ABSTRACT
Colleges and universities and their athletics programs are integrated in a complex web of social ideals about campus community values and ideals over the purpose of sports and the purpose of education. The scale of the athletics department and visibility of the institution may vary, but the institutional values that drive assumptions of athletics share many similarities across institutions. ‘Going to college’ is a concept that is distinct from the academic purpose of higher education but intertwined in the core function of degree attainment. While most institutions are differentiated by their many functions, there are assumptions that attending college is particularly relevant for students ages 18–22. Scholars of higher education have coined the community benefits from ‘going to college’ the collegiate ideal. The collegiate ideal is the ways in which campus culture, mission, history, physical artifacts, and settings, norms, traditions, values, practices, beliefs, and assumptions that guide individual and shared experiences are connected to physical places.
