FiT Publishing

The chime of a new email went initially unnoticed as Sarah Fletcher finished reading yet another reporter’s critique of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). It had been six weeks since UAB president Ray Watts announced the decision to discontinue the university’s Division I football program. While the proverbial dust had settled, some stakeholder groups1 remained discontent following the controversial decision to become the first Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) program to disband in nearly 20 years. As the director of marketing for the UAB athletic department, Fletcher felt...Read more

The current study quantitatively investigated how fan perceptions and willingness to consider committing anonymous acts of aggression toward participants of the rival teams differed between a rival in a current conference and an anticipated one in a new conference. A sample of 168 online fans of teams affected by conference realignment were administered a survey containing the Sport Rivalry Fan Perception Scale (SRFPS: Havard, Gray, Gould, Sharp, & Schaffer, 2013) and questions regarding willingness to consider committing anonymous acts of aggression (Wann, Haynes, McLean, & Pullen...Read more