Tenth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

Rottenberg’s Uncertainty of Outcome Hypothesis, as well as, past research has suggested that without a certain degree of competitive balance, fans lose interest, and revenue from attendance, media, etc. declines. If this is true, it would seem to follow that the higher the sources of revenue, the stronger would be the desire for competitive balance, since the potential loss of revenue would be greater. This study focuses on those conferences within the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. (NCAA). Using the standard deviation to measure within-season balance, and the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to measure between-season balance, the authors of this study concluded that when measuring within-season balance there was little difference tween the “Power 5,” the highest revenue conferences in the NCAA’s FBS , and the “Group of 5,” the lower revenue conferences int the NCAA’s FBS, When measuring between-season balance, the “Group of 5” conferences actually were somewhat more balanced than the “Power 5” conferences, although in neither case was there a statistically significant difference at the .05 level. The results of this study which covered the seven year period, 2012-2018 would suggest that fans might not be as concerned with competitive balance as past research has suggested, or possibly, that the period under study was not typical.