The National Collegiate Athletic Association will provide financial and other means of support to a research laboratory at Texas A&M University at College Station that examines ethnic, racial, and gender diversity in college sports, the NCAA announced today.

Under the new partnership, Texas A&M’s Laboratory for Diversity in Sport will receive financial support from the NCAA for its research into how athletics departments can increase diversity among employees, teams, and fans. The agreement also calls for the eventual expansion of the laboratory’s annual Diversity in Athletics Award to all three NCAA divisions.

The lab, in the department of health and kinesiology, studies the impact of diversity on college sports teams and athletics departments. In the 2006-7 academic year, it recognized 10 Division I institutions for demonstrating “overall excellence in diversity.” —Libby Sander