Ignition of Football Rivlaries

In this article, John Cohen of the Wall Street Journal describes the ignition for football rivalries and the effects that they have on the fans, players, and coaches.

During my research, I asked frequently myself the question, how are football fans and players effected with sports rivalries?

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1. Rivalries are so important because of the competition over time.  I believe that this is interesting because I now have a better understanding to why rivalries are more important that other games to fans. I have discovered that rivals play each other much more than any other team since the beginning of the sport, so fans and players emphasize that specific game each year. They believe that the games get more and more intense each time, so that's what sikes them up.history
2. The oomph of every rivalry comes from similarity, proximity and of the two teams. All of these three things are main contributors to hype up rivalries. First, teams that are similar academically like Harvard and Yale or teams that are in the same conference like Michigan and Ohio State all share qualities that aid their rivalry. Secondly, teams that are close together like Auburn and Alabama have the extra oomph because fans are interacting with each other everyday. Lastly, the history of the two schools hypes up fans and players because they are always trying recreate history.
3. Athletes testosterone spikes from regular games to rivalries. This is very interesting to me because they actually ran tests to find out this data, and it proves a lot about rivalries. The more testosterone in the players, the better they play, so better competition and talent is displayed from each team in a rivalry, making them more interesting to watch.
4. Rivalries lead to overconfidence, riskier strategies, unethical actions, and behavioral shifts. All of these ingredients make games much more exciting to watch, so fans are always on their toes at these games. This cause and effect relationship is the ignition to all rivalries because if the players are more hyped up, then the fans are as well.

Future Research Question: How does pschycology affect sports rivalries?