Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Club Sports Participation - Lessons from a Robust Recovery

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, university campuses began to close or move into virtual operations to attempt to prevent the spread of the virus around the United States, pausing all co-curricular learning opportunities at the campuses, including club sports for the estimated 2 million students who participate in these programs annually. Using systems theory as a theoretical framework, this study, funded by a NIRSA Research Grant, attempts to determine the impact that the pandemic had on club sports participation and operations, both in the 2020-2021 academic year when campuses were first learning to operate with the virus, and over the full four academic year period from 2019-2020 to 2022-2023. The study collected data from club sports departments at 107 institutions nationwide via an electronic Qualtrics survey administered from May to July, 2024. Take away lessons for club sports, collegiate recreation, and student affairs professionals for future events and crises that disrupt normal operations, including severe weather, violence and terrorist acts, and mass illness, include insuring that students feel safe while participating in the immediate aftermath of a disruption, and not being concerned about temporarily suspending operations to respond to the crisis.

Learning Outcomes

1. Participants will be able to identify the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on club sport participation, both during the 2020-21 academic year, and over the full four-year 2019-20 to 2022-23 time period 

2. Participants will be able to identify the impact that various different restrictions used to mitigate COVID-19 had on participation levels, both in the short term and full four-year period. 

3. Participants will be able to identify strategies to use when future collegiate recreation programming is interrupted due to severe weather, forest fires, and acts of mass violence. 

Continuing Education Credits

Participants who complete this program will be eligible for Continuing Education (CE) credits in either the Core Student Affairs Educator Certification (CSAEd™) or Certified Student Affairs Educator-Campus Recreation (CSAEd-CR™).  

NIRSA has been approved by the Higher Education Consortium for Student Affairs Certification to provide CE credit for Certified Student Affairs Educators (CSAEd™). NIRSA is solely responsible for all aspects of this program. 

This webinar qualifies for the amount and types of CE credit listed below: 

• CE Credit value: 1
• CE Credit Type: Core, Campus Recreation Specialty
• CE Credit Domain: Crisis & Risk Management

How to get CE credits for attending this course:

1. Attend the live webinar or watch the webinar recording once published to this page
2. Upon completion, submit a program evaluation at this link
3. Within two weeks of completing the survey, you should receive a certificate of completion via email