Abstract
The rivalry and tradition of college football is unparalleled. Unlike the corporatized fandom of professional sports, a college football team serves as a true representative of an institution, community, culture and way of life. With the rise of consumer demand for live television, college football has seen an unprecedented spike in popularity. Schools and conferences are now cutting multimillion dollar deals to give the sport and those associated with it exposure and profit. In this paper, I will examine the side effects of such a system. By maintaining the veneer of “amateur athletics,” insane amounts of money are being made with what amounts to free labor. Coaches are making seven or eight figure salaries with taxpayer dollars. States struggling with education and institutional budget cuts are passing measures to pay for 100,000 seat stadiums. Rather than treat this as a critique, I seek to understand what exactly it is about college football that ties people together. What psychological components feed this mindset? Have sports emerged as a cultural epicenter in the same manner as religion in the Dark Ages?
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Sporting Cultures and Identities
KEYWORDS
"College Football", " Religion", " The Dark Ages"
Digital Media
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