An Exploration of the Correlation between Students’ Political Orientation and Sport Fandom

As of late, researchers in the field of sport psychology have made efforts to deepen our overall understanding of sport fandom and what it entails. As a result, there has been a great deal of research conducted that relates directly to the examination of sports watching behaviors, fans’ motivations behind their consumption of particular sports leagues, and team identification, but, at present, there has been minimal research conducted that has examined whether there is a correlation between one’s sport fandom and political orientation. As such, the current study sought to explore the possibility of there being a relationship between college students’ sport fandom and political orientation. In this study, a sample of 74 college-age students was used to assess whether their political orientation clearly indicated whether they would consume more of the National Basketball Association (NBA) or the National Football League (NFL). To that end, respondents were given a 61-question survey, which consisted of items pertaining to political orientation, sport spectatorship, sport fandom, overall consumption of each respective sport league, and an array of social and political issues. Preliminary results partially supported the hypotheses of this study. Sport psychologists and political scientists alike should further examine this phenomenon in an effort to definitively determine whether political orientation influences sport fandom and to what extent