College Sport Research Institute

Earlier today, Dr. Richard Southall of the University of Memphis announced the creation of the College Sport Research Institute (CSRI). The CSRI will serve as a national clearinghouse for college sports research, and will encourage and support sustained crossdisciplinary, collaborative college-sport research, serve as a consortium for college-sport researchers from across the United States, and disseminate research results to academics, college-sport practitioners, and the general public. It will also be a strong advocate for college athletes’ rights and education.

I am honored to serve on the CSRI's Executive Board, which includes:

Director: Richard M. Southall of the University of Memphis
Associate Director: Mark S. Nagel of the University of South Carolina
Chief Operating Officer: Deborah J. Southall of the University of Memphis
Assistant Director: Peter Han of State University of New York – Cortland

Board Members:
Dr. Billy Hawkins of the University of Georgia
Mr. Michael McCann of Mississippi College School of Law
Dr. Fritz Polite of the University of Tennessee
Dr. Allen Sack of the University of New Haven
Dr. Ellen Staurowsky of Ithaca College

CSRI will also publish an academic, peer-reviewed journal entitled Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics (JIIA). Dr. Kevin L. Burke, from East Tennessee State University will serve as editor of JIIA. Members of an Editorial Review Board will be announced shortly.

In addition, CSRI will host an annual national conference. The first of these conferences, the Issues in College Sport Conference, will be held April 16-19, 2008 at the FedEx Institute of Technology on the campus of the University of Memphis. Leading researchers, practitioners, and college administrators will be invited to attend. In addition to two prominent keynote speakers, and three invited panels, the conference will include two days of juried academic presentations. In order to encourage undergraduate and graduate student participation, a student research competition will be held in conjunction with the conference. If you are a student writing about college sports issues, we encourage you to submit a paper. Here are the details:

CSRI Call for Papers

To be considered for acceptance, abstracts must reflect college-sport research on the history of intercollegiate athletics, social-cultural college-sport issues, legal theory or the application of law to college-sport issues, business-related issues in college sport, or special topics related to developing college-sport issues. The research should have reached a fairly complete stage of development, and the abstract should provide enough detail about the research, so the reviewers have sufficient information to judge its quality. Abstracts proposing teaching-related sessions on college-sport issues will also be considered, as long as the abstract provides sufficient detail to judge the quality of the proposed session.

Abstracts will undergo a three-person, blind-review process to determine acceptance. Abstracts submitted to CSRI should not be concurrently submitted for consideration to another conference, but may reflect work that has been previously presented at another conference.

All abstracts must be submitted electronically as a Microsoft Word attachment. They must also contain the following information and conform to the following format requirements: Single-spaced, One-inch margins, Times New Roman 12-point font, and 400-word maximum for 25-minute presentations and posters, and 800-word maximum for 75-minute presentations.

Abstract Format

Line 1: length of session desired, choose from the options: (a) 25-minute oral presentation (including questions); (b) 75-minute teaching symposium, roundtable, or workshop; (c) 75-minute forum (2-3 papers with a discussant, including questions); or (d) Poster presentation
Line 2: three to four keywords that will help the program coordinator to schedule similar topics in succession
Line 3: author(s) and institution(s) names (centered on page)
Line 4: presentation title (centered on page)
Line 5: blank
Line 6 to end: text of abstract

In the email message accompanying the attached abstract, include the principal author’s name, postal mailing address, email address, and fax and telephone numbers. Submission of abstract(s) indicates the intent of the presenter(s) to register for the conference at the appropriate registration fee.

Submission Deadline: Abstracts should NOT be submitted prior to October 1, 2007 and MUST be received no later than Monday, December 17, 2007 (11:59p.m. CST). Submissions received after this date and time will not be considered for acceptance. Email all abstracts to Richard M. Southall (Director - CSRI) at southall@memphis.edu

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