ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the areas of rules compliance and enforcement, two related areas of action that have significant importance to the practices associated with many key intercollegiate athletic management task areas. The term compliance refers to the extent to which athletic programs and their institutions follow the rules specified by their governing bodies, such as their conference or national associations. Conferences were the first organizations to take on the roles of compliance and enforcement, but the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) assumed these roles gradually over the course of the 20th century. Many critics of the NCAA’s enforcement process have labeled the organization as an omnipresent, all-powerful police force waiting to pounce on schools for the slightest of errors in departmental management. All schools, student-athletes, and institutional staff members facing major violations as a result of the NCAA’s enforcement process have the right to appeal the findings, the penalties, or both.
