CASE STUDIES IN SPORT MANAGEMENT Volume 6 Case Study 3 https://doi.org/10.1123/cssm. 2017-0008 Aspirations Through Association: Using Athletics to Enhance Institutional Prestige Rhema D. Fuller, Brennan K. Berg, and Michael Hutchinson University of Memphis Increasingly, sport managers are attempting to use athletics to positively affect their colleges' and universities' prestige. To highlight this contemporary issue, this case study presents an athletic director, Dwight Stanley, who has to give a recommendation on whether his institution should maintain its membership in the NJCAA or pursue membership in another athletic association, namely the NAIA or NCAA DIII. This case study is designed to capture the tension sport managers face as they encounter complex decisions. Accordingly, each membership option is presented with its advantages and disadvantages, as well as its supporters and detractors. Consequently, students will be required to critically asses a variety of factors to determine the institution's most feasible course of action. Given the popularity of careers within intercollegiate athletics, this case study provides an excellent way for students to engage in considering the complexities of such positions. Addition- ally, though the case study is presented within the context of intercollegiate athletics, the analytical process required to select a course of action is transferable to other segments of the sport industry. Keywords: enrollment, budget, finance, decision-making, college sport As he adjusted his cardigan, Dwight Stanley realized the weather had been unseasonably erratic for a Mississippi spring. In many ways, the weather paralleled Stanley's constitution at the moment-sporadic and undecided. Even after walking through the doors of a local diner Stanley was still consumed by a cacophony of thoughts surrounding a decision