On March 1, 2008, the Center for Sport Policy & Research (CSPR) was launched in collaboration with Middle Tennessee State University and the Journal for Sport Administration and Supervision.  CSPR seeks to be a catalyst for change in the academic discipline and profession of sport.  In conjunction with the Sport Management graduate program, the center will:

• Scope of Knowledge and Consensus: To disseminate research knowledge on critical sport issues in a format that is readily accessible to governing bodies, media, practitioners, scholars, students, and the public
• Development of the Scholarly Sport Practitioner: To encourage practitioners in sport to champion ethics and pioneer innovation by creating a greater understanding of the applicability of sport research to their organizations, duties, and skills
• Development of Social Responsibility in Sport Organizations & Stakeholders: Advocate and implement desirable, feasible solutions that will enable sport organizations and stakeholders to better understand their function and role within sport and to redefine social responsibility in ways that can be incorporated into one of modern society’s more prominent, preeminent, pervasive, and powerful social institutions

Sportsmanship: The Single, Critical Ethical Issue Facing Sport Today?

The media’s popular portrayal of professional and collegiate athletes and coaches typically highlights inappropriate, sensational, and even selfish behavior indicative of the troubling examples of acceptable sportsmanship role modeled to our youth.  While the Center for Sport Policy and Research (CSPR) believes that these inappropriate displays of behavior and sensationalist broadcasting are not reflective of the norm within sport, we recognize that the impact factor of these multimedia generated stories portray a misguided example for the greater sports industry, and particularly for youth.  Additionally, the underwhelming amount of attention paid to examples of good sportsmanship behavior in the news and in media seems to represent a token contribution to the normal headlines promoting arrests, corruption, cheating, and fighting by athletes, spectators, parents, and lately, referees.

Historically, sport has been credited with playing a considerable role in the psycho-social growth and development of children and adolescents in the U.S. and Internationally.  However, those that benefits do not cease upon one’s entry into the workforce, nor do they diminish outside of the courts and fields with which they are experienced or witnessed.  The potentiality of the benefits of sport is quite pervasive, yet it remains anecdotal in nature (Vail, 2005).  Many researchers have sought to document the benefits of involvement in sport, although increased attention and investigative efforts are needed to further describe its impact.

At the 1999 Symposium: American Sport at Century’s End, D. Stanley Eitzen, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Colorado State University, engaged scholars and policy makers to critically examine several paradoxes that continue to beleaguer sport in our nation.

The following strategic research agenda, including objectives and content areas, offers a comprehensive examination of sportsmanship within the framework of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory of Human Development.

CSPR Strategic Research Agenda: Objectives and Content Area Proposals

Strategic Objective 1: Orientation to Sportsmanship

1.2 Athlete’s Self-Assessment of Sportsmanship Knowledge, Values and Attitudes Athletes:    Defining Sportsmanship
1.3 Parent’s Self-Perceptions and Self-Assessments of  Others’ Sportsmanship Behavior  Parent’s Self-Assessment of Sportsmanship Knowledge, Values and Attitudes Parents: Defining Sportsmanship
1.4 Coach’s Self-Assessment of Sportsmanship Knowledge, Values and Attitudes
Coaches: Defining Sportsmanship
1.5 Referee’s Self-Assessment of Sportsmanship Knowledge, Values and Attitudes
1.5 Referees: Defining Sportsmanship
1.5a Administrator’s Self-Assessment of Sportsmanship Knowledge, Values and Attitudes
1.5a Administrators: Defining Sportsmanship
1.6 Media’s Account of Sportsmanship Behavior
1.6a Social Psychology Research’s Definitions for Sportsmanship: A new vision