%0 Journal Article
%T Does the NCAA¡¯s Collegiate Model Promote Competitive Balance? Power
%A E. Woodrow Eckard
%J Journal of Sports Economics
%@ 1552-7794
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1527002518798687
%X The disparity between athlete compensation and major sports revenues has produced criticisms of The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)¡¯s Collegiate Model of athletic competition. In defense, the NCAA argues that it promotes competitive balance. One implication is that moving toward a professional model would reduce balance. The present article tests this hypothesis by comparing competitive balance in Power-5 conference football to that for the professional National Football League (NFL) using a variety of balance metrics. The results provide no support for the NCAA¡¯s implicit hypothesis of less balance in the NFL, undermining competitive balance as a legitimate defense of the NCAA¡¯s Collegiate Model
%K NCAA
%K competitive balance
%K college football
%K NFL
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1527002518798687