Big Game Cats and Defining Football’s Value: College Football’s Popularity, Controversies, and Expansion

• Main Author: Himel, Matthew T
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University 2015
• Subjects: Intercollegiate Football; NCAA Athletics; Division I FCS; Georgia State Athletics; Southeastern Louisiana Athletics; Sporting Culture; American Popular Culture; Other American Studies
• Online Access: https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/2521; https://dc.etsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3905&context=etd

This thesis directly approaches intercollegiate football from a cultural perspective. The football’s popularity exploded during the Twentieth-Century. Television, merchandizing, and a national sporting culture are associated with this development. However, controversies often muddied the waters of that popularity. Football’s brutality, athletic scholarships, and controversies within athletics departments overshadowed the immense popularity of intercollegiate football. During the Twenty-First Century, several universities started new football programs. Two of which being Georgia State University and Southeastern Louisiana University. Given the context balancing popularity and controversy, the administrators demonstrated how the image of intercollegiate football has changed over the course of the past century. This thesis analyzes how the administrators sold the new football programs to their respective institutions and concludes that both universities emphasized the sport’s popularity, avoided controversy, recognized the large potential for financial loss, and concentrated the new programs benefit being increased indirect and intrinsic values.