Byungju Kang
Steven Salaga
Scott Tainsky
Matthew Juravich

This paper estimates the relationship between outcome uncertainty and television viewership in NCAA Division I men’s college basketball. The results demonstrate mixed support for the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis. Viewers prefer contests anticipated to be more certain, but also respond favorably to contests which have higher levels of within-game outcome uncertainty. The results also indicate that these preferences are not static across the season calendar. During postseason play, the preference for anticipated contest certainty is reduced, while the preference for within-game...Read more

Lamar Reams and Terry Eddy

In contrast to research examining the social-psychological aspects of how sport fans perceive rivalry games in team sports, far less is known regarding the impact rivalries have on mediated consumer demand, a marketing outcome of interest to sport researchers and practitioners. Guided by economic demand theory, the current study developed a model to empirically examine the impact of Tyler and Cobbs’ (2015) rivalry antecedents (conflict, peer, bias) on fan interest for an individual sport. The three-dimensional framework provided the foundation for the selection of thirteen rivalry-related...Read more

Terence Eddy
Daniel Rascher
and Rebecca Stewart

College football is considered by many to be an important aspect of campus life, which also promotes a connection with alumni and other supporters (Toma, 2003). The overall interest in NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) football remains high, as 35.3 million fans attended regular-season games during the 2012 season (though it should be noted that this represents a 3% drop from the all-time high in 2008) (Solomon, 2012). However, these figures can be deceiving when considering that the range of spectator interest in FBS football is extremely wide. For example, four teams (...Read more