An Examination of Competitive Balance within Interscholastic Football
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17161/jas.v5i1.6708Keywords:
high school, interscholastic, football, public, privateAbstract
Interscholastic football has the highest participation rates among high school students in the United States. The popularity and nostalgic connection of football is widespread, but competitive balance is often challenged due to differing characteristics of high schools. This study utilized the theory of distributive justice and data from high school athletic associations in all 50 states and District of Columbia to consider which variables (public/private status, school population, rural/urban location, geographical region, and policies) may impact competitive balance at the state-championship level of interscholastic football. The results confirmed that traditionally strong private schools generally located in the Midwest and Northeast win state titles at disproportionately high rates. No other variable was as powerful or significant as the public/private variable. The findings of the study also challenged the effectiveness of existing policies designed to curb private school success. These results can serve pragmatic efforts to ensure competitive balance within interscholastic football.
References
Badenhausen, K. (2011). The NFL signs TV deals worth $27 billion. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2011/12/14/the-nfl-signs-tv-deals-worth-26-billion/#76f084bb2a67
Beauchamp, T. L. (1991). Philosophical ethics: An introduction to moral philosophy (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Blackburn, M., Forsyth, E., Olson, J., & Whitehead, B. (2013). NIAAA’s guide to interscholastic athletic administration. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Bissinger, B. (1990). Friday night lights: A town, a team, and a dream. Boston: Da Capo Press.
Boyle v. Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Ass’n, 676 A.2d 695 (1996)
Brentwood Academy v. Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Ass’n, 121 S.Ct. 924 (2001)
Caporale, T., & Collier, T. C. (2015). Are we getting better or are they getting worse? Draft position, strength of schedule, and competitive balance in the National Football League. Journal of Labor Resources, 36, 291–300. doi:10.1007/s12122-015-9206-z
Christian Heritage Academy v. Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Ass’n, 483 F.3d 1025 (2007)
Cohen, A. (1997, December 1). Private enterprise. Athletic Business. Retrieved from http://www.athleticbusiness.com/articles/article.aspx?articleid=834 &zoneid=9
DeSensi, J. T., & Rosenberg, D. (2010). Ethics and morality in sport management. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
Dittmore, S. W., & Crow, C. M. (2010). The influence of the Bowl Championship Series on competitive balance in college football. Journal of Sport Administration and Supervision, 2(1), 7–19.
Dobson, S., & Goddard, J. (2001). The economics of football. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Epstein, T. L. (2008). Prep plus: Evaluating the motivations for and effects of enrollment multipliers and other measures in high school sports. Texas Review of Entertainment and Sports Law, 10, 1-22.
Evans, J. (2016, October 19). Slew of forfeits to Archbishop Murphy spur debate about athletic divide between public, private schools. The Seattle Times. Retrieved from http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/high-school/slew-of-forfeits-to-archbishop-murphy-spur-debate-about-athletic-divide-between-public-private-schools/
Florida High School Activities Ass’n v. Temple Baptist Church, 509 So.2d 1381 (1987)
Forbes (2016). 2016 NFL valuations. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/nfl-valuations/#69beca5846cb
Fort, R., & Maxcy, J. (2003). Competitive balance in sports leagues: An introduction. Journal of Sports Economics, 4(2), 154–160. doi:10.1177/1527002503004002005
Frankena, W. K. (1973). Ethics (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Havard, W. C. (1959). Henry Sidgwick & later utilitarian political philosophy. Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press.
Howard, B. (2011). Attendance at high school sporting events tops 500 million. NFHS. Retrieved from http://old.nfhs.org/content.aspx?id=5732
Humphreys, B. R. (2002). Alternative measures of competitive balance in sports leagues. Journal of Sports Economics, 3(2), 133–148. doi:10.1177/152700250200300203
IMDB (2017a). Box office/business for Radio. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0316465/business?ref_=tt_dt_bus
IMDB (2017b). Box office/business for Remember the Titans. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210945/business
IMBD (2017c). Box office/business for Friday Night Lights. Retrieved from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390022/business
INDOE. (2017). Indiana choice scholarships. Retrieved from https://www.doe.in.gov/choice
James, J. T. (2007). How much does a private school student count? A critical analysis of the athletic multiplier. Catholic Education: A Journey of Inquiry and Practice, 10(4), 408-432.
Johnson, J. E., Giannoulakis, C., Scott, B. F. (2017). Interscholastic competitive balance: An examination of state athletic association administrators. Journal of Sports Management, 31(3), 256-273.
Johnson, J. E., Pierce, D. A., Tracy, D. R., & Haworth, G. J. (2014). The public vs. private debate: A case study of Indiana interscholastic sport and the tournament success factor. Global Sport Business Journal, 2(3), 44–62.
Johnson, J. E., Tracy, D. R., & Pierce, D. A. (2015). National review of interscholastic competitive balance solutions related to the public-private debate. Journal of Amateur Sport, 1(1), 29–51. doi:10.17161/jas.v1i1.4920
Kaplan, A., Nadeau, J., & O’Reilly, N. (2011). The hope statistics as an alternative measure of competitive balance.
International Journal of Sport Finance, 6, 170–184.
MaxPreps. (2017). Top 20 most dominant high school football teams in the MaxPreps era, national and state. Retrieved from http://www.maxpreps.com/news /Dg1HAhibtEOmd Lpf9Z1KBg/top-20-most-dominant-high-school-football-teams-in-the-maxpreps-era,-national-and-state.htm
McEwen, W., & Metz, N. E. (2016). Competitive balance: Championship futures betting markets. International Journal of Sport Finance, 11, 63–78.
Monahan, S. (2012, January). Public vs. private schools—Leveling the playing field. High School Today, 5(4), 12–14.
Mullender, R. (2009). Law, morality and the egalitarian philosophy of government. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 29(2), 389–411. doi:10.1093/ojls/gqp009
National Center for Education Statistics (2013). Number of public school districts and public and private elementary and secondary schools: Selected years, 1869-70 through 2010-11. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/dige s t/d12/tables/dt12_098.asp
National Center for Education Statistics. (2016). Enrollment trends. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=65
Neale, W. C. (1964). The peculiar economics of professional sports. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 78(1), 1–14.
Neddenriep, K. (2015, November 5). Insider: Tournament success factor is working. Indy Star. Retrieved from http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/high-school/2015/11/05/insider-tournament-success-factor-working/75209944/
NFHS (2016). 2015-16 High school athletics participation survey. Retrieved from http://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatistics/PDF/2015-16_Sports_Participation_Survey.pdf
Nielsen (2016). Tops of 2016: TV. Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/us/en /insights/news/2016/tops-of-2016-tv.html
Popke, M. (2012, December). Demand to close gap between public, nonpublic schools increases. Athletic Business. Retrieved from http://www.athleticbusiness.com/articles/article. aspx?articleid=3938&zoneid=9
Rachels, J. (Ed.). (1989). The right thing to do: Basic readings in moral philosophy. New York, NY: Random House.
Raphael, D. D. (1981). Moral philosophy. Oxford, UK: Oxford. University Press.
Rottenberg, S. (1956). The baseball players labor market. Journal of Political Economy, 64, 242–258.
Sanderson, A. R., & Siegfried, J. J. (2003). Thinking about competitive balance. Journal of Sports Economics, 4(4), 255–279. doi:10.1177/1527002503257321
Shannon-Missal, L. (2016). Pro football is still America’s favorite sport. The Harris Poll. Retrieved from http://www.theharrispoll.com/sports/Americas_ Fav_Sport_2016.html
Sokeland, J. (2012, August 22). Providence faces “penalty” for its soccer success. The Courier-Journal. Retrieved from http://blogs.courier-journal.com/indianahss/2012/08/22/providence-soccer-possibly-penalized-by-ihsaa-success-factor/
Terlep, R. (2012, June 23). IHSAA will now weigh tourney success in class slots. The Elkhart Truth. Retrieved from http://www.elkharttruth.com/article /20120623/SPORT01/ 706239943
Tibor, M. R. (1974). The libertarian alternative: Essays in social and political philosophy. Chicago, IL: Neson-Hall.
United States Census Bureau (2015). Urban and rural classifications. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/urban-rural.html
Zimbalist, A. (2002). Competitive balance in sports leagues: An introduction. Journal of Sports Economics, 3(2), 111–121. doi:10.1177/152700250200300201
Zimbalist, A. (2003). Competitive balance conundrums: Response to Fort and Maxcy’s comment. Journal of Sports Economics, 4(2), 161–163. doi:10.1177/1527002503004002006
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC-BY-NC-ND) License
1. License. You retain the copyright for your work. You here by grant to us a worldwide, non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable license to:
• Reproduce, distribute and display the edited manuscript in the Journal of Amateur Sport (and other publications prepared by us or on our behalf) in any media now or hereafter known (including without limitation electronic publications such as the Internet, Google Scholar, and social media)
We do not restrict your distribution or use of the manuscript following publication in the Journal of Amateur Sport (in fact, we encourage it!). However, we have the right to publish the manuscript first on the journal website. Thus, the foregoing licenses are exclusive to us prior to our publication of the manuscript. You confirm that you have disclosed to us all previous or pending public disseminations of the manuscript, including without limitation any publications or acceptances by other journals or disseminations via websites or conference proceedings.
2. Other Confirmations. You confirm that you are the manuscripts sole author(s); you have the right to convey the foregoing licenses; the manuscript does not infringe any third party copyright, publicity/privacy right or other proprietary right; and the manuscript is not defamatory or otherwise unlawful. You shall defend and indemnify us against all claims based on any alleged breach of your confirmations in this contract.
Compensation: You will receive one (1) free copy (PDF) of the article published online in the Journal of Amateur Sport. You will receive no royalty or other monetary return from the Journal of Amateur Sport for use of the article. You do, however, have our extreme gratitude!
3. Entire Contract. This contract is the sole and exclusive agreement between the parties regarding the manuscript and supersedes all prior conversations and understandings regarding its subject matter. This contract may be modified or supplemented only by a mutually signed writing.
