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The primary purposes of this study were: to determine the extent to which the strategic planning process was being used in NCAA Division I‐A athletic departments; to identify the key factors that discourage the above mentioned departments from engaging in strategic planning activities; to develop and recommend a generic strategic planning process model, which could be implemented by the athletic departments; and to examine the relationships between the extent of strategic planning used by the athletic departments and these selected variables: type of the university (private versus public), university size, and background of athletic directors. All 106 NCAA Division I‐A athletic departments were surveyed. The response rate was 72 per cent. Findings of this study were as follows: 33 (43.4 per cent) of the athletic departments were classified as strategic planners; insufficient financial resources and time were the factors that highly discouraged the athletic departments from engaging in strategic planning; a strategic planning process model was developed and an analysis of its several components was presented; the extent of strategic planning used by the athletic departments was not related to the type of university, university size, and the background of athletic directors.