Rate My Professor James Johnson

James Johnson serves as Professor of Sport Administration in the School of Kinesiology at Ball State University, a position he has held since 2021. Previously, he was Graduate Coordinator for Sport Administration from 2011 to 2022, Associate Professor from 2015 to 2021, Assistant Professor from 2010 to 2015, and Adjunct Faculty from 2009 to 2010. Earlier in his career at Ball State, Johnson worked as Assistant Coordinator of Academic Support Services for Student-Athletes from 2003 to 2010, and as a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science from 1999 to 2001. He earned a Doctor of Education in Adult, Community and Higher Education from Ball State University in 2010, with a specialization in Higher Education and a cognate in Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science. His Master of Science in Physical Education, Sport, and Exercise Science, focusing on Sport Psychology, was conferred by Ball State in 2001, complemented by a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Franklin College in 1999.

Johnson's academic interests center on sport administration, interscholastic and intercollegiate athletics, competitive balance, coaching succession, student-athlete retention and academic success, sport psychology, organizational behavior in sport, and interscholastic sport policy and participation. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, with recent articles including "Prioritizing education-based athletics: Perspectives of high school athletic administrators" (International Journal of Sport Management, 2025), "Revisiting interscholastic competitive balance: An update on Policy and Participation" (Journal of Amateur Sport, 2025), "Analyzing the high school athletic administrator role: Pressing issues facing the position" (Journal of Amateur Sport, 2025), and "Predicting NCAA Division I conference winning percentage: An applied resource allocation perspective" (Sports Innovation Journal, 2025). His research has attracted significant funding, exceeding $250,000 from external sources such as the North American Society for Sport Management Service-Learning Grant and internal grants including Summer Assessment Grants. Notable honors include Tenure Track Faculty of the Year from the School of Kinesiology in 2016, Fellow of the Sport Management Education Journal in 2023, Research Fellow at the College Sport Research Institute in 2020, and Sport Management Education Journal Best Paper Award in 2021. Johnson serves on editorial review boards for the Journal of Intercollegiate Sport and Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, and has mentored graduate students to multiple case study competition victories.