Uncertainty of Outcome and Attendance in College Football: Evidence from Four Conferences

Rodney Paul, Brad R. Humphreys, Andrew Weinbach

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

The relationship between the uncertainty of outcome hypothesis (UOH), where fans prefer games that are expected to be closely contested, and attendance is investigated in four non-AQ football conferences. The teams in these smaller conferences play games against each other and against bigger, more prominent schools in the elite AQ conferences. Using the betting market point spread as a proxy for uncertainty of outcome, two key points concerning the UOH emerge: college football fans in these conferences prefer less uncertainty of outcome both when their team is a home favorite and when their team is a home underdog.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)69-82
Number of pages14
JournalEconomic and Labour Relations Review
Volume23
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2012

Keywords

  • Attendance demand
  • NCAA football
  • Uncertainty of outcome hypothesis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics and Econometrics
  • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

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