| Since the advent of intercollegiate athletics competition in 1852, college campuses have experienced a first-hand account of the rise of one of the most popular bastions for sport entertainment in today's society with college athletics (Smith, 1988; Sperber, 2000). This tremendous growth is often associated with enhancing the community on campus and creating a common bond among students (Boyer, 1987; Toma, 2003), while critics point to its ability to divide students and diminish a campus' sense of community (Boyer, 1990; Cheng, 2004). The salience of this issue filiates with the ongoing pursuit for campus community in higher education today (McDonald et al., 2002; Spitzberg & Thorndike, 1992). This research effort examined the level to which students identified as fans, thus, connecting with their school's sports program, and the amount of community on campus that they perceived to exist. Surveys were completed online by undergraduate students from four institutions (N = 1790). A multiple hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to explore the relationship between fan identification and sense of community. Results indicated a significant relationship between the extent to which one connects with intercollegiate athletics on campus and their resulting perceived sense of community (R 2Delta=0.07, p<.001). More specifically, the higher each respondent identified as a fan and connected with their school's athletics program, the higher the sense of community level they tended to perceive (beta=0.33). Further, this relationship was not moderated by gender, institution, or regional differences. However, the impact that fan identification enacted upon sense of community was significantly greater in the schools commonly referred to as "football schools" (beta=0.38) as opposed to those institutions with a "basketball school" orientation (beta=0.29). Additionally, fan identification also significantly predicted the reported levels of academic and social integration (R2Delta=0.01, p<.001), where those respondents connecting as fans were more likely to be integrated into the campus community at higher levels than non-fans (beta=0.08). This finding echoed the findings of previous research (Wann & Robinson, 2002). Other noteworthy findings included significant mean differences in institutions, with the two Southern schools reporting higher levels of fan identification, perceived sense of community, and academic and social integration. |
