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Fandom in Sports

Nicholas Meyer

Ball State University

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Abstract

Sports are one of Americas favorite past times. Each year millions of people flock to stadiums

and to their televisions to cheer on their favorite team. Some Americans are hardcore fans of

their team and will do anything for them, while on the other hand some are more passive.

However, there is a constant argument on what sports are better, College or Professional sports.

In this report, we investigate whether Americans enjoy college sports more than professional,

and that those who cheer for college sports have a higher level of fandom than those who prefer

professional sports. After conducting a survey, the results showed that almost half the

participants prefer college sports over professional sports, however the levels of fandom between

them are relatively the same. The data supports the hypothesis that college sports are more

popular than professional sports, but there is not enough data to support the hypothesis that there

is more fandom in college sports than in professional sports.

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Fandom in Sports

Sports are a huge market that contains millions of people and money all over the world. It is

especially big in the United States where multiple sports draw the attention of Americans daily.

Whether its Football, Baseball, Basketball, or Hockey, Americans spend a lot of time and money

to enjoy these sports. There are 2 main categories of sports in America that draw this much

attention from people, College, and Professional Sports. At different points throughout the year

these sports are constantly talked about whether its college football and the famous college

march madness tournament or the NFL Super Bowl and the MLB World Series. That’s why these

sports are huge and contain a lot of attention around them. In an article about fandom on

television the author Rebecca Williams describes fandom “as an integral part of everyday life,”

where people form bonds with something, and it starts to become their identity (Williams, 2011).

There is fandom all over America as people cheer for their favorite teams. There are main

differences between the sports that between these different levels of fandoms are college and

professional sports. College sports are filled with student athletes at their respective universities.

They used to not be able to make money but in recent times that has changed. Then there are

professional sports where this is a step above the college level where you can make more money

and compete with the best athletes in the world. These levels are very different but get a lot of

attention and make a lot of money. It is important to investigate the communication behavior

within these areas to see how it affects the culture around us.
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Literature Review

There have been some studies done of sports fandom in the past. What past researchers have

investigated where the ideas of why sports get so big. One thing we know about sports fandom is

that it gives the viewer an escape from the real world where they can tune into a game and ignore

what is going on around them. Past studies have investigated political and economic experiences

that lead to an increased level of fandom. They have not really found anything that would

contribute to support their hypothesis (Thorson and Serazio, 2018). This is a theme where there

is not enough evidence and research within this topic. That goes with college sports vs

professional sports. There is not a lot of research out there comparing the fandom of these sports.

Their popularity is big and there has not been a lot of research into who likes what version better.

The purpose of this investigation is to see if people like college sports more than professional

sports and that the fandom in college sports is more than professional.
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Method

Subjects

The people who participated in this survey were college students between the ages of 18-24, and

they were all Caucasians. There were 26 participants who fully completed the survey.

Procedure

This research was done with an online survey using Qualtrics. It was used to ask questions to see

whether people like college or professional sports more and then see whether their levels of

fandom in what sport are more. They were giving a scale through 1 through 10 to answer with.

These were collected and then analyzed to see what the consensus
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Results

The results of this research show that out of the population in the survey 9 prefer professional

sports and 17 prefer college

sports. The chart on the right

shows the averages of the people

who answered the 11 questions

of the survey. The results are

down the middle and some

support college while others

support professional sports.

Discussion

The data of this survey supports part of my hypothesis that people enjoy college sports more than

professional sports and that the fandom in college sports is greater than professional. There was

almost more than double the people that prefer college sports over professional sports. However,

the second part of the hypothesis was not supported. The data of the questions that people enjoy

college sports more than professional sports. I think that levels of fandom will change depending

on location and what team that people like. For example, college football is big in the south but

in some places in America they might enjoy professional sports more. The people surveyed were

all from Indiana. It really goes from one person who is a huge fan to another who cares less

about the team. In the future I recommend that there is a wider field of study and to get more

groups of fans from all over the country.

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References
Williams, R. (2011). “This Is the Night TV Died”: Television Post-Object Fandom and the
Demise of The West Wing. Popular Communication, 9(4), 266–279. https://doi-
org.proxy.bsu.edu/10.1080/15405702.2011.605311
Professor, E. A. T. A., & Professor, M. S. A. (2018). Sports Fandom and Political Attitudes.
Public Opinion Quarterly, 82(2), 391–403.
https://doi-org.proxy.bsu.edu/10.1093/poq/nfy018the
Richardson, A. (2020). An Analysis of Attendance at an NCAA Division I University: The
Relationship of Fan Identification, Sport Fandom, and Demographic Variables. The
University of Akron.https://ideaexchange.uakron.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?
article=2384&context=honors_research_projects
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Appendix A

1. According to number of credits earned, please select your year in school.

2. What is your age? (Please use numbers)
3. What is your age? (Please use numbers)
4. Please select which race or ethnicity that best describes you. - Selected Choice
5. What type of sport do you prefer more?
6. What Professional Sport league do you follow the most?
7. What is your favorite team in the [QID6-ChoiceGroup-SelectedChoices]? (Please type city and
name)
8. How important is it to you that the [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue] win?
9. How strongly do you see yourself as a fan of the [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue]?
10. During the season, how closely do you follow the [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue] via ANY of the
following: in person or on television, on the radio, or televised news or a newspaper?
11. How important is being a fan of the [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue] to you? - Group
12. How much do you dislike the greatest rivals of the [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue]? - Group
13. How often do you display the [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue] name or insignia at your place of
work, where you live, or on your clothing? – Group
14. I consider myself to be an [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue] fan - Group
15. I believe that following the [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue] is the most enjoyable form of
entertainment.
16. My life would be less enjoyable if I were not able to follow the [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue]
17. Being an [QID9-ChoiceTextEntryValue] fan is very important to me.