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Geographical Effects on College Bowl Games

U.S. Sports Academy2013-11-25T19:47:06-06:00July 10th, 2009|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Coaching, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|

Abstract

One of the most heated debates in all of college sports centers on the college football postseason. With the goal of creating the best structure for determining a national champion, some parties argue for playoffs, while others advocate that the current bowl system should remain in place. One part of the college football postseason that has been overlooked is the location of the games as a factor in potentially ameliorating the bowl system. Data were conducted to determine if geography gives certain teams advantages in bowl games. Statistical analysis showed that factors such as participant teams’ relative distances to the bowl sites and relative climates are significant in determining the outcomes of major college football bowl games.

Introduction

One of the many traditions of major college football is the unique conclusion to its season. Since 1902, when the forerunner to the Rose Bowl was played for the first time, a series of bowl games has marked the end of the college football season (Bauman, 2009). Unlike most of their other collegiate and professional sports counterparts, college football teams in the NCAA’s Division One Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) conclude each year with the chance to participate, not in a multi-round tournament, but in a bowl game (NCAA Championships, 2008).

In the past fifteen years, the college football bowl system has evolved into an imperfect compromise, balancing tradition with a growing desire to crown an undisputable national champion. The Bowl Championship Series, the most recent manifestation of the struggle between tradition and progress, emerged in the late 1990s. (BCS Background, 2008). At first, the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) consisted of four major bowl games – the Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, and Rose Bowls – with the two most highly ranked teams placed in one of those four games. A fifth BCS game, which was dubbed the BCS Championship Game, was added starting with the end of the 2006 season (Flanagan, 2008).

The BCS, while representing significant progress compared with its predecessors, has been unable to produce a true national champion on a consistent basis. This shortcoming is partially due to the fact that each team can play in a maximum of just one bowl game, as opposed to a multi-round tournament. If, for example, three schools have perfect records following the regular season, the BCS is capable of pairing only two of those three institutions in its “National Championship Game,” while the third school must compete in a different bowl game.

BCS controversy, while never completely dormant between 2005 and the present, returned with a vengeance in 2008 (Lopresti, 2008). Instead of having three undefeated teams vying for the chance to play for a national championship, the end of the 2008 regular season resulted in a top ten with no undefeated major conference teams, seven one-loss major conference teams, and two undefeated non-major conference teams. Three of these one-loss teams were from one particular conference, and only one received a chance to play in the national championship game, while another played in the Fiesta Bowl, and the third did not get an opportunity to play in a BCS game at all (Knight, 2009).

This debate has even become a political issue, as various politicians have spoken out in favor of a college football playoff system (Limon, 2009). As a result of this continued controversy, the increasingly popular solution to the championship problem is a playoff system, which could pit anywhere from four to sixteen teams in a single-elimination tournament. (Withers, 2008). Other collegiate and professional sports, including other collegiate football divisions and the National Football League, already employ such a format. While many agree that this would be a logical change, few have addressed the issue of where these playoff games would be played. That the proponents of maintaining the BCS system believe the bowl games should be played at their traditional locations is a given.

With few exceptions from year to year, bowl games are played on a neutral field and at the same stadium each year (Official Records Book, 2008). While the focus of reforming the bowl system has been on moving from a one-game postseason to more of a tournament system, other elements of the system – such as where the bowl games (or playoff games) are (or will be) played – have been largely overlooked, even though the locations of games could be important in creating a comprehensively fair postseason that crowns a true national champion.

Question Presented

Do geographical factors play a role in determining the results of bowl games? Specifically, do significantly diverse distances between the participating teams’ campuses and the bowl games’ sites affect the outcome of those games? Also, do climates of representative institutions that are significantly disparate between each other and the location of bowl games affect the outcome of those games?

Geographical factors provide some of the many reasons why playing a game at one’s home field is an advantage. Playing in front of a supportive crowd, having a familiarity with the surroundings, and not having to travel to play the game are some other components of what gives the home team an advantage. Unlike regular season games, bowl games are intended to be played on neutral fields; however, many major bowl games are played in locations that are much closer to one of the participant schools than the other. As a result, there is the potential that the game location could unintentionally favor one team over the other. Data were compiled to determine if such a significant, albeit unintentional, advantage exists.

Method

Since the first Bowl Championship Series game at the end of the 1998-99 season, there have been a total of 47 BCS bowl games. Teams from 41 institutions have filled the 94 spots in those games. The following data from these games and schools were collected:

1. The distances between each school and the host bowl site;
2. The average temperatures of the homes of the participant schools and the host bowl sites;
3. The point spread for each game; and
4. The outcome of each game.

The distances between the locations of each participant institution and the particular bowl games were determined using mapquest.com. The average temperatures of each of the schools and each of the bowl sites were obtained from weatherbase.com. The sites of the bowl games and their outcomes from 1999 to 2008 were obtained from the Official 2008 Division I Football Records Book, which is published by the NCAA. The historical point spread for each game was obtained from goldsheet.com.

Data were grouped into three sections: distances, climate, and favorites. The distances section presents the results of the bowl games by taking into account the distances between the representative institutions and the sites of the games. The climate section shows the results of the bowl games when considering the differences in weather between the teams and the locations of the games. The favorites section reveals how well the favored teams fared against the point spread.

The point spread for each game was collected to help determine the significance of the results of the data. The point spread, which is commonly called the spread or the line, is a method used to weigh each team’s likelihood of winning a game. An oddsmaker, most often Las Vegas Sports Consultants Inc., predicts the outcome of a match-up and publishes the point spread to indicate how the teams will do. The point spread is a prediction of the difference between the final scores. The favorite team is identified by a negative number, and the absolute value of that number identifies the underdog.

In other words, the favorite team is favored to win by the point spread. So, for instance, if a team is favored at -4, the oddsmakers believe that the favorite team will win the game by 4 points. If the favorite team “beats the spread” or “covers the spread,” then it has won the game and has won it by more than the point spread. If the favorite team does not beat the spread or fails to cover the spread, then it has either lost or it has won by tying the point spread or scoring less than the point spread. Therefore, an underdog beats the spread if it wins the game, loses by the amount of the point spread, or loses by less than the point spread.

When determining the spread, the oddsmakers take into account almost every conceivable factor, including records, strengths of schedules, weather, injuries, home field, tradition, motivations, time of day of kick-off, revenge, rivalries, time off between games, starters, playing surface, number of fans in attendance, and historical trends. Comparing the outcomes of games to the spread helps to reveal the significance of the data, since the spread takes into account the geographical factors of weather and location.

Results

The teams from institutions that are closer to the bowl site than their opponents have won 25 of the 47 BCS games, giving them a winning percentage of over 53%. However, the distances between participant schools and the bowl sites are not always significant. For instance, in the 1999 Fiesta Bowl, Tennessee played Florida State, and Knoxville, Tennessee is roughly 1800 miles from Tempe, Arizona, while Tallahassee, Florida is about 1880 miles from Tempe. Tennessee cannot be said to have had a proximity advantage in this game, since both teams had to travel similar distances to Tempe. This game was one of six instances in which the relative distances between the participant schools and the bowl sites were negligible. When disregarding the outcomes of these six games, the closer team has won a slightly greater percentage of the BCS games – just over 56%.

Table 1 – Distance (Straight)

The teams from climates more similar to that of the bowl site have won over 60% of the BCS games, winning 28 of those 46 games. (The participants in the 2009 Orange Bowl, Cincinnati and Virginia Tech, are from locations with the same average temperature, so the results do not reflect this game.) In some instances, the relative weather of the participant schools was negligible. For example, when Ohio State and Notre Dame played each other in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl, neither school had a climate advantage. Columbus, Ohio and South Bend, Indiana have average temperatures within four degrees of one another, and neither average temperature is similar to that of Tempe, Arizona. There have been six such match-ups with teams from very similar climates. When disregarding these negligible differences, teams from locations with climates significantly more similar to that of the bowl site than their opponents have won over 62% of the BCS games.

Table 2 – Climate (Straight)

The success of teams from locations closer to the bowl site than their opponents is slightly greater when taking the point spread into account. In the BCS era, the closer team has defeated the spread over 55% of the time. When disregarding negligible distance differences, the closer team has defeated the spread in 24 of 41 games for a winning percentage of greater than 58%.

Table 3 – Distance (Spread)

The teams from climates more similar to that of the bowl site have had comparable success. Teams from such similar climates have defeated the spread in 60% of BCS games. When negligible climate differences are ignored, the teams from climates more similar to the bowl site have defeated the spread over 62% of the time.

Table 4 – Climate (Spread)

The success of teams that are closer to the bowl site or that are familiar with the climate of the bowl site is remarkable when compared to the success of the favored teams. The favored team has won 28 of the 46 – or some 60% – of the BCS games. (One game, the 2007 Rose Bowl, did not have a favored team.) Irrespective of the point spread, this is almost exactly the same as the record of teams from climates more similar to the bowl sites, while it is slightly better than closer teams’ record. However, the favored teams have fared much worse when considering the point spread. In fact, the favored team has a losing record against the spread in BCS games. The favored team has won just 22 games and has lost 24 games against the spread.

Table 5 – Favorites

Considering that the point spread already takes into account geographical factors such as climate and location, these results are significant. The teams from locations significantly closer to the bowl site have won over 58% of their games against the spread, while the favored teams have won less than 48% of their games against the spread. Even more dramatic is the difference between the record against the spread of the favored teams and the record against the spread of teams from climates significantly more similar to the bowl site. The teams from climates significantly more similar to the bowl site have won over 62% of their games against the spread, which is almost 15% higher than the favored teams’ record.

Table 6 – Spread Compared

Discussion

Although unintended, the locations of bowl games have impacted the results of these games. A team from an institution with a climate significantly more similar to that of the bowl site than that of the team’s opponent is much more likely to win its bowl game than its opponent. Similar to this, though not quite as strong, is the likelihood that a team from a campus that is significantly closer to the bowl site than that of its opponent will win its bowl game. Understanding these results may be important in determining how to improve the bowl system by considering geographical characteristics of host sites and participant institutions.

With few exceptions from year to year, bowl games are played on a neutral field and at the same stadium. However, the bowl site most often is much closer to the campus and fan concentration of one of the participant schools than it is to the other. Even when the stadium hosting the bowl game is not the home field of one of the participant teams, one team’s campus is frequently much closer to the bowl site than the other team’s home.

Underlying the playoff system movement is the commonly held tenet that college football’s season, like most every other collegiate sport, should result in the crowning of a true national champion. If this is the case, then perhaps more aspects of the postseason should be examined and amended, if necessary – not just the process of selecting teams to play for the title. Geographical factors, such as location and climate, play a role in determining the outcome of bowl games and, ultimately, crowning the national champion.

Future Studies

Future studies may include an examination of the times that games start and the differences between the time zones of participating teams to determine if a more neutral kick-off time should be employed. Additionally, the playoffs for the National Football League have an intended element of home field advantage for all rounds of the playoffs, except for the Super Bowl, which is played at a neutral site. A study of this system’s strengths and weaknesses could help to determine the best arrangement for the college football postseason.

References

BCS Background. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.bcsfootball.org/bcsfb/about.

Flanagan, K. E. (2008). Factors Affecting Attendance at Bowl Games During the BCS Era. The Sport Journal, 11 (3). Retrieved October 15, 2008, from http://www.thesportjournal.org/ article/factors-affecting-attendance-bowl-games-during-bcs-era.

Goldsheet.com. Retrieved December 12, 2008, from http://goldsheet.com.

Knight, B. (2009, January 8). BCS produces confusion, not a national champion. El Paso Times.

Limon, I. (2009, January 20). Obama: ‘Yes, we can’; BCS: No, we can’t. Orlando Sentinel, D1.

Lopresti, M. (2008, December 11). Bowl backer defends the system. USA Today, 8C.

Mapquest.com. Retrieved November 3, 2008, from http://www.mapquest.com.

NCAA Championships. Retrieved December 23, 2008, from http://www.ncaa.com/champ/index. html.

NCAA. Official 2008 Division I Football Records Book (2008, August). Retrieved October 15, 2008, from http://www.ncaa.org.

Weatherbase.com. Retrieved November 3, 2008, from http://www.weatherbase.com.

Withers, B. (2008, November 7). A BCS crisis may start serious talk about a playoff. The Seattle Times, C1.

The Origins and Development of Ultimate Frisbee

U.S. Sports Academy2013-11-25T19:47:29-06:00July 10th, 2009|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|

Abstract

Over recent years what have been variously termed alternative or lifestyle sports have increasingly become the focus of academic study. These sports are considered ‘alternative’ as they have sought to challenge accepted conceptions of modern Western achievement sport and typically have evolved from North America, having later been imported to Europe. An example of such a sport is that of Ultimate Frisbee. To date little has been written about Ultimate Frisbee or indeed the developmental process which has given rise to the creation and establishment of alternative sport. This paper seeks to examine the distinct and crucial stages of Ultimate’s development.

Introduction

Over recent years what have been variously termed alternative or lifestyle sports (Wheaton, 2004) have increasingly become the focus of academic study. Examples of such activities and related papers include skateboarding (Beal, 1995), snowboarding (Humphreys, 1997), windsurfing (Wheaton, 2000) and surfing (Butts, 2001). These sports are considered alternative as they have sought to challenge accepted concepts of modern Western achievement sport (Eichberg, 1998; Rhinehart and Sydnor, 2003) and typically have evolved from North America, having later been imported to Europe (Bourdieu, 1984). Another lesser- known example that has made the transatlantic jump is that of Ultimate Frisbee.

Ultimate Frisbee (known simply as Ultimate to participants) is a fast paced, non-contact, mixed team sport played with a flying disc (or Frisbee), which marries features of a number of invasion games, such as American Football and netball, into a simple yet, demanding game (UKU, 2008). To date, little has been written about Ultimate or indeed the developmental process which has given rise to the creation and establishment of alternative sport. What this paper seeks to do is to examine the evolution of Ultimate Frisbee and illustrate the key stages of its development.

Ultimate, as with all disc sports, would not exist without the invention of the flying disc, or Frisbee, as it is commonly known. Flying discs have of course been thrown in numerous cultures for centuries for a variety of reasons, including sport (Malafronte, 1998). The origins of Ultimate can be argued to have gone through distinct and crucial stages and each will be discussed in turn. Firstly, the origin of the name Frisbee will be examined followed by the subsequent development of the plastic flying disc. The idea of Frisbee football will then be explained and then attention will be drawn to locating the development of Ultimate amidst the American counter culture. Finally the creation of Ultimate and the first game will be detailed.

The Origins of Frisbee

The name Frisbee is accepted by most sources to originate from one William Russell Frisbie of Bridgeport, Connecticut (Johnson, 1975; Malafronte, 1998; Iocovella, 2004; Leonardo and Zagoria, 2004). Following the end of the American Civil War, William Russell Frisbie moved to Bridgeport to manage a new bakery, which he subsequently bought and renamed, the Frisbie Pie Company.

The original bakery was situated close to the college which later became Yale in 1887 (Scotland, 2004). Not surprisingly, perhaps, there are strong links between Yale and the origination of the Frisbee. The popular theory – perhaps it is a myth — is that Yale students frequently bought Frisbie Pies and after eating them, would toss the empty pie tins around the Yale campus (Johnson, 1975; Malafronte, 1998). As metal pie dishes are not the kindest of missiles to be struck by, this led to throwers shouting the cautionary word “frisbie-e-e-e!” (not unlike golfers shouting the word “Fore!”) to warn both the catcher and bystanders of the approaching disc (Weiss, 2004).

Not surprisingly, in the absence of definitive evidence, modified or alternative stories abound. One particular point of contention is whether the projectile was indeed a pie tin or whether, in fact, it was a cookie tin lid. Support for the cookie argument can be found in ih a study by Johnson (1975), who conducted interviews with former Yale students. An example of one such account is credited to Charles O. Gregory who recalled:

‘I clearly remember the cookies; and I also recall that the cover of the tin box was used by the older kids just the same way that Frisbees are now used… When I went to college…I saw students using these same tin box lids as people now use Frisbees. So I assumed that the name came from these sugar cookies and the boxes in which they were sold…. I never heard of Frisbie’s pies’ (Johnson, 1975,18).

As a semi-professional player and respected writer on Ultimate, Malafronte (1998) considers that cookie tins were more likely to be used for throwing games. “With their flat tops and deeper perpendicular edged rims [they] were much more air worthy – players could perform a variety of throws, with more control than a pie pan (35).” However, deeper research into the debate leads one to the belief that the tossing of pie pans was equally popular and in some cases was likely to be more so, given the fact that pies were considerably cheaper to purchase for the typical student than tins of cookies (Malafronte, 1998).

Johnson (1975) considers that both cases probably have some truth and merit but that additional research conducted, including conversations with the widow of Joseph P. Frisbie (son and heir of the late W.R. Frisbie) and former plant manager Mr. Vaughn, leads to the conclusion that the earlier prototype was most likely to have been the pie tin.

In addition to Yale – and in accordance with the rising heritage industry – other East Coast US colleges also claim to be the birthplace of the ‘Frisbee’ (Weiss, 2004). For instance, at Middlebury College in Vermont, a statue of a dog caught in mid-Frisbee-snatching-flight has been erected to celebrate the claim that a group of Middlebury boys discovered pie-pan tossing while on a road trip to a fraternity convention in Nebraska in 1938 (Weiss, 2004). Such claims are perhaps not surprising when one considers that, according to Malafronte (1998), workers of the Frisbie Pie Company travelled around many of the Ivy League institutions of New England and were apparently renowned for tossing pie tins around during their breaks.

The Development of the Flying Disc

Following the end of World War II and gathering anxieties about future external threats, supposed sightings of UFOs and flying saucers were beginning to grab the public’s imagination in the USA (McMahon, 1998). Capturing the prevailing public mood, one budding American inventor, Fred Morrison, took an idea to the Southern Californian Plastics Company and, in conjunction with Warren Francioni, produced a crude prototype plastic flying disc, known as the Arcuate Vane model in 1948 (Johnson, 1975; Mc Mahon, 1998; Malafronte 1998).

In 1951 Morrison went on to produce his second model called the Pluto Platter, which he sold at fairs with moderate success (Scotland, 2004). Though the importance of the Pluto Platter cannot be underestimated, as it became the blueprint for all subsequent Frisbees (Johnson, 1975), it was not, in fact, initially mass produced.

However, among the young, the Platter was gaining popularity, and 1954 saw the first recorded competition using a flying disc when Dartmouth University (New Hampshire, USA) students organised a tournament for the disc sport known as ‘Guts’ (Iocovella, 2004). In addition, the Pluto Platter, significantly, reached the US West coast beaches too.

According to Johnson (1975), the story goes that Rich Knerr and A.K.”Spud” Melin, fresh from the University of Southern California, had established a fledgling toy company known as Wham-O. In late 1955, after seeing Pluto Platters whizzing around southern California beaches, they cornered Morrison while he was “hawking his wares” in downtown Los Angeles and made him a proposition (Malafronte, 1998).

In 1958, mass production of the Pluto Platter began (US Design patent 183,626 – See Patents Online, 2008). But as co-founder of Wham –O, Knerr recalls (Johnson,1975), “At first the saucers had trouble catching on but we were confident they were good, so we sprinkled them in different parts of the country to prime the market (20).” According to Scotland (2004), however, disc production would have been far from paramount given the success of Wham-O’s other new creation which began a national craze, the hula-hoop.

In a bid to improve both the flying properties and the marketability of the Pluto Platter Wham-O turned to another fledgling inventor, Ed Headrick, and in 1967, the ‘Wham-O Frisbee’ was launched (US patent design 3359678 – see Free Patents Online, 2008). It is alleged that it was Knerr who picked up the catchy term whilst on a trip around the campuses of the Ivy League colleges. He reported that Harvard students told him how they had been throwing pie tins around for years and calling it ‘Frisbie-ing’. Being unaware of the possible origins of the word (the Frisbie Pie Company closed in 1958 and Knerr was not from the East Coast) he spelled his new creation as ‘Frisbee’ (Johnson, 1975).

Frisbee Football

Frisbee football (a version of American football played with a flying disc) is recorded as the origin of many games similar to Ultimate (Johnson, 1975; Malafronte, 1998; Zagoria, 2003). Accounts of such games are recorded at institutions such as Kenyon College, Ohio as early as 1942. A version of such a game, referred to as Aceball, was later captured by Life magazine in 1950 (Malafronte, 1998).

Evidence of another similar game, involving “a plastic or metal serving tray” cropped up at Amherst College in the early 1950s. In a letter to the editor, published in the January 1958 Amherst Alumni News, Peter Schrag (alumni from 1953) describes this game, stating that:

Rules have sprung up and although they vary, the game as now played is something like touch (football), each team trying to score goals by passing the tray down field. There are interceptions and I believe passing is unlimited. Thus, a man may throw the Frisbee to a receiver who passes it to still another man. The opponents try to take over, either by blocking the tray or intercepting it (Leonardo & Zagoria, 2004,5).

Established sources indicate that the most likely origin of Ultimate probably rests with members of Columbia High School (CHS), Maplewood, NJ, USA, who introduced their idea of an Ultimate Frisbee game to their student council in 1967 (see Figure 4). The key individual among the group in devising Ultimate was probably a student called Joel Silver who had played Frisbee Football at a camp in Mount Herman, Massachusetts in the summer of 1967 (Johnson, 1975; Malafronte, 1998; Iocovella, 2004; Leonardo and Zagoria, 2004).

Born in 1967 at the Height of the American Counter Culture

Ultimate was conceived in the U.S. amidst political assassinations, the escalating war in Vietnam, urban riots and civil rights unrest (Heale, 2001). As increasing numbers of largely young people became “alienated from the parental generation” they looked for forms of escape and resistance and loosely formed what became known as the counter culture (Roszak, 1972: 1). The forms of escape and resistance were manifest in a multitude of ways including political activism and protest, the creation of alternative lifestyles, experimental and communal living and through dress, drugs and music (Heale, 2001). Although hippies embodied the counter culture and represented any serious real threat to the establishment it was middle class, college educated students that were at the very heart of counter culture events and attitudes and “there were more conservative kids who were eager apprentices of the system” (Anderson, 1995: 242) as baby boomers flooded onto campuses.

The values and behaviours that came to represent the counter culture, which was at its height in 1967 during what was termed the Summer of Love (Farrell, 1997) were that of democracy, perceived alternative and superior lifestyle choices, communal caring and sharing, an appreciation of beauty and nature, having a relaxed and laid back attitude, rejecting regulation and technology and encouraging self expression and personal growth (Heale, 2001; Anderson, 1995).These values and behaviours were based upon humanistic psychology (Farrell, 1997: 207) where in a supportive environment people would work towards self actualization (Maslow, 1968). Those espousing such values they viewed the time and the counter culture as an instrument of change. They hoped that through spreading their cultural values and changing the consciousness of their fellow citizens, a structural transformation of society could in turn be effected (Heale, 2001).

For the majority, being part of the counter culture was a frame of mind manifested in a particular way of life (Farrell, 1997). ‘The idea was to liberate yourself from the confining conventions of life and to celebrate the irrational side of your nature, kind of let yourself go. This was the counter culture coming to us and it stirred people up and made us feel like doing something dramatic (University student in Anderson, 1995). “The point is that it was the culture that was sick, so one way to change was to live it differently” (Anders, 1990, 36). To many, doing something dramatic was manifest in doing something differently and dropping the values of the mainstream and living the “here and now revolution” (Anderson, 1995). To Joel Silver and his friends it was creating a game that would embody all of these values, many of which continue to be manifest within Ultimate today.

The Creation of Ultimate and the First Game

When Joel Silver returned home to Maplewood, he continued to throw with fellow students, adapted the rules of Frisbee Football, and ‘invented’ the team sport of Ultimate. The name itself is said to have arisen due to Silver referring to the game as the Ultimate sports experience. Such claims have been supported by fellow players of the time (Zagoria, 2003).

However, more recent and rigorous research has come to light to suggest that the truth may be somewhat different. According to Herndon (2003), after interviewing Silver, it was found that he had learned a Frisbee game from someone named Jared Kass while attending summer camp. Herndon (2003), like many, assumed that Silver had played something like Frisbee football with Jared Kass at camp, and then returned to Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, and made up and named, a whole new game called Ultimate. However, upon questioning Kass closely it seems that the whole of the Ultimate playing world had been somewhat misled.

Upon investigation, Herndon (2003) learned that Kass had taught Silver not some distant relative of Ultimate, but Ultimate in its essence and by name, whilst having no idea that he had had anything to do with its creation. Kass recounts that the game evolved from a variation of touch football whilst at Amherst College where he started as a student in 1965.

Whatever the true chain of events, Silver continued to throw with his friends including Bernard “Buzzy” Hellring and Jonny Hines until in the autumn of 1967, Silver proposed that, for a joke, the Student Council form a Frisbee team. Yet by the end of the school year, Silver and members of both the student newspaper The Columbian and the Student Council began to play a modified game of Frisbee football (Johnson, 1975; Malafronte, 1998).

The game was what one might describe as freeform early on, with no strict limits on how many players should be on each side, with as many as 20 to 30 players being allowed per team. However, the local ecology meant that this number was eventually whittled to seven (the current number) because “that was the most you could fit in the parking lot” (Zagoria, 2003:2). The original game also allowed running with the disc, and it included lines of scrimmage and a series of downs; but as they played, Silver, Hellring, and Hines began to modify the rules.

Finally, in the fall of 1968, the members of the student newspaper challenged the students on Council to a formal game. In a match up that featured two large, co-ed teams, The Columbian won the first game in front of the high school, 11-7. This historic first match was played on the now famous Columbia parking lot. During the summer of 1970, Silver, Hellring and Hines re-wrote and refined the rules which were subsequently printed and copies were sent all over the world (Leonardo & Zagoria, 2004).

Thus, the sport of Ultimate Frisbee was born and following the dissemination of the rules via college campuses in the United States, the sport grew from strength to strength, seeing the first intercollegiate game in 1972 between Princeton and Rutgers and two years later the beginning of the founding of international organisations, such as the Swedish Frisbee Federation (Iocovella, 2004).

Summary

In this paper the origins of the alternative sport of Ultimate Frisbee have been explored, showing the distinct and crucial stages of its development, starting with the origin of the name Frisbee, development of the plastic flying disc and moving through to development of ‘Frisbee football’ and the creation and playing of the first game. Importantly attention was drawn to locating the development of Ultimate amidst the American counter culture, the values of which permeated into the sport and largely remain to this day.

What the pattern of development of Ultimate shows is that particular conditions need to be in place to facilitate the move from one significant stage to another. These conditions are not always apparent, however, until viewed retrospectively when a clear pattern may emerge. Within newer, alternative activities such as Ultimate, historical developments are less well reported. So it is hoped that this paper offers and insight into one such activity.

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World Leisure: Enhancing the Human Condition

U.S. Sports Academy2013-11-25T19:49:29-06:00July 10th, 2009|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|

Abstract

Living in the 21st Century has created a new context for the organization of individual, community and national life wherein increasingly greater fulfillment through the provision of leisure services and amenities is sought. Without question, leisure is increasingly valued and central in the lifestyle of individuals. Today, people seek to live in hospitable settings that are alive with social, cultural and leisure opportunities, as well as ones that are ascetically pleasing and environmentally sustainable. Thus, it is evident that leisure is a major force in influencing the lives of individuals, communities and nations as they seek meaningful, relevant and satisfying life experiences.

Introduction

Leisure provides the means for individuals, communities and even nations to transform their quality of life and well being. As Edginton and Chen (2008, p. vii) wrote, “. . . leisure holds infinite possibilities for change. . . [and] . . . is an optimal medium for transformation.” As these authors have suggested, “. . . experiencing leisure is transformation in and of itself. Individuals change as they experience leisure” (ibid). Leisure can and does contribute in many ways to assisting individuals in enhancing the condition of their daily living. It is through leisure that one finds balance in their lives, as well as a temporal space and time for reflection, renewal and a rekindling of the human spirit.

The moral and philosophical foundation for our human rights is expressed in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948). This important social construct establishes a standard for all people throughout the world and defines the basic rights for all members of the human family. The most significant statement relevant to leisure is framed in Article 24 suggesting that each individual has “the right to rest and leisure including reasonable limitation of work hours and periodic holidays with pay “(1948). In addition, the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights encourages individuals in Article 27 “ . . .to freely participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”(1948). A number of other U.N. documents also support the rights of individuals to leisure, especially those pertaining to children and women. The U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child states “. . . the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts”(1989). In addition, the U.N. Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women Article 13 indicates “ . . . the right to participate in recreational activities sports and all aspects of cultural life” in an equitable fashion among men and women”(1979). The U.N. Principles for Older Persons Clause 16 notes that women “. . . should have access to the educational, cultural, spiritual and recreational resources of society”(1999).

The World Leisure Organization

The World Leisure Organization (WLO) is a major international professional membership organization which serves to promote and advance concerns related to leisure. Established as “. . . a world wide, non governmental voluntary organization, World Leisure is dedicated to discovering and fostering those conditions which permit leisure to serve as a force to optimize collective and individual well being” (2007). WLO was founded in 1952 and was known as the International Recreation Association. In 1973, the organization changed its name to the World Leisure and Recreation Association and in 2007 to its present title. Through its advocacy, research and educational programs and services, the organization seeks to promote leisure as being integral to social, cultural and economic development (ibid).

The goals of WLO are outlined in its strategic plan titled A World Fit For Living: World Leisure for People 2004-2008 (2003). During this time, WLO has committed its efforts to achieving results in four priority areas as follows: 1) heightening the awareness of leisure benefits; 2) improving policy and legislation; 3) strengthening leadership; and 4) expanding international cooperation (ibid, p. 7). WLO has worked over the span of the aforementioned strategic plan to achieve results in each of these areas. For example, to heighten the awareness of leisure benefits, a World Leisure EXPO was staged and the organization has worked hard to strengthen its interactions with the United Nations and UNESCO. One way that WLO has worked to improve policy and legislation, the organization sponsored a World Leisure High Level Forum held in Guangzhou, The Peoples Republic of China in 2006, focused on raising awareness of the importance of leisure amongst top policy makers in that country. Madam Wu Yi, Vice Premier of China, spoke to a select group of policy makers inside of The Peoples Republic of China along with the Chairman of the World Leisure Board of Directors, Dr. Derek Casey. We also have developed an extensive data base to disperse information on a world wide basis regarding leisure policies and best professional practices. WLO is working to strengthen leadership by developing new opportunities for educational institutions to affiliate with the organization. This past year, a request for proposal was offered to colleges and universities around the world to establish new World Leisure Centers of Excellence featuring post graduate educational programs. International cooperation has been facilitated by the establishment of a number of affiliation agreements and the staging of a World Leisure Summit focused on leisure and community development that will take place in Quebec City, Canada at the 10th World Leisure Congress.

Recently, WLO has worked to establish a new strategic planning initiative. This activity has helped to produce a new strategic planning document entitled Leisure: Enhancing the Human Condition – Priorities & Strategies 2009 – 2014 (2008). Building on the previous activity, this strategic planning initiative emphasized an overarching theme primarily focused on the United National Millennium Development Goals (MDG). WLO is now focusing its capacity and efforts to establish goals, priorities and action programs to guide and strengthen the organization and its efforts at enhancing collective and individual well being. Over the next several years, WLO will focus on improving, enhancing and informing professional practice by emphasizing leisure and its relationship to the concept of identity, the process of transformation and the ways in which it enhances the human condition.

World Leisure’s Organizational Framework

WLO is governed by a 20-member international board of directors. Annually, WLO seeks nominations for or from individuals who are interested in serving as members of this important governing body. The primary role of the members of the World Leisure Board of Directors is to set policy and direction for the organization including approval of program design to accomplish its mission. Individuals are elected to a three-year appointment and may be renewed for an additional three-year period of time. WLO’s Board of Directors includes individuals from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Mauritius, New Zealand, The People’s Republic of China, South Korea, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

There are various administrative positions, both paid and voluntary, that are responsible for carrying out the work of the organization. The Secretary General is the Chief Executive Officer of the organization and is responsible for the overall management and administration of the affairs of the organization in accordance with WLO’s Constitution and By-laws. The Secretary General is supported by Program Associate and a large number of Program Managers focused in the areas of educational services, marketing and promotions, commissions, chapters and affiliates, event management, international scholarship program, publications and representatives to the United Nations and UNESCO. In addition, each of the commissions operated by WLO is headed by a group leader who is responsible for planning, organizing and implementing programs and services offered by these groups.

World Leisure Programs and Services

WLO operates a wide array of programs and services available to its membership and to other interested individuals and parties. Although these programs and services are primarily designed for the membership of the organization, all who are interested in the activities of WLO are strongly encouraged to seek opportunities for involvement. Some of WLO’s programs and services include:

World Leisure Congresses

World Leisure Biennial Congresses is to bring together the membership of the organization for the purpose of gaining new information and insights as well as to provide opportunities for presentations, discussions and conversation regarding timely concepts, ideas, issues or concerns. The 10th World Leisure Congress will be held in Quebec City, Canada in October 2008 and the 11th World Leisure Congress will be hosted by Chuncheon City, Korea.

World Leisure Regional or Specialists Conferences

Such events, which are geographically limited to one or two regions, provide opportunities to focus on specialized topics of regionalized interest. For example, in 2005, a World Leisure Regional Conference focused on “Leisure and Young Immigrants” was held in Malmo, Sweden.

World Leisure Exhibitions and Trade Shows

Often coupled with World Leisure Congresses, Exhibitions and Trade Shows provide opportunities for participating individuals to view innovative products and services and/or bring greater attention to leisure. In 2006, WLO staged its 1st World Leisure EXPO in Hangzhou, The People’s Republic of China.

World Leisure Summits and Forums

Such activities are designed to promote greater interest in a specific concept, idea, issue and/or concern among policy makers, professionals and to the general public and often result in the creation and distribution of policy statements in the form of statement of principles, declarations, covenants, charters, conventions or other major pronouncements or publications. The Sao Paulo Declaration on Leisure and Globalization and WLO’s Charter for Leisure are two examples.

World Leisure Educational and Training Programs

WLO operates a wide variety of educational programs such as our international post graduate program at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands. In addition, WLO sponsors the Asian Pacific Center for the Study of Leisure at Zhejiang University in The Peoples Republic of China.

World Leisure Commissions

Commissions are specialized bodies working to promote leisure concerns in specific areas including access and inclusion, children and youth, education, management, leisure in later life, law and policy, research, tourism and the environment, volunteerism and women and gender.

World Leisure Innovation Prize

The World Leisure Innovation Prize was established in 2006 and “. . . seeks to recognize organizations that have implemented creative solutions that foster local, national or international leisure opportunities for the benefit and development of individuals and communities” (2008). The award seeks to identify “. . . use of leisure as a creative solution to enhancing collectively the social, cultural, environmental, and economic quality of life in an area” (ibid). Currently, the award is sponsored by the Beijing Tonghe Times Tourism Research and Planning Institute.

World Leisure Journal

The World Leisure Journal is published on a quarterly basis and includes both basic and applied research. A refereed publication, World Leisure Journal provides a means of hard evidence to inform WLO’s advocacy role.

World Leisure International Scholarship Program

This program is designed to support students to attend and participate in World Leisure Congresses. Successful applicants are provided with an opportunity to participate in the Congress and gain a broader perspective of international leisure trends, issues, philosophies and problems.

World Leisure’s United Nations Partnership

WLO’s most prized partnership is the consultative status we are granted through the United Nations. WLO is developing several programs in support of the UN’s initiatives including a student internship program. We are engaged with the UN primarily through the Department of Public Information and their Non-governmental Organizational Conference (NGO/DPI).

World Leisure Chapters

The WLO Chapters program was established in 2001 to enable groups to associate with the organization and promote its goals on a local basis. The first WLO Chapter was established in Taipei, Taiwan. There are many benefits to this program including networking, unifying various segments of the leisure industry, aligning with the moral framework of the UN and creating opportunities to influence the world’s leisure movement.

World Leisure Affiliates

WLO works to aggressively link its activities with other aligned organizations. For example, WLO holds affiliate status with the World Tourism Organization, the International Council of Sports Science and Physical Education, Australia and New Zealand Association of Leisure Studies, and the American Leisure Academy.

Such programs and services provide numerous benefits to the WLO membership. In fact, there are many benefits to joining the World Leisure Organization including opportunities to network, to advocate and to be provided with relevant educational opportunities, communications and information.

Concluding Comments

WLO provides a framework and platform to assist individuals, communities and nations with their desire to increase the quality of life throughout the world. It is evident that leisure holds great promise for improving well being and fulfilling the dream of creating meaningful, relevant and satisfying life experiences. WLO’s vision and mission provides optimal opportunities which support the rights of all people to quality and accessible leisure experiences. Working with all sectors – government, non government and commercial – WLO seeks to assist in helping individuals, communities and nations to understand the benefits of leisure, acquire appropriate knowledge and skills required for full participation, remove the barriers or constraints to leisure and promote a cooperative spirit so that all may work together to advance quality of life concerns.

References

Edginton, C.R. & Chen, P. (2008). Leisure as Transformation. Champaign, Il: Sagamore.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (1989) Convention on the rights of the child. United Nations Department of Public Information. Retrieved June 13, 2008, from http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1948) Universal declaration of human rights. United Nations Department of Public Information. Retrieved June 13, 2008, from http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (1979). Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women. Retrieved June 13, 2008, from http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/

United Nations Division for Social Policy and Development (1999). United Nations principles for older persons. Retrieved June 13, 2008, from http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/iyop/iyoppop.htm#Principles

World Leisure. (2003). A world fit for living: World leisure priorities for people 2004-2008. Retrieved June 18, 2008, from http://www.worldleisure.org/about/priorities_for_people/priorities.html

World Leisure. (2007). Constitution of the world leisure organization. World Leisure Secretariat. Cedar Falls, Iowa.

World Leisure. (2008). Leisure: Enhancing the Human Condition – Priorities & Strategies 2009 – 2014. World Leisure Secretariat. Cedar Falls, Iowa.

World Leisure. World Leisure International Innovation Prize. Retrieved June 18, 2008 from http://www.worleleisure.org/innovation_prize.html.

NCAA Website Coverage: Do Athletic Departments Provide Equitable Gender Coverage on Their Athletic Home Web Pages?

U.S. Sports Academy2016-04-01T09:42:22-05:00April 24th, 2009|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Management, Women and Sports|

Abstract

The purpose of the current research was to perform a content analysis on the gender coverage provided on intercollegiate athletic home Web pages. One of the primary reasons why the research is necessary is because it focuses on a not-for-profit media outlet with Title IX and ethical constraints due to the fact that the athletic departments are a part of their coinciding universities. Overall, when in comparison to the NCAA athlete and team independent standards, the results demonstrated that women were underrepresented in comparison to men within each of the units of measurement (e.g., advertisements, articles, multimedia, and photographs) presented within the study. The implications of the results are discussed further within the text. The data within the current study was collected from a dissertation that was performed by the author while attending Indiana University.

Keywords: intercollegiate athletic websites, gender coverage, college athletics

The Internet is a contemporary communication medium that provides sport organizations with the opportunity to communicate with both current and potential fan bases (Lombardo, 2007). In today’s realm of sports media, the Internet has become a major media source for fan consumption. Currently, there are hundreds of millions of Internet users worldwide, and the number of individuals accessing the World Wide Web increases at a rapid rate each year (Internet World Stats, 2007). Particularly, the Web has become a primary outlet for news consumption. While only four percent of the population went online to access news in 1995, today nearly 26% of the population accesses news content on the Web on a weekly basis (The Pew Research Center [TPRC], 2007). Furthermore, of the individuals accessing the Internet regularly, 46.5% claimed that sports were a primary entertainment source while browsing the Web (TPRC, 2007).

The mass consumption of sports news on the Internet alone makes it essential for scholars to focus on the sports coverage being provided on the Web. In addition to the growing interest, the Internet is also a unique medium, because it provides athletic teams and programs with an outlet to promote their product to fan segments. As a result, intercollegiate athletic programs have the ability to control the coverage being provided to each of their individual teams on their athletic home Web page. Thus, the athletic departments also have the unique opportunity to control the gender coverage being provided on their individual websites.

Since the athletic programs are part of their coinciding universities, the expectation would be that the athletic departments are providing equitable gender coverage on their websites due to Title IX constraints. Under Title IX, athletic institutions are required to provide women with equal opportunities within the general benefits and services program areas (Policy Interpretation, 2007). More specifically, in the “laundry list” of items stated under the third category of Title IX, athletic programs are expected to provide equitable promotions for women (National Association for Girls and Women in Sport [NAGWS], 2007). While the Internet coverage makes up only a portion of the promotional activities within the athletic department, it is still a viable concern when focusing on gender equity within college athletic programs. Furthermore, due to the fact that the universities are part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), you would expect that the gender coverage would be equitable from an ethical standpoint as well. The current research attempted to understand the coverage provided on intercollegiate athletic websites by examining the gender coverage provided during an academic school year.

Review of Related Literature

In today’s society, the media has a major influence on the beliefs of individuals residing within our culture (Duncan, Messner, Williams, & Jensen, 1994; Kane, 1988). In fact, Coakley (1998) explained that by ignoring certain aspects of female participation in sport, the sports media is essentially shaping the public’s opinion on the value of female sports. Cunningham, Sagas, Satore, Amsden, and Schellhase (2004) added that “if girls and women are not represented in an equitable fashion by the media, then girls are not afforded the necessary exemplars to emulate” (p. 861). Thus, as a result, there is a chance that the future participation in sports can suffer, and as a result Pedersen (2002) explained that “females can lose out on the benefits provided in sports that can help them develop both professional and personal skills” (p. 420).

When focusing on past gender studies within sports settings, research has shown that women receive inequitable coverage allocations within each of the media outlets examined (Bishop, 2003; Cunningham, 2003; Duncan & Sayaovong, 1990). Recently, scholars have indicated that a difference exists in the gender coverage provided within for-profit (Cuneen & Sidwell, 1998; Fink & Kensicki, 2002) and not-for-profit (Huffman, Tuggle, & Rosengard, 2004) media outlets. Sagas, Cunningham, Wigley, and Ashley (2000) explained that a primary difference in the two types of media outlets is that for-profit sources tend to cater to the wants and needs of their customers in order to remain profitable. Cunningham et al. (2004) added the following:

Given the dependence upon consumers and consumer preferences among for-profit media sources, an alternative approach is to study the representation of men and women in not-for-profit media outlets, such as university newspapers, athletic department Internet Web sites, and/or the NCAA News, a publication of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (p. 862).

The NCAA News is a not-for-profit media outlet that has received attention from scholars in past research. Overall, research within the publication has demonstrated more favorable results for women when in comparison to for-profit media outlets (Shifflet & Revelle, 1994). Cunningham et al. (2004) confirmed the improvement in gender coverage in not-for-profit media outlets when reporting that women received 42.4% of the article coverage and 39.7% of the photographic coverage within the publication. The coverage rates presented in the study represent two of the most favorable coverage allocations for women in any media outlet.
An additional emphasis in research on not-for-profit media outlets has been the examination of gender coverage in media outlets with campus affiliation. Outside of the previous studies on the NCAA News (Cunningham et al., 2004; Shifflet & Revelle, 1994), the research on media outlets with a campus affiliation has demonstrated some of the most favorable coverage rates for women within intercollegiate athletic settings (Wann, Schrader, Allison, & McGeorge, 1998). One of the primary reasons for the more favorable coverage rates for women is the influence of Title IX on publications with campus affiliation. Additionally, Huffman et al. (2004) explained the following:

Because student journalists working for campus media belong to a generation that grew up with Title IX and because they live in college communities that include male and female student athletes, these student journalists might be more likely than professional media practitioners to cover athletes in a way that results in gender equity (p. 480).

While the coverage allocations have improved for women within not-for-profit media outlets, research has demonstrated that women are not fully represented within the campus media sources. In an analysis of campus newspapers, Wann et al. (1998) found that women were underrepresented when in direct comparison to both the female participation and enrollment rates at each of the coinciding universities examined in the study. In a similar study, Huffman et al. (2004) reiterated the previous results when demonstrating women received 27.3% of the overall newspaper coverage. Thus, despite small improvements, the results confirm that women are not fully represented within campus newspapers.

Recent research has also extended the analysis of media outlets with campus affiliation by focusing on the gender coverage provided on intercollegiate athletic websites (Sagas, Cunningham, Wigley, & Ashley, 2000). Sagas, Cunningham, Wigley, and Ashley (2000) provided an initial analysis when concluding that women’s softball teams were not fairly represented when in comparison to men’s baseball teams. Additionally, in a follow-up study, Cunningham and Sagas (2002) again demonstrated that the women’s softball team received less coverage than the men’s baseball team. On a positive note, the study demonstrated no difference in the coverage provided to the men’s and women’s basketball teams.

The purpose of the current study was to analyze the overall gender coverage provided to each of the teams contained within athletic departments on intercollegiate athletic websites. An analysis of the overall gender coverage provided on intercollegiate sites to each of the teams in the athletic department is essential for a couple of key reasons. First, as shown in the review of literature, it is clear that there is a limited amount of research available on the gender coverage provided on intercollegiate athletic websites. Further analysis would be beneficial in building new information on the media outlet. Second, in the limited research available, scholars have focused solely on the comparison between two to four similar female and male sport teams. Thus, the analysis of the coverage provided to each of the various teams housed within a college athletic department would provide new insight into the overall gender coverage rates offered on intercollegiate athletic websites. As a result, the current research provides additional depth that is useful to the literature on sports media coverage. Through an analysis of past related studies, the following hypotheses were created to guide the current research:

(1) Women will receive significantly less total overall [1A, 1B, 1C, 1D] coverage on intercollegiate athletic home Web pages than men, when in comparison to coinciding NCAA athlete and team gender participation rates.
1A) Advertisement
1B) Article
1C) Multimedia
1D) Photographic

(2) Women will receive significantly less non-scroll [2A, 2B, 2C, 2D] coverage on intercollegiate athletic home Web pages than men, when in comparison to coinciding NCAA athlete and team gender participation rates.
2A) Advertisement
2B) Article
2C) Multimedia
2D) Photographic

Methodology

The current research was a content analysis of the gender coverage provided on intercollegiate athletic home Web pages over an academic year. Particularly, the current research involved the analysis of the following four units of measurement on each individual athletic home Web page: advertisements, articles, multimedia content, and photographs. The decision was made to include the four categories, because it offers an opportunity to segment the coverage being provided on the websites. Thus, there was an opportunity not only to understand the overall gender coverage, but also to understand the gender coverage within higher quality coverage areas. Due to the nature of websites, there was an opportunity to further segment the coverage due to the fact that the sites offer advertisements and multimedia content. The advertisement content was characterized by the block advertisements provided to individual teams on athletic websites. The multimedia content was characterized as the audio and video content dedicated to individual teams on the home Web pages.

Sample
The data were collected from 30 athletic home Web pages during an academic school year. The data collection process involved a random selection of 30 programs from the NCAA Division I-A database. The sampling frame selected for the analysis was the 2005-2006 academic school year. Particularly, the following stratified samples were chosen to obtain a sample representative of each sports season presented during the school year: fall (October – December), winter (January – March), and spring (April – June). As recommended by Riffe, Lacy, and Fico (2005), a one-week random sample was taken from each of the sports seasons. Thus, the study included an analysis of 630 home Web pages during the academic year.

Data Collection
The data collection process involved a series of protocol that were developed to ensure reliability in the study. In order to accurately assess the coverage within each unit of measurement, the following measures were created to guide the coders during the data collection process: gender, location, and square inch coverage. As recommended by Malec (1994), the gender measure only included female and male, and did not include the “combined” and “neither” categories. In addition, the current research utilized a location measure that identified the area of the Web page where the coverage occurred. Similar to the front page newspaper coverage examined by Pedersen (2002), the study examined the non-scroll coverage directly available upon immediate access to the media outlet. In this case, the coverage was coined as “non-scroll” coverage, and this was characterized by the unit of measurement coverage appearing on the website prior to scrolling down the webpage. When multiple rotating stories were presented, each of the storylines were collected and considered as non-scroll coverage.

Data Analysis
Upon the completion of the data collection, the data were combined and calculated for data analysis. In order to examine the gender coverage differences, the Chi Square test was utilized in order to analyze the coverage within each of the units of measurement. Riffe, Lacy, and Fico (2005) explained that the Chi Square test is the most common statistical method used in content analysis research. Additionally, as stated by Pedersen (2002), it is necessary to develop an independent standard in order to compare the results to the expected outcome. The current research utilized the same independent standards adopted by Cunningham et al. (2004) in their analysis of the NCAA News: (1) NCAA individual athlete gender participation rates, and (2) NCAA team gender participation rates. The NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report (NCAA Sports, 2006) was used to calculate both the percentage of athletes (women = 42.1%; men = 57.9%) and teams (women = 53.2%; men = 46.8%) participating in the NCAA. The rates were calculated according to the teams that were included in the study.

Results

Overall, the analysis of 630 intercollegiate athletic home Web pages produced 43,866 square inches for analysis. As shown in Table 1, the results demonstrated that the units of measurement each received the following square inch coverage allocations: advertisements (7,712 square inches), articles (19,311 square inches), multimedia (1,522 square inches), and photographic (15,321 square inches). Similarly, when focusing on location of the units of measurement, the results revealed that 57% of all of the coverage was considered non-scroll coverage. The results of the overall and non-scroll coverage for each of the units of measurement are presented in the following sections.

Table 1
Gender Coverage Allocations within the Four Units of Measurement

Note. Data in Square Inches and Percentages.

Article Coverage
The analysis of the article unit of measurement helped demonstrate the article coverage provided to women and men on intercollegiate athletic websites. In comparison to the other four units of measurement presented in the study, the results demonstrated that women received a slightly more favorable coverage allocation within the article unit of measurement. Overall, women received 40.0% of the total article coverage included in the study. Despite receiving a slightly higher coverage allocation, the Chi Square comparison (Table 3) revealed a significant difference than men when in comparison to the 42.1% female athlete participation rate (x² = 34.95, df 1, p < .05) and 53.2% female team participation rate (x² = 1351.86, df 1, p < .05).

Further analysis of the article unit of measurement demonstrated that women received a less favorable coverage allocation when focusing on the location of the coverage. In comparison to the number of female athletes active at the intercollegiate level, the results showed that the 36.4% non-scroll article coverage rate provided to women was significantly below the 63.6% coverage allocation offered to men (x² = 1351.86, df 1, p < .05). Similarly, when in comparison to team participation rates, the results illustrated that women were once again underrepresented when in comparison to men (x² = 868.57, df 1, p < .05).

Advertisement Coverage
In the analysis of the advertisement unit of measurement, the results demonstrated that women received 29.7% of all of the advertisement coverage included on the intercollegiate websites. In comparison, males received 70.3% of the overall advertisement coverage included during the study. As shown in Table 4, when in comparison to the overall female athlete (x² = 484.87, df 1, p < .05) and team participation rates (x² = 1707.68, df 1, p < .05), the advertisement allocation provided to women was significantly less than the advertisement coverage provided to men on the athletic sites.

Similar to the previous article unit of measurement, women received an even less favorable coverage allocation when focusing on the non-scroll advertisement coverage. In fact, the difference between the overall advertisement coverage and the non-scroll advertisement coverage represented an 8.8% decrease in coverage. When in comparison to athlete participation rates, the results confirmed that women received significantly less advertisement coverage in prime locations when in comparison to men (x² = 638.99, df 1, p < .05). Further analysis demonstrated that women were further underrepresented when in comparison to NCAA team participation rates (x² = 1452.13, df 1, p < .05).

Multimedia Coverage
Overall, when in comparison to the other units of measurement, the multimedia coverage area contained the least favorable coverage allocations for women. Particularly, as illustrated in Table 5, the investigation showed that the 21.9% multimedia coverage allocation provided to women was significantly less than the 78.1% coverage allocation provided to men (x² = 254.50, df 1, p <.05). Furthermore, when in comparison to team participation rates, the results demonstrated that women received slightly less favorable coverage allocations x² = 597.16, df 1, p < .05). Thus, women received even less coverage within units of measurement with a higher potential to influence fan consumption habits.

Similar to the article and advertisement coverage, the analysis of non-scroll multimedia coverage revealed a coverage allocation slightly below the 21.9% overall multimedia coverage rate provided to women. Overall, the Chi Square analysis helped determine that the 20.4% non-scroll multimedia coverage rate provided to women was significantly less the 79.6% coverage rate provided to men (x² = 164.56, df 1, p < .05). Similarly, the analysis also confirmed that females were severely underrepresented as well when in comparison to the NCAA team participation rates (x² = 367.64, df 1, p < .05).

Photographic Coverage
Overall, when in comparison to the other units of measurement, the photographic coverage area represented the second most favorable unit of measurement coverage for women. Despite demonstrating a more favorable coverage allocation, the 39.7% photographic coverage allocation provided to women was significantly lower than the 60.3% coverage allocation provided to men when in comparison to the individual athlete independent standard (x² = 36.5, df 1, p < .05). Similarly, the results also confirmed that women were underrepresented in comparison to men when focusing on the NCAA team coverage rates (x² = 1123.05, df 1, p < .05).

Despite still remaining underrepresented when in comparison to men (x² = 100.33, df 1,
p < .05), the 37.7% non-scroll photographic coverage allocation provided to women was the most favorable non-scroll unit of measurement rate provided to women during the investigation. While the coverage allocation is somewhat favorable, the results showed that females still received significantly less coverage than men when in comparison to the 53.2% female NCAA team participation rate (x² = 1248.36, df 1, p < .05). Thus, as a result, women received significantly less coverage than men in each of the units of measurement examined during the study.

Discussion

Similar to the study performed by Cunningham et al. (2004), the essential question when analyzing the gender results is to ask the question whether the glass is half full or whether the glass is half empty. In other words, the significance of the results provided to females within the study was dependent upon how you chose to interpret the data. On one hand, there was a unique opportunity to demonstrate a favorable response when the data were compared to past content analyses focusing on gender coverage in sports media outlets (Bishop, 2003; Fink & Kensicki, 2002). On the other hand, the results were not as promising when the data were compared to NCAA athlete and team gender participation rates (NCAA Sports, 2006). Depending on the area of focus, the glass could have either been half full or half empty.

A Revisited Perspective – Half Empty
An ideal starting point for analyzing the coverage allocations provided to women in the current study involved the direct comparison of results to present NCAA gender participation rates. When focusing on the comparison with NCAA athlete (42.1%) and team (53.2%) gender participation rates, the results revealed that the women were underrepresented in comparison to males in each of the units of measurement analyzed. In addition to the investigation of overall coverage allocation and units of measurement coverage allocations, the current research added depth by focusing on the coverage provided to women in prime website locations. Similar to a study performed by Pedersen (2002), the results of the study confirmed that women received slightly less favorable coverage allocations when focusing on the non-scroll coverage. Thus, the results confirmed that women received less attention than men in locations with more potential to reach fan segments.

In addition to the analysis of non-scroll coverage, the current research also provided additional insight by further segmenting the types of coverage offered on intercollegiate athletic websites. Overall, the segmentation provided the opportunity to examine the gender coverage being provided in the units of measurement with a higher potential to influence fan consumption habits. Thus, the lower coverage allocations within the advertisement (29.7%) and multimedia (21.9%) units of measurement for females is somewhat disappointing considering the coverage areas tend to draw more attention than your traditional article and photographic units of measurement.

The lack of coverage allocated to females on websites is a critical issue for a variety of different reasons. As illustrated by Cunningham et al. (2004), when females are not provided equitable coverage, then younger generations of athletes are not provided with role models to emulate. Thus, there is an opportunity that future participation interest in female sports will suffer because athletic departments are sending the message that female athletic teams are not important. Furthermore, with a potential lack of opportunities, females can lose out on important professional skills that are learned through participation in sports. In order to ensure that females are provided with an equal opportunity to succeed within intercollegiate athletics, athletic departments must provided equitable coverage allocations to female athletes.

A Varying Perspective – Half Full
An additional perspective on the gender coverage that was provided during the study is that the results were promising when in comparison to past content analyses on sports media outlets (Huffman et al., 2004). As previously mentioned, the results can potentially be seen as a step forward for women when judging them based upon past research focusing on for-profit media outlets. For example, when in comparison to the 10% of overall article and photographic coverage provided to women in Sports Illustrated (Fink & Kensicki, 2002), the article (40%) and photographic (39.7%) coverage provided to women in the current study helps demonstrate an overall improvement in the type of coverage being offered to female athletes.

An additional area of consideration when evaluating the results from the current study involves the direct comparison to content analyses examining not-for-profit media outlets (Sagas et al., 2004; Shifflet & Revelle, 1994). When in comparison to the not-for-profit media outlets, the results of the study are still somewhat promising. Overall, while the 40% article coverage rate is slightly lower than the allocation reported by Cunningham et al. (2004), the results confirmed an identical photographic coverage rate (39.7%) when in comparison to the previous study. Despite the fact that the article coverage is slightly lower than that which was reported by Cunningham et al. (2004), the results are still very promising considering the fact that the study focused on the coverage being provided on intercollegiate athletic websites. In contrast, the previous study by Cunningham et al. (2004) had focused on the gender coverage within the NCAA News. Thus, the results overall helped confirm that the glass seems to be half full due to the fact that women were being taken seriously within the not-for-profit intercollegiate athletic websites.

Conclusion

In future years, it is critical that minority groups of athletes receive an equal opportunity to succeed within intercollegiate athletic environments. In order to ensure equitable participation opportunities, athletic departments must monitor coverage on their home Web page to ensure that females are receiving fair coverage allocations. Particularly, there needs to be an emphasis on higher quality coverage areas to ensure that female sport teams are being provided with significant advertisement and multimedia content. Additionally, it is critical that females are provided with sufficient amounts of non-scroll coverage so that they are recognized as important entities to athletic programs in future years.

In addition to the previously addressed concerns, the gender coverage on intercollegiate athletic websites is also important for another crucial reason: the intercollegiate websites set gender coverage precedence for independent media outlets without NCAA affiliation. After all, when athletic departments provide inequitable gender coverage on their home websites, they are sending a message to independent media outlets that female sports participation is not important. As a result, independent media outlets such as Sports Illustrated and USA Today have even less incentive to cover female athletics in their publications. Thus, it is critical that athletic departments understand the importance of setting a positive precedence for independent media outlets.

In the future, it will be important that scholars continue to focus on the gender coverage being provided on intercollegiate athletic websites. A limitation of the current research is that it focused on the gender coverage on the websites during an academic year. In order to provide additional insight, future research should examine the gender coverage over a longer time frame to determine whether the coverage provided to females is improving over time. Additionally, scholars could also provide additional depth to the study by investigating the gender coverage provided during the summer months.

In addition to the investigation of intercollegiate athletic websites, future studies should also focus on identifying the gender coverage being provided on a variety of different sites featured on the Internet. For example, scholars could focus on the units of measurement coverage provided on conference websites to determine the message being sent by NCAA conferences. Furthermore, in addition to the gender coverage provided on sites with NCAA affiliation, future research should also examine the individual team coverage being provided on websites. The identification of individual team coverage not only provides data to alleviate gender inequalities, it offers an opportunity to understand the men’s nonrevenue teams receiving inequitable coverage allocations.

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Is Revenue Sharing Working for Major League Baseball? A Historical Perspective

U.S. Sports Academy2016-10-12T14:59:55-05:00April 24th, 2009|Contemporary Sports Issues, Sports Management, Sports Studies and Sports Psychology|

Abstract

This article attempts to evaluate whether the system of revenue sharing in Major League Baseball since 2000 (after the Blue Ribbon Panel report) has had a statistically significant effect on team revenues, payroll, attendance, and performance. Analysis of data for two distinct time periods, 1995-2000 and 2001-2007, suggests that since the adoption of the current revenue sharing system (1) the ratio of the highest to lowest team revenue has decreased; (2) the marginal effect of revenue on performance as measured by percentage of wins during the regular season has improved in a way that has benefitted lower-revenue teams; (3) the payroll expenditures of the lowest revenue quartile teams have increased significantly; and (4) attendance levels for the lowest revenue quartile teams have increased slightly. Historical trend analysis suggests, however, that the system is working slowly.
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