College Basketball: A Spatial Analysis: The Geography of Intercollegiate (NCAA, Div. I) Men’s & Women’s Basketball Origins and Program Success.

Keywords: college basketball, regionalism, sport geography
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 57

Abstract

College athletes have garnered an ever-increasing amount of media attention. The focus is often as much or more for their off-field activities as their on-field accomplishments. Likewise, coverage of intercollegiate athletics has grown geometrically with advances in media technology (social-media, webcasts, blogs, broadcasts, etc.). Revenues have skyrocketed. Athletic budgets, coaches’ salaries, and television contracts have more than doubled in the last decade for the revenue producing sports.
Geographers have examined college sport since Rooney’s seminal work in 1969. The majority of the research focused on the most popular spectator sports such as football, basketball, baseball, and hockey. This research builds on previous work by Rooney, Goudge and others by investigating athlete origins/destinations and program success of female and male major (NCAA, Div. I) collegiate basketball in the current academic year. In addition, then combining the two different genders of basketball into one composite ‘geography of college basketball’ in the United States.
The resulting maps, of over 10,000 players, provide insight into the regionalization of collegiate basketball players origins and production in addition to intercollegiate program success by gender as well as a combined look across genders.