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The Influence of Identity Theory and Globalization on Home Court Advantage in NBA

and NCAA Basketball.


by
Jeffrey Ajufo, B.A.
A Thesis
In
SOCIOLOGY
Submitted to the Graduate Faculty
of Texas Tech University in
Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for
the Degree of
MASTER OF ARTS
Approved
Dr. Alden Roberts
Chair of Committee
Dr. Jerome Koch

Dominick Casadonte
Interim Dean of the Graduate School
August, 2013

Copyright 2013, Jeffrey Ajufo

Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Alden Roberts and Dr. Jerome Koch,
for their guidance, patience and support in helping me take an idea and run as far as I
could with it.
I would also like to thank Dr. Yung-Mei Tsai for the inspiration behind my thesis idea,
and encouraging me to pursue it in the first place.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... ii
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... v
I. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 1
II. Literature Review and Theory........................................................................................ 4
The Evolution of Globalization ...................................................................................... 4
The Impact of Globalization ........................................................................................... 8
Globalization and Basketball ........................................................................................ 11
Hybridization ................................................................................................................ 16
Summary of Globalization Theory ............................................................................... 19
Identity Theory.............................................................................................................. 20
Identity Theory and NCAA sports ................................................................................ 23
III. Summary and Hypothesis ........................................................................................... 29
Hypotheses .................................................................................................................... 29
IV. Methods ...................................................................................................................... 31
Sample Selection ........................................................................................................... 31
Calculation of win ratios ............................................................................................... 31
Background and reasoning behind selection of teams, format and type of season....... 32
V. Results .......................................................................................................................... 35
VI. Discussion, Implications and Limitations................................................................... 40
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References ......................................................................................................................... 48

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ABSTRACT
Home court advantage is a phenomenon that many fans of sport believe wields a
significant amount of influence in determining the performance of athletes during
competition and, as a result, the outcome of a game. It is interesting and difficult to
quantify how significant home court advantage is in professional sports, particularly
professional basketball, compared to collegiate sports, more specifically, collegiate
basketball.

Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This work intends to investigate the significance of home court advantage in the
professional realm of the National Basketball Association (NBA) compared to home
court advantage in the collegiate realm of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA) and the roles that globalization and identity theory play in influencing such
advantages.
Conventional wisdom suggests that home court advantage is the benefit enjoyed
by the team playing the game at their home venue. They are usually better rested, as the
opposing team usually has to drive or fly a great distance, possibly multiple time zones,
to reach the arena. Players on the home team usually have the luxury of sleeping in their
homes or apartments, while the visiting team has to stay in a hotel, which can add a level
of discomfort. Additionally, the visiting team is playing in an arena that is foreign to
them. The home team plays at least half of their games in their own arena, and some
even practice there. Practicing in the home arena may add a significantly greater level of
comfort as teams practice with the same rims, hardwood floor and color design of the
arena in which games are held. Lastly, the home crowd usually rallies around their team
while openly rooting for the opposing team to fail. The sight of thousands of people
taunting and mocking your every move can be unnerving, even for the most skilled
players in the world. It can even influence the referees, who are supposed to officiate the
game impartially, to subconsciously make 50-50 decisions in favor of the home team at a
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disproportionate rate. 50-50 decisions are those made by officials during the game that
are highly subjective and could arguably go either way, such as whether to call a blocking
foul or an offensive foul during a collision between two players near the basket area.
Those 50-50 decisions can lead to more foul calls in the home teams favor versus fewer
fouls called for the visiting team and more turnovers called against the visiting team and
fewer turnovers against the home team. This, in turn, could lead to more free throws,
more possessions and ultimately an easier path to victory for the home team. The
magnitude of home court advantage, the belief that home court advantage is greater in the
NCAA than in the NBA and why it would be greater in one league than another league
are all ideas that are synthesized in this research with globalization theory and identity
theory.
Globalization theory rests on the premise that the world is becoming more
interconnected as a result of technological advances, mixing of cultures, and exchanging
of ideas. Because of this interconnectedness, components of the global community are
more dependent on each other, effectively making the world smaller. The NBA is a
global entity, whose employees and fan base comprise the international community.
NBA games are broadcast in over 215 countries, in over 100 languages. Because of the
demographics and location of NBA fans, as well as emphasis on marketing star players
instead of teams as a whole, the NBA is more subject to the effects of globalization than
the NCAA.
In the NCAA, more emphasis is placed on school tradition, and the sense of
community that being a student of a university entails; a person who graduates from the
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University of Texas will consider him or herself a Longhorn 40 years from now. They
will root for their school and against rivals such as OU, TTU, and Texas A&M just as
fervently in their 60s as they did as undergraduates.
The root of a college fans passion for a university is in the traditions and
pageantry that is unique to each university. NCAA basketball is more rooted in identity
theory than the NBA, which states that a persons sense of self, and their interactions
with other people and society, is based on their membership in certain social groups.
Because NBA basketball is more subject to the effects of globalization, and the NCAA is
more subject to identity theory, home court advantage will have less of an effect on the
NBA than it does on the NCAA.
The intent of this research is to help uncover why so many people place so much
importance on home court advantage in determining a teams chances of winning a
particular game, and to help dispel some previously widely held beliefs, and myths that
are accepted as truth, about the significance of home court advantage in professional
sports.

Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORY

Globalization is defined as the imitation and adaptation of knowledge solutions


or innovations, as they are diffused from one country to another (Jarvis 2007, 101). It is
the process by which societies become more interconnected and dependent on each other
through the exchange of technology, culture, economic and political capital, thereby
reducing the power and influence of individual nation-states, and effectively shrinking
the world in terms of accessibility and communication. The effects of globalization are
best seen from political, economic, and cultural perspectives.
The Evolution of Globalization
Herbert Spencer posited that the social body was much like the human body:
characterized by the interdependence of each part of the system. In order to explain a
social institution, you must do so in terms of its functionality towards the perpetuation of
society. In his work, Global Complexity, John Urry advances this idea, stating that each
society is being transformed, becoming elements within systems of global
complexity.(2003, 107) Instead of each society behaving like a living organism with a
centralized seat of consciousness, societies are increasingly behaving like components of
a global, decentralized system. Power is now defined by ease of access to information
and how easily it can be retransmitted.
the prime technique of power now is that of escape, slippage, elision and
avoidance, the end of the era of the mutual engagement. Modern
societies had involved a mixture of citizenship with settlement and hence
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with co-presence within the confines of a specific territorially based


society. But now the new global elite, according to Bauman, can rule
without burdening itself with the chores of administration, management,
welfare concerns, even involving developing disposable slave owning
without commitment (2000: 13; on disposable peoples, see Bales 1999).
Travelling light is the new asset of power. Power is all about speed,
lightness, distance, the weightless, the global, and this is true both of elites
and of those resisting elites such as as anti-globalization protestors or
terrorists. Power runs in and especially jumps across the different global
networks and fluids. Power is hybridized and is not simply social but
material. (Urry 2003, 112)
Today, power is measured by how quickly one can access information process it, and
transmit it through different avenues. Technology has given information its
weightlessness, lightness and speed by allowing information to be disseminated through
social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, the 24 hour news cycle and the World
Wide Web. Those who have access to information, and can either transmit or receive
information through multiple channels wield the most power.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United States has been the worlds lone
superpower. This has allowed the U.S. to exert its will politically and militarily on the
world stage with little resistance, even in situations where it did not have the support of
its allies (Jarvis 2007, 58). One month after the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001,
President George W. Bush declared a War on Terror, seeking to eliminate terrorism
throughout the world. This included accusing Saddam Hussein of stockpiling weapons of
mass destruction, then incorrectly invoking a clause in a UN security resolution to pursue
him anyway when it was discovered that there were no weapons of mass destruction. It
also included the pursuit of terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban across

Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

various countries in the Middle East. Conversely, Europe has come together as one
united body.
But Europeanisation, a process of generating international forces within the
countries of Europe, has also necessarily weakened the strength of each individual
nation state as it cedes some of its power to the central European system in
Brussels. Being betwixt and between means that Europe cannot devote all its
energies in one direction or another, and so it is not the superpower that it might
clearly be if it were a unified nation nor is it able to compete with the might of
America (Jarvis 2007,58).
The problem that the European Union faces is an example of the changing
political power structure in the world. Each member country has to sacrifice at least a
small part of autonomy and power and devote it to a centralized system, or the Union
would fail. That loss of political might reduces the influence of each country, but it does
not grant the central government system in Brussels enough power to unify the region in
a manner similar to the United States. From a political perspective, globalization has
decentralized and transformed the flow of power, making it more mobile.
Economically, globalization has changed the idea of what constitutes an economic
resource, or capital. Economic power in the 19th and 20th centuries belonged to those
who controlled the means of production in the state. Those used to belong to centralized
institutions. Technology has contributed to a shift toward complexity in economics. In
the 1970s, the most valuable commodities were paper, yarn and meat. They were simple
in both makeup and production. Today, however, the most valuable products involve
complex processes and products. Economic power now resides with whoever has access
to technology and information (Jarvis 2007, 55).

Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

The process by which American culture has been transmitted throughout the
world as a result of globalization is frequently referred to as McDonaldization, a term
coined by George Ritzer (1996), named after the fast food empire. McDonaldization is
the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate
more and more factors of American society, as well as of the rest of the world. (Ritzer
1996, 1) Some of the positive results of McDonaldization include:
Greater availability of goods and services
Wider range of goods and services are available to a larger portion of the
population
Almost instant access to what you want
Technological innovations are more quickly spread through networks
Products of a culture are more easily diffused to others
(Ritzer 1996, 12)
McDonaldization has its drawbacks however. It is ecologically damaging, and its
assembly line approach can be dehumanizing.
Take just one example: the need to grow uniform potatoes to create those
predictable French fries that people have come to expect from fast-food
restaurants. It turns out that the need to grow such potatoes has adversely
affected the ecology of the Pacific Northwest. The huge farms that now
produce a perfect fry means that much of the potato is wasted, with the
remnants either fed to cattle or used for fertilizer. However, the
underground water supply is now showing high levels of nitrates that may
be traceable to the fertilizer and animal wastes. There are, of course, many
other ecological problems associated with the McDonaldization of societythe forests felled to produce paper, the damage caused by polystyrene and
other materials, the enormous amount of food needed to produce feed
cattle, and so on (Ritzer 1996, 13).
Many of the benefits of cultural globalization as a result of faster dissemination of
information can come with very heavy prices in terms of the damage it can do to other
cultures and to the planet.
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In essence, the world has been effectively made smaller as a result of


globalization and McDonaldization. Politically, power is less centralized and more
mobile. Economically, information has replaced the means of production as the main
determinant of power and influence. Culturally, we have become more homogenized as a
result of the way that we access goods, services and information. As a result, this has put
less emphasis on individual nation-states and societies and more emphasis on a global
community. Everyone is connected, and what happens in one part of the world affects
the rest of it. Now that globalization has been defined in terms of its worldwide effect,
we can look at how it has evolved and spread with respect to the sporting universe.
The Impact of Globalization
In this section, we will look at the history of globalization as it relates to the
sporting universe. We will look back on the history of globalization in sports in its five
major steps before examining the three perspectives that globalization can best be seen
through.
Globalization is the integration of economic, social, financial, cultural and
technical practices of previously isolated societies (Jarvis 2007, 40). It is the increasing
connectedness of businesses and the interdependence of markets across the world. It
involves the sharing and transmission of ideas, values, and customs across societies from
every corner of the earth. Globalization is not a new concept, but its effect has
accelerated in the modern era due to the increasing development of technology and the
increasing presence of a global market. Globalization is best understood in three
components: political globalization, economic globalization, and cultural globalization.
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These three aspects of globalization have been associated with three major processes in
the world: homogenization, pluralization and hybridization. The effects of the three major
aspects of globalization are seen, particularly through sports, in five stages throughout
history (Beyer 2007, 283). There is a great deal of overlap between the stages, and
sometimes these stages re-emerge in modern times during the emergence or development
of a new sport.
The first stage is referred to as the Germinal Phase. Occurring during the 1400s
until around the middle of the 18th century, this is the time period which saw the
emergence of sports as a form of physical combat, particularly in England. Cricket, horse
racing, Broughtons rules boxing and baseball in their earliest forms began in England.
We also saw the rise of new national communities. The changing power structure in
England was reflected in sports as the focus on violence during recreation periods began
to decrease, and more emphasis was placed on male achievement.
The second stage, the Incipient Phase, saw the rise of colonialism, world-trade
and nation states. It also saw the formation of voluntary associations or clubs for sports
such as football, rugby, boxing and fox-hunting. Violence in sport and recreation
diminished even further in the Incipient Phase as organizations began to take shape. The
third stage, the Take-Off phase, saw the use of global communication systems and
international events take place. The diffusion of English sports and pastimes to
continental Europe and the notions of fair play as understood by the English began to
take place. International organizations such as FIFA, FIBA, and the IOC, were created to
govern world football, basketball and Olympic competition, respectively. The rules and
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ethics of sports were enumerated and enforced by these associations throughout the
world.
The Struggle For Hegemony is the fourth stage of globalization in sport. This
was the struggle for power and influence in the world between nations. This was
characterized by the spread of sports, growth of competition and the organization of interstate competition. The United States and the USSR used the Olympics, and other
international competitions, as an extension of the Cold War. Non-Western civilizations
began to challenge Western dominance of sport in general. A prime example of this is
the emergence of sumo wrestling on the international level. The Miracle on Ice, the U.S.
stunning upset victory over the heavily favored USSR in ice hockey during the 1980
Winter Olympics, captivated the American consciousness because of the amount of
tension, fear, and hostility that the United States and the Soviet Union felt towards each
other. The same can be said for the controversial end of the gold medal basketball game
during the 1972 Olympic Games between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The fifth stage, or Uncertainty phase, is characterized by the forming of new
global relationships as a result of technological advances and migration occurring with
more intensity. We also see the end of Cold War politics being used as a subplot in
international competition. This period also sees the end of the stranglehold that the
Western colonial powers held over the sports that they were credited with creating and
spreading throughout the world. West India dominated cricket in the 60s and 70s.
England, which is the birthplace of world football, hasnt won the World Cup since 1966,
while Brazil and Argentina have won the championship a combined 5 times since. The
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United States dominance in basketball has also lessened. After the 1992 Olympic Games,
which saw the U.S. win the gold medal game by 32 points, each subsequent international
competition became more competitive, until the 2002 FIBA World Championships,
which saw the United States lose in the second round to Argentina.
In summary, globalization has changed throughout history with respect to the
intensity by which it has occurred, and the aspects of society that it has changed, and the
communities that it has affected. The three main components of globalization further
detail how globalization has changed the international community through different
institutions.
Globalization and Basketball
Globalizations relationship to basketball is best understood through three lenses:
political globalization, economic globalization, and cultural globalization. Political
globalization is the increasing number and power of international sporting organizations
that influence or govern international sport (Jarvis 2007, 96). A prime example of
political globalization in the NBA is the increasing similarity between its rules and those
of the International Basketball Federation, or FIBA, the governing body of international
basketball. Both the NBA and FIBA divide their game into quarters, have 15 minute
halftimes, a 24 second shot clock, and require the offensive team to cross midcourt in 8
seconds or less. Additionally, in both the NBA and FIBA, the shot clock resets each time
the ball hits the rim, the game clock stops after each made basket during the last 2
minutes of the 4th quarter and overtime, and a team shoots free throws on each nonoffensive foul for the rest of the quarter when the opposing team commits their 5th team
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foul. The three-point line in the NBA is farther from the basket than the three-point line
than FIBAs, but FIBA has recently moved its three point line from 20 ft, 6 inches to 22
ft, 1.7 inches in order to more closely resemble the NBAs 23 ft, 9 inch three-point line.
Lastly, FIBA has also changed the shape of the three second, or painted area from a
trapezoid to a rectangle, to further mirror the NBA game. Most of these changes that have
taken place in the FIBA game to more closely resemble the NBA game have occurred
after 1989, when FIBA allowed professional athletes to compete in the Olympic Games,
which paved the way for NBA players to participate in the Olympics (World of
Basketball 2010).
As the rules of play between the NBA and FIBA have become more homogenous,
more players from different countries have become able to transition to the NBA more
easily. For example, out of 144 total players, there were 42 current or former NBA
players on Olympic Rosters, nearly 30 percent, during the Beijing Olympic Games of
2008, with 10 out of the 12 competing teams having at least one current or former NBA
player. This was the highest number of current or former NBA players competing in the
Olympics since professional basketball players began competing in 1992. Last year,
there were 59 current or former NBA players who were on an Olympic roster during the
2012 Olympic Games, an increase from 30 percent to nearly 41 percent (NBA NewsLatest Headlines).
The rule changes that have been implemented by FIBA to more closely resemble
the NBA game have facilitated the influx of international players into the NBA, and it has
increased the NBAs participation and enthusiasm for international competition.
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Economic globalization refers to the increasing occurrence, speed, and intensity


or production of trading and financial exchange across national boundaries. Evidence of
economic globalization is seen in the production, exchange, distribution and consumption
of sport (Jarvis 2007, 97). Social media, the rapid increase of technology, and the
growing popularity of the NBA in China due to Chinese players Yao Ming and Yi
Jianlian have contributed significantly to the trading of finance and commodities of the
NBA throughout the world. The NBA sells its merchandise in over 50,000 retail
locations in China.1 There is even a replica store in Second Life, an online virtual
world where one can purchase virtual replicas of NBA products online (NBA News).
The 2011 NBA Finals between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat was shown in
215 countries, in 46 different languages. Additionally, nearly 9 million fans had access
to exclusive Finals content through Facebook, and 250 messages were sent from the
NBAs official twitter page to 2.6 million followers during the Finals(NBA News).
Adidas, a German manufacturing company, is the official outfitter of all 30 NBA
Franchises. They are also endorsed by Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, and
Derrick Rose, the NBAs 2011 Most Valuable Player.
Cultural globalization refers to the growth and exchange of cultural practices
between nations and people. The internet and commercial TV have made it so that
people are exchanging and consuming an almost identical product. ESPN, the single
largest medium with which to broadcast and consume sports, has made it possible for
people in different parts of the world to watch the same sporting event in the same way.

Author www.reuters.com Accessed 02/01/2013

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The rise of the 24 hour news cycle has eliminated the need for people to wait until the
following morning to see the results of a game from the previous night. Now these
results are immediately available. Internet streaming, satellite TV, YouTube and social
media outlets are all examples of how technology has made possible the instantaneous
product exchange between nations and people. The exportation of cultural products such
as Pepsi, Taco Bell and Gatorade further contribute to the exchange and influence of
American ideals, norms and values in the global community. Terms such as
McDonaldization, Coca-colonization and Disneyfication are proof of the United
States influence on the cultural practices of the global community. Images of America
are so globally pervasive.that it is almost as if instead of the world immigrating to
America, America has immigrated to the world, allowing people to aspire to be
Americans even in their distant countries. Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim
Campbell (Globalization 101, 2013).
Economic, cultural, and political globalizations fuel the three processes of
globalization that effectively shrink the world, and place more emphasis on a collective
community rather than nation-states, or more localized loyalties. Those three processes
are homogenization, hybridization, and pluralization.
Homogenization in the context of globalization refers to the spread of American
culture, particularly consumerism and materialism, has resulted in American values
holding influence in other societies. Critics of homogenization sometimes refer to this as
cultural imperialism. Economically speaking, homogenization occurs due to the rise and
spread of capitalism through modernization. Capitalism must grow and spread out in
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order to survive, and branch out to different markets (Amy, 2007). Examples of
capitalism growing and spreading to different societies include Amazonian Indians
wearing Nike training shoes, denizens of the Southern Sahara purchasing Texaco baseball
caps, and Palestinian youth proudly displaying their Chicago Bulls sweatshirts in
downtown Ramallah (Steger 2003, 69). From a political standpoint, the increasing
influence of international organizations on nation-states leads to many different nations
adopting similar practices and values throughout the world. From a sporting perspective,
an international sports organization can greatly influence the way every nation plays the
same sport. FIFA, the international governing body of world football, is the default set of
rules and regulations for how the sport of association football, or soccer is played
throughout the world. Every credible competition or professional soccer league of note,
in virtually every country that plays soccer, uses FIFA rules as their template. This makes
it possible for officials and players from different countries and walks of life to enforce,
and play under, the same rules and play basically the same game. FIBA, the international
governing body of basketball has a similar influence on how the basketball world
enforces its rules of play, but its rule changes were implemented to more closely mirror
the NBAs rules of play. As a result, it is the NBA, rather than FIBA that is the
organization that codifies and homogenizes the rules of play for the sport all over the
world. Perhaps the most significant aspect of homogenization from a cultural
globalization perspective is the use of language. Although the United States does not list
an official language, 97 percent of the U.S. population is fluent in English. The ability to

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speak English allows one to communicate and trade with the entire country of the United
States
Hybridization
Hybridization is the fusion and mixing of different aspects of multiple cultures to
create a culture that is superior to the sum of its parts. Hybridization is seen by many as
the opponent of homogenization, which is criticized as the predominance of one culture
at the expense of all the others. This is evidenced by comparing the number of
international players in the NBA today with to that of 20 years ago. In 1991, Dikembe
Mutombo, Luc Longley and Rick Fox were the only 3 players that were drafted in the
first round that were not born in the United States. Even those players played collegiate
basketball in the United States at major institutions. Additionally, the Chicago Bulls, the
1990-91 NBA Champions, did not have a single player born outside of the United States.
However, the demographic landscape with respect to international heritage was markedly
different in 2011. Nine players were selected in the first round of the NBA Draft,
including three of the first five players picked overall. The Dallas Mavericks, the 2011
NBA Champions, had five players born outside of the U.S., including Dirk Nowitzki, the
finals most valuable player. Between 1991 and 2000, there were nine lottery draft picks
born outside of the United States. Between 2001 and 2011, there have been 26 lottery
draft picks born outside of the United States. Out of the more than 450 players in the
NBA today, 186 of them, over 40 percent, were born outside of the United States,
significantly higher than the 28.4 percent of major league baseball players. This is the
very definition of cross-border employment, and this type of employment encourages the
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exchange of cultural traditions and practices from fundamental styles of play, to the
manner of dress, and the type of music listened to. Hybridity, as Marwan Kraidy (2005)
states, is cultural logic since it entails that traces of other cultures exist in every
culture, thus offering foreign media and marketers transcultural wedges for forging
effective links between their commodities and local communities. (2005, 148)
Even proponents of homogenization must always be aware that those cultural
practices that may have become dominant in the global community were the result of
hybridization and culture mixing, so it is impossible to look at globalization strictly from
that perspective without being affected by another:
[homogenization perspective] overlooks the countercurrents-the impact
nonwestern cultures have been making on the West. It downplays the
ambivalence of the globalizing momentum and ignores the role of local reception
of western culture-for example, the indigenization of western elements. It fails to
see the influence nonwestern cultures have been exercising on one another. It has
no room for crossover culture, as in the development of third cultures such as
music. It overrates the homogeneity of western culture and overlooks the fact that
many of the standards exported by the West and its cultural industries themselves
turn out to be of culturally mixed character if we examine their cultural lineages.
(Pieterse 2009, 75-76)
Hybridization also occurs from the rise of, and the interaction of, the creative
class. The creative class is a term coined by urban sociologist Richard Florida to describe
a socioeconomic class of forward thinking, knowledge based professionals that serve as
the heart and soul of economic development. In terms of the global community as a
whole, members of the creative class come from fields of engineering, the arts,
electronics, business and education. Examples of members of the creative class from the
world as a whole include Bill Gates, the late Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, Warren
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Buffett, Madonna, the late Michael Jackson, Mo Yan, and Michael Dell. In terms of the
basketball world, members of the creative class would include players, coaches and
general managers who serve as the driving force towards the growth of the NBA and
basketball throughout the world. Examples of the creative class in the NBA include
Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Jerry West, Pat Riley, Kevin Garnett, Dirk
Nowitzki, Bill Russell, Red Auerbach, Tim Duncan, Arvydas Sabonis, Kobe Bryant, the
late Drazen Petrovic, Vlade Divac Phil Jackson, Tex Winter and Charles Barkley. This is
hardly an exhaustive list of the creative class of the NBA; however these are some of the
most prominent members of a high level class of contributors that serve or have served as
the driving force towards the economic development of the NBA either as a player,
coach, or general manager. It involves more than simply mastering the game of
basketball, and playing at a hall of fame level. It involves making a contribution to the
sport that changes the very nature of it permanently, and causing it to grow as a result.
Hybridization and homogenization need not oppose each other when it comes to
discussing globalization. Hybridization, the combining of two desirable aspects of
different cultures, leads to the formation of new values and practices. These new
practices are spread throughout the world through economic, political and social means.
Homogenization simply refers to the time in which those new practices become
preeminent in a global community. Those homogenized practices continue to be
influenced and changed when they interact with different parts of the world, and are
reintroduced through continued communication and interaction within the global
community with new practices and customs accompanying them. It is a constant cycle of
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hybridization leading to homogenization, then further hybridization which restarts the


process and further refines the system of traditions, norms, values and practices that a
global community uses to interact with each other. This interaction across national
boundaries and the sharing of culture in a cycle is the essence of pluralization:
There is not people and no state which is not a part of another society, more or
less unlimited, which embraces all the peoples and all the States with which the
first comes in contact either directly or indirectly; there is no national life which is
not dominated by a collective life of an international nature (Durkheim 1915, 426)
Summary of Globalization Theory
Globalization has changed the way the world communicates with itself throughout
five main stages in history in three main ways: politically, economically, and culturally.
This has led to the formation of different sports as alternative forms of recreation and as a
way to express human achievement. It has led to the formation of groups and clubs that
organize sports and further deemphasize needless violence as a way for human beings to
entertain others. The formation of international governing bodies for these sports led to
the diffusion of sports and the ethos that govern them to different communities
throughout the world. This homogenization of Western culture enabled people from
different parts of the world to compete in a forum that was uniform with respect to
notions of fair play and honest competition. The emergence of non-Western countries in
sports and their influence challenged the homogeneity and dominance of Western
traditions and values, and saw the integration of non-Western ideas and practices into
sports, which further hybridized a previously homogenous environment.

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The globalization of sports effectively shrinks the world, lessening the impact and
reality of a hostile environment or a foreign crowd. In contrast, the climate of
collegiate sports romanticizes the idea of opposing nation-states and warring factions
through sports, which will be examined in further detail with Identity Theory. Opposing
nation states in this context would be rival colleges such as Ohio State versus Michigan,
The University of Texas versus Oklahoma University, and Duke versus the University of
North Carolina. Identity theory helps explain how collegiate sports, unlike professional
sports such as the NBA, oppose the process of hybridization, homogenization and
pluralization, and perpetuate feelings of hostility in order to nurture rivalries.
Identity Theory
Identity theory seeks to resolve the conflict that arises with regard to the choices a
person can make in any given set of interactions. It states that a persons sense of self,
interactions with people, and how they behave in a given set of situations are all dictated
by their membership, or perceived membership, in certain social groups. Social roles can
be ambiguous and, as a result, can make role performance problematic. The main issues
that identity theory seeks to address are:
Behavioral consistency and inconsistency as a person moves from
situation to situation.
Greater or lesser resistance to change as they respond to changes in the
structure of their interpersonal relations.
Explanation of alternatives selected when persons are faced with
conflicting role expectations.
Allocation of scarce resources for interpersonal interactions.

(Ickes and Knowles 1982, 205-206)


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Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

Identity theory addresses these issues collectively through three main concepts:
Identity, Salience and Commitment. The first, Identity itself; it asks the question, who
am I? Each person has roughly as many identities as the number of relationships or
social interactions that they have. For example, a person can be a sibling, spouse, doctor,
friend or hiker. Each of these roles makes up the self. The second major concept of
Identity theory that addresses the four main issues is Salience. Identity Salience is the
way that each of a persons identities can be organized hierarchically. Hierarchy is
determined by the chances of each identity being brought into play, as well as the chances
of each identity being used in a variety of situations. Salience is a product of prior
interactions, each of which has an independent effect on behavior in those situations. It
also depends on the defining characteristics of the situation, which determines the
appropriateness of any given role in the hierarchy to be invoked and internalized
characteristics such as self-esteem and expectation (Ickes and Knowles 1982, 205-206)
Commitment is the degree to which a persons relationship to specified sets of others
depends on their being a particular kind of person:
By this usage, a man, is committed to the role of husband in the degree
that the number of persons and the importance to him of those persons
requires his being in the position of husband and playing that role.
Similarly, a woman is committed to her position and role as physician in
the degree that she has important social relationships premised on her
being a physicianIt provides a useful way of conceiving societys
relevance for social behavior. (Ickes and Knowles 1982, 207)
It may be easier to think of Identity theory in terms of a totem pole. The higher a
given identity is on a persons totem pole, the greater the likelihood that this identity will
be invoked in a given social situation. The totem pole need not be fixed, since roles can
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go up and down depending on the social interaction or relationship. Another component


of identity theory that affects role performance is membership into social groups, and the
expectations that both society and the individual have for people based on membership of
a group. Social groups can include gender, race, age, nationality, profession, education
level, political affiliation and religion.
A persons sense of self can be enhanced by membership of socially honored
groups. Males, doctors, and college graduates are examples of socially honored groups.
Membership in socially stigmatized groups diminishes ones sense of self. Socially
stigmatized groups can include females, Muslims, high school dropouts, and minimum
wage laborers. The determinants of what constitutes a socially honored group and what
constitutes a socially stigmatized group are status beliefs. These are culturally held
beliefs that people assume are prevalent in a given society and associate greater prestige,
influence and expectation of performance in one group than they do in another group.
(Ridgeway 2006, 301) For example, in mainstream American culture, being Caucasian,
male, a college graduate and identifying as a Christian yields more prestige, influence
and expectation in United States society than being a person of color, female, a high
school dropout and identifying with a religion other than Christianity. Status beliefs are
created and spread on a micro level. During each interpersonal interaction, a person will
make a series of judgments and evaluations about that person, and associate a certain
amount of esteem to whatever group that person is perceived to be a member of based on
that persons performance or behavior in a given interpersonal interaction.

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These evaluations later become expectations of performance of future perceived


members of a social group that they may interact with in the future (Ridgeway 2006,
301). For example, a person who gets mugged by an African American male may
develop expectations of negative performance by any other African American he
encounters in the future. Tension, animosity and feelings of inadequacy can arise in
perceived members of stigmatized groups when they interact with perceived members of
socially honored groups. Perceived members of socially honored groups can be
dismissive, patronizing, and more skeptical of perceived members of socially stigmatized
groups. Performance can be enhanced or diminished based on group membership.
Socially honored members are expected to excel by themselves and socially stigmatized
members are expected by society and themselves to struggle and fail. Performance will
usually conform to preconceived expectations of self.
Identity Theory and NCAA sports
In collegiate sports, the traditions passed down to generations of college students
and student athletes are done so according to how those college students identify
themselves. Many schools define their college experience in terms of their opposition to,
and hostility towards, a traditional rival. Over time these rifts are deepened and
reinforced through competitions such as the Red River Shootout featuring Texas and OU,
which has taken place since 1900, the Backyard Brawl featuring Pittsburgh and West
Virginia, which has taken place since 1895, the Border War (Kansas vs. Missouri) which
took place from 1891 to 2012, and The Battle of Tobacco Road (Duke vs. North
Carolina) which has taken place since 1920.
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The rivalry between Kansas University and the University of Missouri is arguably
the most vitriolic in college sports. Its history traces back to before the Civil War, when
the state of Missouri tried to influence whether Kansas would be annexed as a free state
or a slave state. This led to citizens of both states leading raids into the other state,
burning several towns and murdering innocent people. The name Jayhawk comes from
the term Jayhawker, referring to Kansas-born guerilla fighters who championed the freestate cause (Mens College Basketball Nation Blog). It is extremely unlikely that current
students of the University of Missouri and Kansas University are aware of the historical
significance of their rivalry, but the animosity and vitriol is passed down to and from
legacy students, and new students are indoctrinated with it. This is an example of how
previous interactions on a micro level are constantly ratified over time by repeated
interactions, creating status beliefs about the two opposing sides, thereby shaping each
others expectation of how their adversary will behave or perform in a given set of
situations. Another example of status construction borne out of social interaction on the
micro level is the Duke-North Carolina rivalry. This is a rivalry largely borne out of the
contrasting makeup of the two schools. North Carolina is a public school that largely
resembles and represents the middle majority of the state. Duke is a private school that
largely resembles and represents elitism, a sense of privilege and selectivity. The genesis
of, and the method in which these contrasting norms and values are passed along through
major universities are the main reason why home court advantage is so apparent in
college sports. Identity is a crucial element in collegiate sports. An athlete largely defines
his or herself by their membership to a specific school. The status that they either enjoy
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or are forced to endure is shaped by their traditional rivalries with member schools of a
particular conference, and the status hierarchies that are created through repeated
interactions on a micro level. In athletics, these micro level interactions are the games
that these schools play against each other. Contests such as the Red River Rivalry
between the University of Texas and Oklahoma, or the rivalry between Duke and North
Carolina have a lot at stake in terms of status. Victory in that game yields bragging rights
for a year, bolsters school pride and, in the cases of the two previously mentioned
contests, can heavily influence who will contend for a national championship later in the
year. Professional sports, however, are a different story.
Although, similar to college sports, there are rivalries among professional sports
teams that are created, the nature of professional sports makes it difficult to adopt the
same feelings of solidarity among teammates and fans of the team that an athlete in
college feels about his teammates and fellow classmates. Many students go to a certain
college because they grew up wanting to go to that college. They were either raised with
multiple family members who attended that college or they grew up in close proximity to
that college. Even when a person graduates from college, he or she often feels a lifelong
connection in some way with his or her alma mater. For example a University of
Southern California alumnus will still consider him or herself a Trojan, even decades
after graduation. Similarly, a University of Texas graduate will still have animosity
towards the University of Oklahoma.
In professional sports, however, this is not necessarily the case. The allegiance a
player has for a team is far more tenuous. Most players dont grow up in the same
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community or city that drafted them. In the era of free agency, it is extremely unlikely
that a player will finish his career with the same team that drafted him. Michael Jordan
didnt finish his career with the Bulls, Brett Favre did not finish his career with the
Packers, and Kevin Garnett did not finish his career with the Timberwolves. It isnt
uncommon for a player to play for three or more different franchises in his career. Jason
Kidd grew up in California, was drafted by the Dallas Mavericks, and then went on to
play for the Phoenix Suns and New Jersey Nets, returned to the Mavericks via trade, won
a championship with the Mavericks, and eventually left for New York in free agency.
Gary Payton, who also grew up in California, played for the Seattle Supersonics,
Milwaukee Bucks, LA Lakers, Boston Celtics and Miami Heat. Shaquille ONeal played
for the Orlando Magic, LA Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and
Boston Celtics. When a player changes teams this many times, it eliminates the
possibility to have the same enduring and transcendent hostility for an archrival that a
collegiate athlete would have. This doesnt mean that there arent rivalries in professional
sports; it just means that they are comparatively superficial. The intensity of a MavericksSpurs game, or a Lakers-Suns game comes mainly from the fact that those teams are in
the same division and that the outcomes of those games have major playoff implications.
The fact is that globalization, the exchange of ideas, culture, and economic commodities
more heavily influences professional athletics than collegiate athletics. In the context of
sports, the exchange of ideas and culture are the many offensive and defensive strategies
and philosophies that flow from coach to player, and vice versa, as they frequently
change teams. The players themselves are the economic commodities.
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Much like access to information and technology replaced simple goods and the
means to production as the source of economic power, the player has replaced the head
coach as the source of a teams economic might due to the advent of free agency. Red
Auerbach was able to wield an enormous amount of power as coach of the Celtics,
largely because players didnt have the ability to switch teams at the end of a contract
based on who was most willing to pay for their services. The team, and by extension, the
coach, determined whether a certain player will play, and for how long. Coupled with the
comparatively meager wages players made during Auerbachs era, it is not difficult to see
how little influence a professional player had. Today, however, the average player
commands a seven-figure annual salary, often exceeding the salary of the coach itself.
Star players in particular are the ones who are used by the team, and the NBA, to market
the game and its image rather than the coach. If a coach finds him or herself in a dispute
with a star player, it is more likely that the coach will be replaced than the player. This is
because that star player commands a salary that usually dwarfs that of the head coach, is
often the centerpiece of a teams economic strategy, and can use the threat of leaving the
team for another of his choosing as leverage. Free Agency is the change in economic
power from a globalization perspective that is seen in professional basketball but not
collegiately. The structure of college is centered around identity, role performance based
on social interaction, which is defined as athletic completion in this context, and the
interactional status hierarchies that are constructed through repeated interactions over a
length of time. Because college basketball is more subject to identity theory, and

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professional basketball is more subject to globalization, home court advantage will have a
greater effect in college basketball, than NBA basketball.

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CHAPTER 3
SUMMARY AND HYPOTHESIS

In summary, globalization is the process by which interconnectivity between


different societies is enhanced through political, economic and cultural means, thereby
making the world appear smaller and more accessible. Technology is the driving force
behind globalization, and the pace by which technology and innovation advance directly
affects the pace and magnitude of globalization. Identity theory addresses issues that a
person has with themselves with regards to self, interactions with other people and their
reactions to a given set of social events or situations. The way people view themselves
and the way they behave and react in society is largely determined by how much status or
stigma is attached to each social group they are a part of. The NBA is a global enterprise
and therefore is more subject to the effects of globalization theory. NCAA basketball is
an entity whose members largely define themselves in terms of which University they
attend, and their opposition to traditional rivals. Therefore, NCAA basketball will be
more subject to identity theory than globalization theory.
Hypotheses
Based on the review of the literature, this is my hypothesis:
H1. Home court advantage will be greater in NCAA Division 1 Mens Basketball than it
will be in the NBA due to the fact that Identity Theory more heavily influences home
court advantage than Globalization, and Identity Theory has a greater effect on NCAA
basketball than on NBA basketball.
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H2. Expectation of role performance, which is created through social interaction on a


micro level, will cause collegiate basketball players to perform at a higher level at home
games due to the elevated status and prestige that they feel while interacting with a
favorable crowd. Conversely, they will see their performance decline noticeably during
road games, due to the deflated amount of prestige and increasing level of stigma they
will feel as part of a socially dishonored group while interacting socially, or competing
athletically, in a forum with people whose identity is largely constructed through the
prism of animosity and opposition to them.
H3. NBA Players will still perform better at home than on the road, but their performance
will not be as volatile as collegiate players. The NBA, more than the NCAA, is subject to
globalization, a phenomenon that effectively shrinks the world by increasing
interconnectivity, exchange of technological and economic commodities, and changes the
structure and distribution of power by redefining what constitutes the means of power.
The identity of an NBA player in terms of team membership is not nearly as salient to
them as the identity of an NCAA player in terms of school attendance. As a result,
Identity is not as large a determinant of role expectation and performance. Therefore, the
prestige and stigma that come from team membership are not nearly as influential on the
professional level.

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CHAPTER 4
METHODS
In order to determine the effect of home court advantage I compared the
percentage of home games won by NBA teams to that of NCAA teams. This was done by
determining how many total home games teams played and calculating the ratio of wins
that occurred at home
Sample Selection
The teams included in the NBA were the teams that qualified for the playoffs
during the 1997-98, 99-00,00-01, 08-09,09-10, and 10-11 seasons
The teams included in the NCAA were the teams that belonged to the three highest rated
conferences, according to Basketball-reference.com, in each of the same seasons that
were used to evaluate the win ratios of the NBA playoff teams.
Calculation of win ratios
Using data from Basketball-reference.com, I tallied the total number of home games won
in each of the three highest rated NCAA conferences against the total number of
conference games played, and created a composite home win percentage. Then I
calculated the total number of games won by the home team in the NBA playoffs of the
same year against the total number of NBA playoff games played that year, created a
composite home win percentage for that year, and compared it to the NCAA.

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Background and reasoning behind selection of teams, format and type of season
The NBAs regular season schedule is extremely strenuous and irregular. There
are 82 games in a regular season, played over a period of less than six months. Teams can
play one game on one coast of the country and be on the other coast within 24 hours.
They can play twice a week, or 4 times in 5 days in any given week. Due to the
irregularity and strenuousness of the NBA schedule, a teams performance can be unduly
influenced by player injury or fatigue that results from insufficient recovery time. To
better control for average rest I used the NBA playoff schedule and results. The NBA
playoff schedule is superior to that of the regular season because it controls for rest, and
the consistency of the format reduces the influence of injury or fatigue that comes from
irregular or insufficient recovery time.
During the playoffs, there is always at least one day between games, with an
additional day during the first venue change. Unlike the regular season, there are no road
trips. Teams do not go from one city to the next, or switch time zones multiple times
during the week. In the first three rounds of the playoffs games are organized in a 2-2-11-1 format. This means that the first two games are at the higher seeded teams venue,
followed by the next two games at the lower seeded teams venue, and then it alternates
between the two venues over the three remaining games. The NBA Finals are slightly
different, as games are organized in a 2-3-2 format, playing the first two games at the
venue of the team with the better regular season record, followed by three games at the
venue of the team with the lesser regular season record and the final two games at the
venue of the team with the better regular season record. At first, the NBA Finals format
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may appear to give the team with the lesser record an unfair advantage: after all, if they
can steal one of the first two games, then they would presumably be able to win the
championship by simply defending their home court. However, when one considers the
fact that the NBA Finals matchup consists of two teams from different sides of the
country, it is apparent that this format is necessary in order to reduce the effect of fatigue
that may result from traveling back and forth between multiple time zones. Additionally,
since 1985, only one home team has managed to win the middle three games in the Finals
in the 2-3-2 format. In short, the playoff format is superior to the regular season format
because it eliminates the undue influence that injuries and fatigue have in the regular
season due to insufficient rest and the demand of travelling over multiple time zones in a
short time frame.
In addition to having a superior scheduling format, the effect of home court
advantage is higher during the postseason, when the stakes are even higher than in the
regular season and fans will be more able to attend games, since playoff games are often
scheduled either at night, on the weekend, or both. For the NCAA, I used the regular
season conference schedule of the three highest rated NCAA member conferences and
compared them to the NBA. This allowed me to compare the college game to the
professional game without giving undue influence to the disparity in talent that I would
have encountered by using too many NCAA teams. Also, the NCAA regular season
schedule is more similar to the NBA playoffs in terms of scheduling and format, due to
the fact that the athletes have academic commitments during the week that they must
theoretically honor. Games are scheduled at night on the weekdays, and occasionally
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during the day but only during the weekend. I restricted the examination of the NCAA
schedule to the conference regular season because many teams like to use the nonconference schedule to play teams that are vastly inferior. As a result, the non-conference
schedule is basically a preseason for many teams. Additionally, conference rivals are
usually in much closer proximity to each other and play each other more. Therefore,
home court advantage will be at its highest during the conference regular season
schedule. Using the NCAA conference tournament schedules or the NCAA tournament
schedule would have been too problematic. It would not have allowed me to make any
meaningful comparisons because of the drastically different formats ( NCAA postseason
tournaments are single elimination while the NBA postseason is best of 7) and due to the
fact that NCAA postseason games are played at neutral sites, making it too complicated
to try and calculate who has greater home court advantage.
For these purposes, I used the 2010-2011 NBA postseason and compared it to the regular
season conference schedules of the three highest rated NCAA member conferences.
According to basketball-reference.com, the three highest rated member conferences are
the Big 10, the Big East and the Big 12.

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CHAPTER 5
RESULTS

In the 2010-2011 season, the Big 10 conference won 67.6% of its home games,
the Big East won 59.72% of its home games and the Big 12 won 69.7% of its home
games. On average, they won 64.89% of their home games. During the 2010-2011 NBA
postseason, home teams won 66.6% of their games. There was a +4.17 average point
differential for home teams in the Big 10 versus +3.53 for the Big East, +5.7 for the Big
12 and +3.64 for the NBA. This went directly against what I believed the data would
yield based on my hypothesis. As I was trying to determine why player performance
would yield those results, I realized had ignored something that has had a major effect in
clouding the measurements for player performance: conference realignment. Conference
realignment occurs in NCAA basketball, and is a recent phenomenon that involves
universities leaving a conference that they have been a part of for several years in favor
of a new conference. This is often done with opportunity for financial gain in mind and
often without regard to whether the move makes geographical sense. For example, in the
2000-2001 NCAA regular season, the Big East featured:
Boston College
Providence
St. Johns
Miami
Villanova
Connecticut
Virginia Tech
Notre Dame
Georgetown
Syracuse
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West Virginia
Pittsburgh
Seton Hall
Rutgers
By the 2010-2011 season, Boston College, Miami, Virginia Tech and West
Virginia had left the Big East, and were replaced by six new universities: Louisville,
Cincinnati, Marquette, South Florida and DePaul. Over one-third of the conference has
changed in the last ten years, thereby changing the entire dynamic of the conference by
eliminating many traditional rivalries in favor of new ones. In order to determine what, if
any effect, conference realignment may have had on home court advantage in the NCAA
compared to the NBA, we should compare recent home court performance of the past
three years to a three year period of the previous decade. I will use data from the 20082009 season, the 2009-2010 season, and the 2010-2011 season, and compare that three
year period to data from the 1997-1998 season, 1999-2000 season, and the 2000-2001
season(1998-1999 was a lockout shortened season for the NBA so I decided not to use it).
I will use the three highest rated NCAA conferences of each year, according to
basketball-reference.com, and compare their individual and collective home court
winning percentage to that of the NBA.

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Table 1: NBA/NCAA Win Percentages


Year

NCAA

Home Wins/
Total Games
155/256

NBA

47/71

NCAA

167/256

65%

NBA

54/75

72%

NCAA

161/256

62.89%

NBA

41/71

57.74%

NCAA

483/768

62.89%

NBA

142/217

65.43%

NCAA

204/330

61.81%

NBA

57/85

67.05%

NCAA

214/336

63.69%

NBA

55/82

67.07%

NCAA

210/339

61.94%

NBA

54/81

66.67%

NCAA

628/1005

63.48%

NBA

166/248

66.93%

Conference

Home
Winning %
60.50%

1997-1998
66.10%

1999-2000

2000-2001

3 Season
Period Totals

2008-2009

2009-2010

2010-2011

3 Season
Period Totals

The overall home game winning percentage of NCAA teams has mostly remained the
same over the past ten years, at around 63%. NBA home winning percentage has also
mainly stayed the same, at around 66 percent over the past 10 years. Conference

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realignment can be confidently ruled out as a factor in effecting winning percentages of


NCAA teams. My hypothesis must also be reassessed based on new data:
H1. Home court advantage will be greater in NCAA Division 1 Mens Basketball than it
will be in the NBA.
There is no significant difference between home court advantage in NCAA Division 1
Mens Basketball and the NBA. If anything, there is a slightly greater home court
advantage in the NBA than in NCAA Division 1 Basketball.
H2. Expectation of role performance, which is created through social interaction on a
micro level, will cause collegiate basketball players to perform at a higher level at home
games due to the elevated status and prestige that they feel while interacting with a
favorable crowd. Conversely, they will see their performance decline noticeably during
road games, due to the deflated amount of prestige and increasing level of stigma they
will feel as part of a socially dishonored group while interacting socially, or competing
athletically, in a forum with people whose identity is largely constructed through the
prism of animosity and opposition to them.
Expectation of role performance does in play a part in NCAA basketball player
performance, but not more than in the NBA. In fact, the biggest lesson to take away from
this may be just how salient an NBA players identity as a professional athlete is.
H3. NBA Players will still perform better at home than on the road, but their performance
will not be as volatile as collegiate players. The NBA is more subject to globalization, a
phenomenon that effectively shrinks the world by increasing interconnectivity, exchange
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Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

of technological and economic commodities, and changes the structure and distribution of
power by redefining what constitutes the means of power. The identity of an NBA player
in terms of team membership is not nearly as salient to them as the identity of an NCAA
player in terms of school attendance. As a result, Identity is not as large a determinant of
role expectation and performance. Therefore, the prestige and stigma that come from
team membership are not nearly as influential on the professional level.
Globalization and Identity theory play a significant role in both the NCAA and the NBA.
Globalization appears more apparent in the NBA because of their business practices,
global reach and international appeal. Identity theory is easier to attribute to collegiate
basketball because we tend to identify collegiate athletes more closely to their schools
than we associate professional athletes to their teams. Collegiate athletes also define
themselves more in terms of their association with their school and in opposition to their
rivals than professional athletes. However, this does not mean that globalization does not
influence college basketball, or that identity theory does not influence professional
basketball.

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CHAPTER 6
DISCUSSION, IMPLICATIONS AND LIMITATIONS

Identity theory seeks to answer why we behave or perform a certain way in any
given social interaction by answering the questions of self (who am I?), the hierarchy
of a persons roles, when these roles will be invoked in a certain social interaction and
commitment, which is the degree to which a persons relationship to specified sets of
others depends on their being a particular kind of person. Membership into a particular
social group also determines how we perform in social interactions depending on the
amount of stigma or status we ascribe to those roles. A person who is a member of high
status social groups such as a Male, Lawyer, Doctor, or Caucasian confers a high degree
of expectation upon themselves due to their status. As a society, we will do the same. A
person who is a member of low status groups or stigmatized groups, such as a person of
color, female, high school dropout or someone who is unemployed, will have a low
expectation of themselves in a social interaction due to their lack of status and society
will do the same. Continued interaction among people of varying status groups tend to
ratify and confirm these expectations of performance, and interactional status beliefs and
hierarchies are further solidified and delineated.
Identity theory is crucial to the explanation of home court advantage success in
the NBA. A professional athlete is perhaps the most prestigious, all-consuming and high
status role in our society. The fact that it takes a lifetime of extraordinary dedication and
sacrifice in order to become a professional basketball player makes it a highly salient
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Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

identity in any identity hierarchy. This is because the amount of work it takes to become
a professional basketball player usually requires the forgoing of other identities.
According to sports researcher John Lather, the average professional athlete must train
for 10,000 cumulative hours over an 8 year span in order to reach an elite level. (Biasiotto
2010) For these players, the roles of being a spouse, parent, sibling, student or friend is
either put off or is weakened because of the amount of time working toward and
maintaining the status of professional basketball player requires. The difficulty in
maintaining other roles besides that of a professional athlete can be seen by the fact that
60 to 80% of professional athletes marriages end in divorce, compared to 50% in the rest
of society. (Torre 2009) Commitment, the degree to which a persons relationships are
dependent on a person having a particular role, is extraordinarily high among athletes.
Their ability to generate income and fulfill their roles as caregiver, job provider, spouse
and parent rests solely on their status as a professional basketball player. It is no
coincidence that the majority of athletes divorces happen after an athlete retires, or that
an athlete goes broke within 5 years of retirement. (Torre 2009)
It is not only because of how highly salient a professional athletes role is relative
to other roles, but also because the degree to which a professional athlete can fulfill their
other roles are almost entirely dependent on their status as professional basketball player.
Professional basketball players, particularly NBA players, perform well at home not
primarily because of their closeness to the franchise that employs them, but because their
identity as a professional basketball player incentivizes high performance. Being an NBA
player has a high amount of status and prestige, the amount of time it takes to become an
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NBA player is extraordinary, and the ability of an NBA player to fulfill other roles such
as a spouse, parent or caregiver depends on their status as an NBA player. Therefore it is
in their best interests to perform well at home, where expectations are highest, because
their entire identities rest on their performance.
Globalization, the increasing interconnectedness and interdependence that each
society has on each other, has a profound and previously underestimated effect on
collegiate athletics. Globalization is typically defined economically, politically and
culturally, with technology being the main drive behind it.
Economically, globalization involves transforming what constitutes a commodity,
or good as a source of power. In the real world, this involves the shift from simple goods
such as cattle or crops to complex goods such as information technology and the access
to such technology. In NCAA basketball, the individual player wields a greater degree of
agency and control today than they would have a generation ago. 30 years ago, the idea
of a player forgoing their senior season was scandalous, worthy of breaking news. The
concept of leaving after a year was unheard of. It was expected that a player fulfill his
commitment to a university by exhausting his eligibility before going to the pros. To do
otherwise was seen as a betrayal of the loyalty that the school had shown the player by
recruiting him. Today, it is highly unusual for any highly regarded NBA prospect to stay
in school for more than two years. Any player that is even projected to be a 1st round
draft pick usually declares for the NBA draft after their freshman season. Another way in
which the individual player is increasingly becoming the economic source of power is the
way they are being recruited. College recruiting has given high school athletes an
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Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

unprecedented level of exposure. Highly regarded prospects are actively coveted and
fought over by rival coaches in a way that wasnt even possible a generation ago.
National signing day is an unofficial holiday among NCAA sports fans, where highly
coveted athletes are given a national forum with which to announce which school they
have selected to attend with great fanfare and adulation. This is markedly different than
the days where a student quietly announced through the local newspaper which school
they had decided to attend.
From a political standpoint, conference realignment has changed the power
structure in college athletics. The Big East, for example, has experienced turnover of
fully one-third of its members in the last decade. The six major NCAA conferences, Pac12, Big 12, Big 10, ACC, SEC, and Big East have all had one or more teams switch
conferences, with little to no regard for whether or not the conferences that they were
moving to made geographic sense. San Diego State, for example, was set to join the Big
East despite being located on the opposite side of the country until the announcement of
the upcoming defection of the Big Easts seven Catholic institutions (DePaul,
Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, Seton Hall, St. Johns and Villanova) threatened the
viability of the Big East as a major conference. The increased desire of schools to change
conferences is the result of universities wanting to pursue more financially beneficial TV
deals that would grant them a higher degree of exposure and increased revenue stream. A
major reason why Texas A&M and the University of Missouri left the Big 12 conference
in favor of the SEC was because of the perceived lack of equity in the TV contract that
the University of Texas enjoyed with ESPN. The same can also be said for the defection
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Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

of the University of Colorado to the Pac-12 and the University of Nebraska to the Big 10.
The recent practice of universities changing conferences has been done at the expense of
major rivalries that have come to define both the universities, and collegiate athletics
itself. Texas A&M and the University of Texas boasted one of the most contentious
rivalries in sports. Kansas and Missouris rivalry is the oldest in collegiate athletics and
dates back to the Civil War. Conference realignment has effectively halted rivalries such
as these. The result that conference realignment has had on conferences is that it has
given more power to the member universities, notably the athletic directors, at the
expense of conference commissioners. The athletic director of a university can use the
threat of defection to another conference as leverage in order to negotiate more equitable
financial status for his or her university. Conversely, the job security of a conference
commissioner is directly at risk if his or her conference is in danger, so it is in their
interest to dissuade member universities from leaving through more enticing marketing,
television or merchandising deals.
Culturally speaking, the NCAA has become more homogenized through the
increasing prevalence of High School All Star invitation tournaments, AAU basketball
and specialized prep institutions such as Oak Hill Academy. In the past, many college
athletes wouldnt see or hear about a rival player at another university until the first time
the two schools played each other. Today, because of teams travelling all over the
country to play one another, highly regarded recruits showcasing their talents in the
Jordan Brand Classic or McDonalds All-American game and the increased media
exposure of top level recruits, it is likely that many student-athletes of rival schools have
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Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

spent years playing with or against each other. The result of this is the exchange of ideas
and philosophies regarding their approach to basketball, training and conditioning. It also
makes away games less foreign to them, if they are already familiar with many of their
opponents through years of previous competition.
Technology has been the driving force behind globalization. This can be
witnessed from all three perspectives. Social media, the 24 hour sports cycle and the
internet has allowed information about recruits and prospective players to be transmitted
at an unprecedented level of speed. This has facilitated giving players more visibility and
thus greater agency and economic leverage. Politically, media has become more wide
reaching and diverse through the advancement of technology. Whoever controls the
media today wields an extraordinary amount of political and financial influence, which
directly influences the profitability of a university. Because of this we are seeing an
increasing amount of universities disregard the sentimentality of tradition in favor of the
potential financial windfall of television and marketing contracts. Culturally, social media
and the internet has made it possible for recruits around the country and even the world to
familiarize themselves with each other both socially and in athletic competition,
sometimes several years before they ever oppose one another in a basketball arena.
Witnessing the influence of Identity theory on home court advantage is perhaps
more readily apparent in the NCAA, and the same can be said for the influence of
globalization on home court advantage in the NBA. What this research has shown,
however, is that not only does identity theory influence NBA home court advantage, and
globalization influence NCAA basketball, but their influence is so great that it cannot be
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Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

said that home court advantage in the NCAA is any more pronounced than home court
advantage in the NBA. Globalization is perhaps the single most defining characteristic of
the NBA, and the increasingly singular community of the world does lessen the influence
of home court advantage. However, the identity, salience, status and commitment to the
role of an NBA player is so elevated that an NBA player has every incentive to want to
perform well at home. Identity influences home court advantage of an NBA player, not
necessarily because of their sense of identification with a particular franchise but because
of their status as a professional athlete. Identity theory influences a collegiate players
performance due to the salience of a student athletes identity and the level of status it
brings. However, globalization has also changed the power structure and landscape of
collegiate athletics, giving players a greater sense of agency, universities an elevated
sense of influence, and facilitating the increased interaction between rival players around
the country. This has resulted in a more singular community in collegiate athletics, which
lessens the feeling of being in a foreign environment during away games.
There are some considerable limitations to my research of this topic. First of all, it
is difficult to really measure Identity Theory without getting interviewing the athletes
themselves and getting empirical data from them. Without interviewing them and
allowing them to tell us what roles they consider to be the most salient in their lives, or
the lens in which they view themselves in social interaction, much of the evaluation of
their role performance is theoretical and speculative. Additionally, there are more ways to
measure a teams performance than strictly wins and losses at home. Point differential,
number of turnovers, Field Goal percentage and Free Throw percentage are all reliable
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Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

measures of a teams performance. Comparing those statistics at home vs. on the road
would provide an additional perspective on how a team performs at home vs. on the road.
Using strictly win/loss percentage assumes that because a team didnt win, they didnt
perform well. It is possible for an inferior team to lose at home while still elevating their
game beyond their average performance, and using additional statistics such as Field
Goal percentage would allow a person to see that more readily than strictly using win/loss
records. Territoriality is another potential component that could further explain the
significance or magnitude of home court advantage. Players feel a sense of ownership
and pride in defending their home arena. Perhaps social control and the way it increases
in power and presence with increasing proximity to a central community could be
combined with more sophisticated statistical measures of player performance and a more
expansive look at the influence of Identity Theory and Globalization on NCAA and NBA
basketball.

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Texas Tech University, Jeffrey Ajufo, August 2013

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