Meg Hancock

University of Louisville | UL · Department of Health and Sport Sciences

Recent shifts in societal activism have prompted an exploration of athlete activism, particularly within higher education, where social media has become a pivotal platform for social impact. This paper investigates Division I college athletes’ engagement in athlete activism through the lens of self-authorship and self-presentation on social media f...

Despite a tremendous increase in sport participation opportunities for women and girls over the previous decades, women are highly underrepresented in leadership roles throughout the sport industry. This underrepresentation has been attributed to a variety of social and cultural barriers faced by women in this male prominent industry, and while the...

Scholars have noted that, within Social Movement Organizations (SMO), communication plays an important role achieving social change. One SMO, Athlete Ally, aims to end homophobia and transphobia in sport. Founded in 2011, Athlete Ally consists of less than 10 full-time members and over 150 Athlete Ambassadors. To successfully generate change within...

Within the sport management literature, fan-family conflict is defined as the extent of the role of being a sport fan interferes with one’s family role demands. This paper is specifically focused on exploring the dynamics and gender role expectations of highly identified sport fans and their family role. To better understand family dynamics and gen...

Social movement organizations have played an important role in athlete activism. Countless athlete activists have all benefited from having organizations supporting their social justice efforts. One such organization, Athlete Ally, partners with today’s athletes to create an inclusive athletic environment. Due to their relationship, both Athlete Al...

Intercollegiate athletics represent an industry prone to challenges of work addiction and life balance. Work addiction and life balance domains in male and female intercollegiate athletic coaches and administrators (N = 245) were examined using multiple regression analysis. Higher levels of stress/anxiety, sleep disturbance, and career satisfaction...

Objective For this study, we seek to examine how student‐athletes’ community service is influenced by (a) their university's athletic department and (b) student‐athlete demographics. This was examined from the theoretical lens of student involvement theory (SIT). Methods Data were collected from active student‐athletes at National Collegiate Athle...

In this article, we explore the relationship between athletic identity factors and the educational outcomes of GPA, community service, and athlete demographics. College athletes across all NCAA divisions (N = 546) completed questionnaires related to their athletic identity, GPA, community service participation, and demographics. When comparing athl...

Student-athlete graduation rates have significantly increased in recent years, with the NCAA believing their retention and graduation rates now outpace the general college student population. Even with these promising changes, student-athletes still face a litany of academic challenges during their higher education experience. The purpose of this s...

Sport management undergraduate and graduate programs have gained popularity throughout the United States and around the world. Despite this, women are still underrepresented in sport leadership positions. Although women have made it to the highest levels of sport leadership roles, studies suggest that advancement to such roles is more challenging f...

A recent study by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) found that approximately 90% of college athletes participate in community service and nearly 60% of college coaches require community service as a team activity. Participation in community service may provide critical, yet formidable, development opportunities that college athlet...

Participation in mentoring is integral for advancement within sport organizations, particularly for women (Bower, 2009; Shaw, 2006). However, it is unclear how mentoring contributes to opportunities for career advancement or breakthroughs (e.g., opportunities for new functional roles, project oversight) (Mainiero, 1994). Therefore, the purpose of t...

In recent years, the field of sport management has witnessed a flurry of research on the career experiences of women in sport organizations. The perceived gendered nature of work and subsequent segregation of positions in a sport organization implies men and women pursue or align career paths based on gender. There are few studies, however, that ex...

This study utilizes an experimental design to investigate how different presentations (sexualized, neutral, and combat) of female athletes competing in a combat sport such as mixed martial arts, a sport defying traditional gender norms, affect consumers' attitudes toward the advertising, event, and athlete brand. When the female athlete in the adve...

The prioritization of athletic commitments by student-athletes has only increased in recent years as student-athletes frequently sacrifice academic opportunities to focus on their sport. Movement toward athletic prioritization has led to a decrease in academic development for student-athletes. Community service is an integral part of the college ac...

Organizational capacity is often discussed among nonprofit practitioners and scholars. Yet, empirical research employing a multidimensional capacity framework remains scarce in the nonprofit literature (Andersson et al. in VOLUNTAS Int J Volunt Nonprofit Organ 27(6):2860–2888, 2016). Using a qualitative research approach, we explored capacity in a...

Participation of Hispanics/Latinas in intercollegiate athletics is scarce. During the 2014-2015 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) athletic season, only 2.2 percent of all female Division I student-athlete’s identified as Hispanic or Latina (NCAA, 2015). This low percentage of Hispanic/Latina female participants calls into question how...

Unlike traditional media, which frames female athletes in sexualized manners and in socially accepted roles such as mothers and girlfriends, user-controlled social-media Web sites allow female athletes to control the image and brand they wish to portray to the public. Using Goffman’s theory of self-presentation, the current study aimed to investiga...

Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) policy-makers and practitioners continue to offer ambitious claims regarding the potential role of sport-based programs for promoting social change. Yet, it is important to put sport under a critical lens in order to develop a more balanced and realistic understanding of the role of sport in society. Whether SD...

National governing bodies, international sport federations, and national Olympic committees continue to struggle to attain minimal levels of female representation. Sport organizations in the United States are no exception. Despite the fact that more women work in intercollegiate athletics than ever before, the number of female assistant and associa...

Formed in 1996, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) did not have a profitable team until 2011. By the end of 2013, however, 50% of WNBA teams turned a profit. In an effort to better understand how WNBA organizations are moving toward the trend of profitability, this study employed the excellence theory of public relations to examine...

The purpose of this study was to investigate student-athlete perceptions of the academic resources and support staff within stand-alone athletic academic centers. An online survey was completed by 196 NCAA Division-I student-athletes at two private institutions in the Northeast and one public institution in the Midwest. Results showed both public a...

Student engagement has become a priority in higher education with the increased urgency for institutions to improve the citizenship of their student body (Bringle & Hatcher, 1996). This emphasis has been echoed by the NCAA, who views community service as a means to providing additional development to student-athletes (NCAA, 2007). Additionally, com...

Higher education administrators have called on faculty to strategize ways in which to fill classroom seats, as well as recruit and retain diverse students. Understanding current student populations should be of increasing importance to sport management faculty as new programs are established at colleges and universities each year. A sample of 330 s...