Measuring organizational commitment of varsity athletes in NCAA

The objective of this study was to confirm the multidimensionality of varsity athletes’ commitment in NCAA Division I and Division II. A secondary purpose of this study was to examine the differences of commitment between Division I and Division II varsity student athletes. The instrument by Turner (2001) was revised in order to measure that commitment. The scale consisted of four bases of commitment including Affective Commitment (AC), Normative Commitment (NC), Continuance Commitment-High Sacrifice (CC-HiSac), and Continuance Commitment-Low Alternative (CC-LoAlt). A total of two hundred thirty five (235) varsity athletes in Division I and II participated in the survey. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was conducted to access the measurement model of athletes’ commitment and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to investigate the differences of commitment between Division I and Division II varsity student athletes. The CFA results indicated that the overall fit of the four bases measurement model was adequate. Overall, MANOVA was statistically significant. In a follow-up univariate test, there were significant differences in the “Affective,” “Normative” and CC:LoAlt” bases. Division I varsity athletes were more committed to “Affective” and “Normative” factors, while “CC:LoAlt” was a more important commitment for Division II varsity athletes.