Newly created Standards for Esports Programs

The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) is pleased to announce the release of a new set of standards for Esports Programs (ESP).

The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) is pleased to announce the release of a new set of standards for Esports Programs (ESP).

CAS, a consortium composed of over 40 collaborating professional associations representing over 115,000 professionals in higher education, has developed standards for 50 functional areas and 3 cross-functional teams, and rooted them in the scholarship and work conducted within their respective fields. These revised standards delineate expectations for practitioners and educators in related functional areas and are an update to the standards published in the 2023 CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education (11th version).

The CAS standards committee was chaired by Ray Plaza, Santa Clara University. CAS partnered closely with NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation. The expert representing NIRSA was Jason Vlastaras, Iowa State University.

Vlastaras noted, “The new Esports Programs (ESP) standards will serve as a valuable tool for both new and existing programs to elevate and affirm their effectiveness in relation to student success and development.”

Plaza noted, “This new standard shows how CAS can be used to help provide guidance to new and emerging areas in higher education. The committee gained a lot of valuable insight into Esports and appreciated the engagement with the experts.”

Plaza and Vlastaras were joined by additional professionals who provided invaluable feedback on both the standards and contextual statement.

Standards Members
Ray Plaza (Chair), ACPA
Jason Vlastaras (Expert), NIRSA
Doreen Toobin (SMC Liaison)
Ralph Johnson, SACSA
Roland Bullard, SACSA

External Experts
Jack Blahnik, Illinois State University
Stephen Lynam, East Stroudsburg University
Wil Turner, U.S. Council for Athletes' Health (NIRSA Partner)
Andrew Byrne, California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly)
Armand Buzzelli, Robert Morris University
Grant Deppen. Old Dominion University
Rahul Rajan, University of Minnesota
Anson Ho, Utah State University
Connor Singhisen, University of South Dakota
Jay Swenson, University of Illinois-Springfield
Kyle Pearson, Jacksonville State University
Eugene Frier, Texas Wesleyan University
Tom Soria, University of Miami
Christopher Bilski, Grand Valley State University
Chris Holguin, College of the Holy Cross
Antonio Gonzalez, University of South Florida
Dana Haxby, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Amanda Bray, Utah State University
Rich Ramos, Simpson College
Cindy Strine, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
Ryan Johnson, Oakwood University / Georgia State University
Nathan Pick, Iowa State University
Antonio Gonzalez, University of South Florida
Courtney James, DePaul
John Cash, John C. Smith University
Joseph Akob, East Stroudsburg
Shelley Bannish, Centralia

CAS is proud to release this newly developed set of standards for an important and evolving functional area in higher education. Both the standards and the Self-Assessment Guide are now available in the CAS store, and are free to CAS annual subscribers.

The new standards for Esports is now available at https://store.cas.edu/e-sports-programs-standards/.

Please direct all questions and inquiries about the revised standards to the CAS Executive Director ([email protected]).