Vicarious means of students connecting to the university has the potential to occur through collegiate athletics thus increasing the university's social capital. Madrigal (1995) suggests the principle appeal of watching athletic competitions is due to the unique mystery of the outcome of a sporting event. Therefore, the reciprocal relationship between the community involvement of the students and trust in others is seen as a demonstration of social capital through individual behavior and attitudes (Brehm & Rahn, 1997). This research has built upon the Basking in reflected glory (BIRG) and Cutting off reflected failure (CORF) theories (Cialdinis, 1976), where group identity was first established through fan identification. Additionally, the theoretical framework of the Social Identity Theory, which explains group processes and intergroup relationships mediated via social structures and individual behavior, connections between student fan identification and the university can be determined as factors for creating or increasing the social capital of the institution. These connections have surfaced through sport management literature where a vicarious athletics connection has been linked with identifying with the overall university (Clopton & Finch, 2009). However, the relationship between vicarious achievement with a sports team or program, identifying with the university, and the subsequent level of social capital has yet to be examined.
Method
The current study, then, sought to examine the extent to which students' perceived vicarious achievement through their school's athletics teams mediated the relationship between identification into the university and the overall level s of social capital of each student. Responses from undergraduate students (N=1251, response rate of 32.9%) across 41 NCAA BCS institutions were collected around the SCAT (Krishna & Shrader, 1999), CSES (Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992), and VIC (Funk, Mahony, & Ridinger, 2002) scales.
Analysis/Results
To examine the mediating potential of vicarious achievement in athletics upon the relationship between university identity and social capital, a significant predictability was discovered between both vicarious achievement and university identity with social capital (Baron & Kenny, 1986). When entered into the regression analysis, results revealed at least a partial mediation of vicarious achievement upon the contribution of university identity towards a student's social capital levels.
Conclusions
Results appear to confirm the notion that the connection with spectator sports of the university plays a very real and tangible role in a student's connection with the university and in the benefits derived from this connection. This connection merits further scrutiny of both researchers and student affairs administrators in higher education.