Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Post Title-Ix Analysis Of American Sports Culture: The Women Aren’T Done Yet, Bridget Schauder

Honors Theses

This thesis seeks to examine the disparities women continue to face in the realm of athletics since the enactment of Title IX in 1972. This research is important because throughout history women have been left behind in society compared to men and athletics is just another social space where that occurs. Additionally, sports are so important to American culture, yet women still struggle to gain the respect and recognition they deserve. Feminist theory suggests that sports are gendered activities because the knowledge is grounded in the values and experiences of men. This thesis uses interview and survey analysis to understand …

Ada Enhancements & Requirements Union College & Richard Bernstein, Scott Felix

2019 Diversity and Inclusion Certification Course

The American Disabilities Act became law in 1990 under George Bush. It is a civil rights law that protect individuals with disabilities in all areas of life. It is similar to the protection of individual on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age or religion. In reference to construction of spaces it plays a major role in planning for the accessibility of a space for projects on commercial or private business based on size of a company or organization. But in general it is looking out for a group that is not able to look out for themselves …

An Economic Analysis Of The Rise In Franchise Values In The Four Major North American Sports Leagues From 2008-2016, Anthony Alan Desantis

Honors Theses

North American professional sports franchise values have been growing rapidly over the last 10 years, leading some to wonder how this rise might mirror previous economic booms such as those of the internet and housing sectors, and thus impact the future of the sport industry. To investigate this phenomenon, financial and other team-specific data was acquired from Forbes, while metropolitan area statistics were mostly gathered from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census. The results of this study showed that revenue, metropolitan area population and GDP, multiple teams in the same metro area and the same league, and …

Does Player Performance Outside Of Major League Baseball Translate To The Mlb?, Ian Vogt

Honors Theses

Statistical analysis has transformed the way front offices across Major League Baseball manage the rosters of their teams. However, much of this statistical analysis is limited to evaluating players playing in the American major league environment. Little has been done in the way of using statistical analysis to evaluate how performance translates from league-to-league, and the market for international and college players remains highly inefficient, despite expansion of these player pools. My study is an attempt to make this market a more efficient one.

I measure the correlation between performance in two top international baseball leagues (Nippon Professional Baseball and …

Women: Indisputable Fans Of Baseball: An Ethnographic Study Of Female Baseball Fans, Shea Barickman

Honors Theses

Baseball is known as America’s Pastime and has been a strong symbol of masculinity in American culture. The ratio of female to male fans, however, is actually the most equal of any major professional sport in the United States. This thesis examines that paradox. Drawing on participant observations at games, interviews with fans and an ethnographic study of a sports radio station in Kansas City, I find that the increasing participation of female fans is a result of baseball being experienced and marketed as a family-oriented game. This family experience gave women a point of entry and women have stuck …

In And Out Line Monitoring System For Volleyball, Kelley White

Honors Theses

The main goal of this project is to create a line monitoring system for volleyball to aid the line judges in their decision making as well as reduce the frequently misjudged calls. Line calling systems have already been implicated into other sports but there is not one yet for volleyball. This is because volleyball must move on to the next point in a matter of seconds or a delay of game is called against a team. Therefore, there needs to be a system that calls a ball without the need of a replay. The in and out line monitoring system …

Does Participation In High School Sports Influence Your Income?, Marisa Lieberman

Honors Theses

My thesis uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS-88) to examine the relationship between participation in high school athletics and income. NELS-88 follows students from 8th grade through age 25 and asks them questions about family, school, and personal preferences. I use this information to determine if participation in high school sports affects a person’s wage when he or she enters the labor force. Students gain valuable skills from playing on a sports team that help them achieve great things later in life, such as higher paying jobs. However, students who join sports teams may already …

The Development Of A Composite Additive To Increase Safety And Performance Of Wooden Baseball Bats, Cj Worley

Honors Theses

Many youth baseball leagues are in the process of doing away with metal bats and using solely wood bats. They claim the game will be safer since ball exit velocities off of wood bats are lower than that of their metal counterparts; however, they are overlooking the fact that wood bats shatter causing new safety concerns that are not experienced with metal. It was the goal of this project to develop and test new additive materials to coat wood baseball bats in order to improve strength without decreasing performance. Polyurethane sealant, carbon fiber fabric, and duct tape were chosen to …

Attachment Style And Its Role In Perceived Team-Efficacy And Individual Self-Efficacy In Sports, Meghan Kupiec

Honors Theses

The purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between athletes’ attachment styles and their team- and self-efficacy after wins or losses in sporting contests. The study followed up on a theory proposed by Sam Carr (2012), which posits that attachment style plays an important role in athletic competition and can act as a buffer to negative outcomes in sport. In order to test this idea, a research study was conducted surveying Union College Varsity athletes during both the fall and winter sporting seasons. Across the course of the participants’ athletic seasons, four surveys were distributed. The first …

The Post Title Ix Portrayal Of Female Athletes In The Media, Kelsey Mcdonald

Honors Theses

This thesis looks to elaborate on recent studies done by Michael Messner, Cheryl Cooky, Robin H. Hextrum and other scholars regarding the exclusion and misrepresentation of female athletes and women’s sport in the media since the enactment of Title IX in 1972. This thesis provides an overview of the history of Title IX, a detailed analysis of the ways which female athletes are portrayed in the media and trends that have occurred based on the coverage women’s sports have received since 1972. The research included and data collected for this thesis are based on ESPN’s SportsCenter and the headlines on …

Soccer Violence: An Examination Of Hooliganism And Violence Against Referees In Latin America And Worldwide, Dean Constant

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Playing Surface And Shoe Type Of Acl Tears In Soccer Players, Melissa Mansfield

Honors Theses

Anterior Cruciate Ligament injuries have become more common in athletes over the past decade which is believed to result from playing on more artificial turf surfaces. This study tested the playing surface theory by building upon a previous study conducted with Albany Medical Center which tested surface samples using an axial-torsion load frame located at Union College. The motion that causes most ACL noncontact injuries is replicated by the load frame which pushes and rotates a shoe against the playing surface and measures the torque it experiences. The foot position, normal load, degree of rotation and rate of rotation were …

Money Puck: The Effectiveness Of Statistical Analysis In Building An Nhl Team, Troy Grosenick

Honors Theses

The 2013 Collective Bargaining Agreement in the National Hockey League limits contracts offered to free agents in terms of length and variance in yearly salary. These changes have made finding undervalued free agents even more important to teams’ general managers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate players and teams with both traditional and advanced metrics to determine how players are valued in comparison to their impact on their team’s performance. A team’s winning percentage is hypothesized to be a function of shooting percentage and save percentage, as well as proxies for puck possession time, such as shots on …

History Of Concussion Research In American Football, Timothy Hersey

Honors Theses

Concussions have been the topic of discussion in the news and media in recent years for their profound impact on today’s sport industry. Athletes have become bigger, faster, and stronger then in the past, increasing the chance of injury. This can been seen in all sports. Contact sports specifically have seen a rise in mild traumatic brain injuries (MTBIs) over the years. Extensive research has been done to determine the causes of concussion, the short and long term effects of brain injury, and better ways to reduce the risk in sports. Concussion research in athletics has mainly focused on American …

Unguaranteed Money In The Nfl: A Useful Tool For Risky Players, Wayne Simpson

Honors Theses

This study is investigating whether or not the percentage of non‐guaranteed money or length in NFL contracts reflects how risky players are as judged by past statistics. While sports economists have completed numerous studies on the motivational power of incentives, a study trying to identify the riskiness of players to lead to the strategic use of non‐guaranteed money and length of contract is a new idea. Contract details were gathered for running backs and wide receivers on NFL rosters for the 2012 season from rotoworld.com. Players who were still on rookie contracts and who were primarily special teams players were …

How Your Past Can Influence Your Perceptions Of Sports Aggression, Christopher Sullivan

Honors Theses

Sports violence has received increased attention in the media recently and more individuals are becoming aware of dangerous behaviors in sports. This study was designed to look at the effects of personal variables and past participation in sport in how they affect an individual’s perception of aggressive sports acts. The perception aggression is important to understanding why sports aggression is more accepted in different groups of people. This utilized Union College students, who took a version of the Sport Behavior Inventory in an online survey. Through the use of different indices of data, a test of means and a multi-variable …

Lacrosse: A Rich History Hindered By Racist Attitudes In The United States, Matthew Livingston

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how Lacrosse’s history and popularity has demonstrated a direct correlation with the ethnicity of the people who compose the majority constituency of the game. While Lacrosse began as a sport played almost exclusively by Native Americans, it now is mostly associated with middle to upper class white Americans. Furthermore, Lacrosse was not played by many people until the past twenty years when participates have consisted of mostly white Americans. This study relies on a multitude of sources ranging from scholarly books, to an interview with a National Lacrosse Hall of Fame Inductee, to articles located on in …

He Shoots He Scores: The Effect Of Mortality Salience On Risky Decisions In A Basketball Task As A Function Of Competition And Self-Esteem, Alexandra M. Aldeborgh

Honors Theses

The current study was designed to examine the effects of mortality salience (MS) and competition on risk-taking behavior in a sports-related setting as moderated by self-esteem. A basketball task was used to simulate sports risk, in which participants had the option of shooting from three lines: worth one point (least risky option), three points, and five points (riskiest option). Participants were either under the impression that they were competing with another participant or not. It was hypothesized that high self-esteem individuals, when primed with death thoughts and under the illusion of competition, would be most likely to shoot from the …

Shirking In The National Hockey League, Luke D. Cain

Honors Theses

Shirking has been examined in baseball and basketball, but never hockey. If Shirking is found to be evident in hockey, then management should give players shorter contracts and should pay a discount price if a long‐term contract is given. The dependent variable for this study is shirking. There are many different independent variables and they are all different measures of performance (except for dummy variables for team and position). Most studies of hockey have minimal measures of performance, which are usually offensive statistics, but I will include defensive statistics as well. The sample for the study is players who participated …

Analyzing The Parallelism Between The Rise And Fall Of Baseball In Quebec And The Quebec Secession Movement, Daniel S. Greene

Honors Theses

My Senior Project examines the parallelism between the movement to bring baseball to Quebec and the Quebec secession movement in Canada. Through my research I have found that both entities follow a very similar timeline with highs and lows coming around the same time in the same province; although, I have not found any direct linkage between the two. My analysis begins around 1837 and continues through present day, and by analyzing the histories of each movement demonstrates clearly that both movements followed a unique and similar timeline. The project is separated into six chapters, each containing three parts, including …

The Impact Of The 2005 Collective Bargaining Agreement On Competitive Balance In The National Hockey League, John L. Simpson

Honors Theses

After a lockout that canceled the 2004‐05 season in the National Hockey League (NHL), the owners and players reached a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that instituted a ‘hard’ salary cap, a modified revenue sharing system, and changes in free agency. The principal motivation for the new agreement was to raise competitiveness among the teams, in order to generate greater revenue and profitability and to support higher player salaries. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of the CBA on competitive balance within the NHL and identify the principal determinants of the changes in competitiveness among the teams. …

Growing Cricket In Tasmania: A Cross-Cultural Comparison, Elizabeth Ann Stanford

Honors Theses

Sports are an integral part of life in societies throughout the world. Cricket is one of Australia’s two major sports and is a significant aspect of its culture, in a fashion similar to baseball being America’s “national pastime.” Despite its isolation, Tasmania, the small island state of Australia, shares the same mania for cricket as mainland Australia. While in Tasmania for ten weeks interning with the Tasmanian Cricket Association (TCA), I studied the role of cricket in the day-to-day lives of Tasmanians, from the pervasive television, newspaper, and the radio coverage, to pick-up cricket games as a popular leisure time …