Athletic Offerings in Private Junior Colleges‪.‬

Little has been done to profile or describe private junior colleges, their role in the higher education landscape, their practices, and in particular, how these institutions use and offer athletic programming. The current study was designed to profile the athletic program offerings of private junior colleges and to describe the extent of their offerings and competition. By researchers creating the profile, institutions will be better equipped to assess the viability of athletic program offerings and align their efforts to their intentions, such as student recruitment, media exposure, and institutional marketing. As a descriptive study, the intent is to describe the types of athletic teams offered in private institutions and to profile student participation in these sports. Findings indicate a need to study the private junior college as a population and segment of the higher education marketplace as well as the role it plays in perpetuating the liberal arts tradition and expanding access to postsecondary education. Specifically, approximately half of all private junior colleges offer athletic programs, and most institutions that do offer athletics support seven teams with the most popular sport offered being basketball. Introduction