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Recently Terminated NCAA Collegiate Football Coaches’ Perspectives on Organizational Support Received From Former Athletic Director and Athletic Department
Full text linkEvery year, many head football coaches at the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision are fired
without cause. The leading factor of these dismissals occurs when the team fails to meet
stakeholders’ expectations of winning enough games. Termination is not only problematic for
the coach, but the team, athletic department, its student-athletes, and the institution, as often a
change in coach does not solve the problem. Many factors lead to a losing season in both
athletics and corporations, including the level of organizational support. In the research on
collegiate coaching, this is an overlooked topic. The purpose of this qualitative, descriptive case
study was to understand and describe NCAA college football coaches’ perspectives on
organizational support received from the athletic director and the athletic department they were
fired from without cause for poor performance, including barriers to and facilitators of success.
Participants were eight NCAA head football coaches terminated within the last 8 years (2017–
present) who believed the cause was not winning enough games. I conducted individual
interviews and administered the 8-item Likert Survey of Perceived Organizational Support to
gather data relating to their perceptions of support from their former employer they were
terminated from without cause. Through transcription and coding, three major themes emerged
relating to a lack of organizational support from their former employer. Insufficient financial
support, a lack of support from the athletic director, and an absence of support throughout the
university served as barriers to success. Additionally, the respondents indicated barriers to
success within the three themes relating to issues with communication, a counterproductive
culture, unsupportive administration, misalignment between university departments, and little
concern for well-being. This research is significant as it identified a lack of perceived
organizational support which served as a barrier to success for college football coachesv
terminated without cause. Based on these findings, it is recommended that athletic directors work
to improve and frequently evaluate organizational support for their coaches through financial
support, communication, culture, and alignment
