The business and politics behind campus sports. In many states, the highest-paid public employee is not a governor or a university president, but a football coach. Yet most senior campus leaders rise through academic or administrative pathways that leave them with little preparation for overseeing athletics. In Understanding College Athletics, Karen Weaver offers a clear, practical account of how intercollegiate athletics functions as a complex enterprise with far-reaching implications for institutional reputation, finances, governance, and student experience. Weaver explains how athletics departments are structured, how budgets are built, where legal and compliance risks arise, and why athletics decisions reverberate across enrollment management, advancement, facilities planning, and alumni relations. Written for presidents, provosts, deans, financial officers, trustees, and other senior leaders, the book emphasizes oversight rather than operations. Weaver equips readers to ask informed questions, evaluate claims made in the name of competitive success, and understand how athletics aligns-or fails to align-with institutional mission and values. The book covers a wide range of topics, including financial partnerships and private equity, the student-athlete experience, donor influence, media and branding pressures, and the rapidly changing regulatory landscape shaped by NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) policy, antitrust litigation, and NCAA restructuring. At a moment when college athletics faces unprecedented scrutiny and instability, Understanding College Athletics serves as a working handbook for campus leaders who can no longer afford to treat sports as someone else's responsibility.
Karen Weaver is an adjunct assistant professor and academic director at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Sport Finance: Where the Money Comes From and Where the Money Goes.
Table of Contents Acknowledgements Foreword from Michael Sorrell, Ed.D. President, Paul Quinn College Who is this book for? 1. The Perfect Storm 2. Balancing the Books: Financial Realities and Strategic Choices 3. How Media Rights and Streaming Are Reshaping College Sports 4. Playing to Thrive: The Strategic Playbook for Division II, III and NAIA Presidents 5. From Fans to Fiduciaries: Leading Your Board Through the Athletic Revolution 6. The Cinderella Trap: Why Athletic Miracles May Not Save Your Enrollment 7. From Cost Center to Enterprise: Leading the Financial Reinvention of College Athletes 8. End of Amateur Hour-Navigating the Legal Revolution 9. Presidential Leadership for Athlete Health, Safety and Well-Being 10. Leadership Decisions Will Define the Next Generation of College Sports Author Biography Index
