Article
Immoral Mismatch or Just Another Game? Rivals.com Framing of Fbs-Fcs Football Games
Journal of Contemporary Athletics
(2014)
Abstract
Sport fans have long debated the topic of running up the score on opponents (Keating, 1964). Many sport philosophers and journalists have criticized this practice as an example of poor sportsmanship (Feezell, 1999; Sailors, 2010). However, the practice of teams willfully scheduling contests against inferior opponents has historically received less attention. That has changed in recent years, most noticeably after a Texas high school girls basketball team defeated another, 100-0 (Sailors, 2010). Scheduling easy opponents, however, has long been routine in college football, where a majority of marquee programs in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) play 66-75% of their non- conference games against lesser FBS programs or teams in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Southern Cal are prominent examples of FBS programs, while most members of the FCS are lesser- known universities such as Eastern Washington, Georgia Southern, Sam Houston State, and Western Carolina.
Keywords
- Rivals.com,
- Coaches & Managers,
- Web Sites,
- Athletics Directors,
- Athletes,
- Michigan,
- Oklahoma
Disciplines
Publication Date
April 1, 2014
Citation Information
Edward M. Kian, Jason W. Lee, Elizabeth Gregg and Jennifer J. Kane. "Immoral Mismatch or Just Another Game? Rivals.com Framing of Fbs-Fcs Football Games" Journal of Contemporary Athletics Vol. 8 Iss. 2 (2014) p. 75 - 91 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jennifer-kane/5/