Recently Terminated NCAA Collegiate Football Coaches’ Perspectives on Organizational Support Received From Former Athletic Director and Athletic Department

Every 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.