As a higher education association, the NCAA will sponsor cutting-edge scholarly research about intercollegiate athletics.

In conjunction with its annual Convention, the first Scholarly Colloquium on College Sports will be January 10-11 in Nashville.  The program will include four speakers who will present papers on questions of compatibility between intercollegiate athletics and higher education and the information needed to address related issues. 

The speakers are: Jay Coakley, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs; Robert Simon, Hamilton College; John Thelin, University of Kentucky; and Mary Jo Kane, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Scott Kretchmar, a professor of exercise and sport science at Pennsylvania State University, chairs the advisory and editorial board created for the inaugural colloquium.  Before the first paper was presented, Dr. Kretchmar took a few moments to discuss the importance of scholarly research in intercollegiate athletics.

Click here to listen to Kretchmar talk about research in the field.