What is the Pipeline Project?
The purpose of The Pipeline Project is to capture the dynamic job positions and management structures of NCAA Division I athletic departments and conferences. More specifically, The Pipeline Project illustrates how men and women are represented in various positions and athletic department management and leadership structures. This data does not include coaches or coaching staffs.
Why is the Pipeline Project important?
For more than 5 decades, sport management scholars and practitioners have expressed concern that women and racial minorities may have less access and opportunity to progress through athletic department structures to decision-making positions; therefore, the Pipeline Project also serves as a resource to identify “leaks” in talent pipelines both in job areas (e.g., compliance, marketing) and managerial tiers (i.e., entry, middle, and executive).
Who is the audience for The Pipeline Project?
The Pipeline Project is designed to serve as a resource for intercollegiate athletic administrators, professional organizations that serve intercollegiate athletic personnel, and current and future sports managers to help them understand job positions, employment trends, and the overall state of gender diversity within job positions and leadership structures. Academicians across disciplines are also encouraged to use this data to build research projects and long-term research agendas.
How was data for The Pipeline Project collected?
The research team pulled data from athletic department directories for each university in the Power Four [Big Ten, Big 12, Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Southeastern Conference (SEC)] and Group of Five [American Athletic Conference (AAC), Conference USA (CUSA), Mid-American Conference, Mountain West Conference (MWC), Sun Belt Conference (SBC)] between May and June 2024. Data included names, titles, and departments. In anticipation of the upcoming conference realignment, the research team updated the conferences the universities are expected to represent for the academic year 2024-2025.
What does this report include?
The inaugural version of The Pipeline Project looks at staff and administrative positions and trends within individual athletic departments, conferences, and aggregated data for the Power 4 and Group of 5 conferences which also constitute the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. It does not include data on coaches or coaching staffs. Moreover, this report includes data on gender, but does not yet include data on race and ethnicity. The research team hopes to include this information in future reports.
How were career stages defined?
Ott and Beaumont (2020) originally categorized titles of athletic staff as entry-level, mid-level tier II, mid-level tier I, and executive. The research team slightly modified the executive tier to acknowledge additional administrative decision-makers beyond the athletic director. See appendix for a more detailed table of positions and titles included in each tier. Management tiers are referred to as “Career Stages” in this document.
How do I cite The Pipeline Project?
Hancock, M.G., Kopka, N., & Green, E.R. (2024). The Pipeline Project: 2024 Employment Overview: NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision [white paper]. University of Louisville.
For inquiries please contact Meg Hancock (meg.hancock@louisville.edu).
The Pipeline Project 