Research

Club sport legal liability practices at NIRSA institutions

Study will be published in the Recreational Sports Journal

In an article to be published in the Spring 2008 Recreational Sports Journal, the research team of Robert Schneider, William F. Stier, Jr., Stephen Kampf, Brady Gaskins, and Scott Haines conducted a study of what campus recreation departments nationwide do regarding liability related to sport clubs. The study, titled “Club Sport Legal Liability Practices at NIRSA Institutions,” purported to determine the current practices in collegiate sport club programs. Using mainly descriptive statistics, the researchers considered several relevant categories that were identified from previous research on both liability and sport clubs.

The researchers developed a survey which was pilot-tested by six experts in the field of campus recreation. These individuals, who were campus recreation directors holding NIRSA membership and had ten or more years experience in the field, provided the researchers with modifications and advice on the survey. Following this procedure, the survey was mailed to the 563 campus recreation directors at institutions holding NIRSA membership.

The 23-item survey consisted of closed-ended questions in which the campus recreation directors chose from predetermined responses. Background information was gathered to provide statistical analysis based on the respondents’ region within NIRSA, type of institution, locale of institution, and total size based on combined undergraduate and graduate student enrollment. The researchers reported a response rate of 38% in that 213 of the 563 surveys were returned. A comparison of means was conducted on budget amount by categorized size of student enrollment.

The study considered five areas of legal liability concern for sport clubs: 1) Administration and Finance, 2) Documentation, 3) Travel, 4) Coaching, 5) Other Legal Concerns. The items that fell into the “Other” category included the study of on-site supervision at home competitions, the use of off-campus facilities, club access to athletic trainers, the availability and use of medical insurance, and the requiring of the presence of an ambulance at certain club competitions.

Utilizing a comparison of means, the researchers reported that significant differences were found in the amount of money allocated to sport clubs based on size of student enrollment. The researchers reported that institutions with enrollment less than 5,000 students, and those with enrollment greater than 25,000 students, had significantly higher mean budgets than those with enrollments between the aforementioned figures (medium – high enrollment), α= .05. The study also reported that private institutions and institutions in NIRSA Regions V and VI were more likely to have higher amounts of money devoted to sport clubs on average than public institutions and institutions in NIRSA Regions I – IV. The study did not report whether the differences in these categories were statistically significant, however.

In regard to the legal documentation category, the researchers found that most institutions had waivers and other legal forms for participants and that they relied primarily on the sport club officers to disseminate and collect this documentation. The researchers also reported a lack of consistent language and font size of waiver forms issued to participants and speculated that this could cause problems for campus recreation administrators.

The most common form of travel among sport club participants, according to the researchers, was by means of personally owned automobiles, rented vans, and chartered busses. It was also found that a large majority of campus recreation departments do not require an institutional employee to accompany a traveling sport club team, no matter the time or the distance traveled. The study did find that sport club travel was a source of anxiety for campus recreation directors.

The study found that a majority of collegiate club sport coaches are volunteers and player/coaches. The size of a sport club’s budget did not have an impact on the type of coach used in sport club programs, except for those with very small budgets that used players/coaches as the coach for the club. The most interesting finding regarding the use of coaches was that paid coaches were not being used at a much different rate than unpaid coaches.

The study also reported that most institutions do not require supervision at home contests, most do not use professional or student trainers at home contests, and most do not require participants to take and pass physical examinations prior to participating in the club. However, over half of the reporting institutions indicated that participants are required to submit proof of medical insurance prior to participating. Among other things, the study concluded by saying that there are certain potential legal liability problems related to the lack of properly trained personnel, supervision, and accountability to address emergency response procedures at sport club contests.

For further information, contact Dr. Robert Schneider, Associate Professor of Physical Education and Sport, State University of New York at Brockport.