HOW FOOTBALL PERFORMANCE AFFECTS ALUMNI DONATIONS TO COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS AT MTSU

Abstract

Athletic fundraising is one of the primary sources of revenue for NCAA Division I athletic departments. Thus, it is considered to be the foundation of any successful collegiate athletic department. Through the decades, economical turndowns and excessive increase in academic and operating costs have created large deficits in the annual budgets of many athletic departments, making athletic departments for the most part self-efficient (Knight Commission, 2010; Hall & Mahony, 1997). The NCAA (2018) reported all Division I colleges and universities outside of the “Power 5” conferences to have exceeded their total generated revenues with their expenses. In fact, many Division I institutions, including Middle Tennessee State University, still continue to increase fundraising efforts in support of intercollegiate athletics. The purpose of this study is to examine how the performance of the most revenue generator sport – football – at MTSU affects alumni donations to the general fund and football-specific gifts through the Blue Raider Athletic Association. The study found no statistically significant relationship between football team performance over the course of ten years and alumni donations to the BRAA general fund and football-specific gifts. The results open the door to further studies at MTSU, to determine how to improve the fund raising strategies that target alumni donations used by the BRAA, and to analyze the reasons why alumni give to general fund and sport-specific.