. Relevant literature is addressed in the literature review section regarding the financial components of college athletics and how conference realignment impacts different financial elements of the athletic department and university. Also, the literature review section focuses on how conference realignment decisions impact rivalries. The last part of the literature review focuses on a more contemporary analysis involving conference realignment and how changing some of the financial structures within college athletics would result in a more equitable and fair landscape regarding gender equity. Using data from the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database, financial data related to Texas A&M University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the University of Maryland-College Park were analyzed to determine how these three institutions were affected by their decisions to change conferences within the Power V. Each of these institutions athletic departments finances, including specific revenue and expense categories, were affected differently by their decision to change conferences, but this data can serve as an important indicator for how universities that are currently choosing to change conferences will be affected. Then the next portion of this paper involved primary data collection, where the sample consisted of Arizona State University Introduction to Marketing students. This survey focused on measuring the opinions of college sports fans regarding various issues and topics related to college athletics, including the role of college athletics within the university, conference realignment, the importance of rivalries, and media rights. Lastly, this paper includes an analysis and comparison of survey data from the University of California Office of the President, where UCLA student-athletes comprised the survey population. This survey focused on UCLA student-athletes’ opinions regarding UCLA’s decision to join the Big Ten conference.

Student sections at college sporting events are an integral part of the collegiate experience. They provide a heightened atmosphere and passion that professional teams can not always attract. They are an exciting social event for students to be a part of a larger community. The student section also represents a new potential market base for athletic departments. If students don't go to games, they have less of an emotional attachment when it comes to giving back to their alma mater in their peak earning years. (Dodd, 2022). Therefore, it is vital to understand the factors that influence a student’s intention to return to future games and, in recent years, the decline in student attendance. There are many variables that contribute to student attendance, so a study was developed to attempt to predict a student’s intention to return to future Arizona State University basketball games. There are multiple factors that are considered when determining the attendance such as the demographics of the student or their level of fandom. In addition, other factors such as social media use can influence a student’s intention to return. A statistical analysis was performed to determine which of these factors are most important in order to build a model to predict intention to return. An exploratory factor analysis will be used to determine which variables of the survey are correlated and measure similar factors. Then regression techniques will help analyze each independent variable to determine their importance and relevance. Through these techniques, it was found that satisfaction of stadium factors, sport club participation, on-campus housing, athlete’s social media, and total attendance positively impact attendance while importance of stadium factors, interest in fan loyalty programs, and employment status negatively impact attendance. The following report will include details of the analysis. The model that was developed will help universities narrow the potential variables that impact student attendance to assist in future research.