Almost 92 percent of Division I institutions report that spending on academic support for student-athletes remained steady or increased since 2007, even though more than half of those schools cut overall athletics spending in the wake of the national economic downturn.

The finding was part of an NCAA study this summer of academic-support services for student-athletes at Division I institutions. The National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N4A) and the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA) assisted with the survey, which was a follow-up to a similar study in 1998.

The study also showed that more institutions reported coaches becoming more supportive of the academic success of their student-athletes, an effect tied directly to the increase in academic standards brought by enhanced progress-toward-degree requirements and other policies established by the Academic Performance Program.

The study found that most schools experienced between a 1 to 20 percent increase in total spending on academic programs over the last two years, with 12 percent reporting even greater increases. At the same time, overall reductions on athletics spending were identified.

Football Bowl Subdivision members reported spending more on academic-support services than their counterparts in the Football Championship Subdivision and Division I programs without football. The median total academic-support budget reported at the FBS level was $655,000, compared with about $150,000 in other subdivisions. Similarly, more FBS institutions reported greater use of academic resources among their student-athletes than those in other subdivisions.

FBS schools also reported that they were more likely to provide a broader array of academic-support services than those in the other subdivisions. Most schools, however, offer assistance with course selection, degree-progress monitoring, class-attendance checks, study-hall facilities, course-specific tutoring and computer labs for student-athletes.

Many institutions reported requiring the use of academic-support services, such as study hall, for incoming freshmen student-athletes. Though recent NCAA data collected through the APP have indicated that many incoming transfer student-athletes are at risk academically, fewer schools are likely to require transfers to take advantage of the academic-support opportunities available to them.

The NCAA research staff plans to more fully analyze the data in the coming months to examine potential links between the level of academic support for student-athletes and changes in the Academic Progress Rate at individual institutions.

The Division I Academic Cabinet reviewed the data at its September meeting. Members indicated an interest in learning more about the trends in academic support over the last 10 years and also identified academic support for transfer student-athletes as an area for future study.

The survey results will be shared with academic partner organizations such as N4A, NACADA, the Faculty Athletics Representatives Association and the Division I-A Faculty Athletics Representatives.