Everyone Hates the NCAA: The Role of Identity in the Evaluations of Amateurism Transgressions: A Case Study of the Chase Young Loan Scandal

Abstract

This manuscript is a case study into public responses to an amateurism transgression committed by Chase Young, a former Ohio State University football player and Heisman candidate. In November of 2019, Young utilized his personal Twitter to announce an amateurism transgression stemming from his acceptance of an improper loan. This study considers 1,674 public and direct replies to Young on Twitter. A variety of themes were identified, including attempts to support Young, externalize the blame, dispute Young’s story, exchange information, communicate ambiguously, and contemplate consequences of the transgression. Utilizing social identity theory and identity threat management, public expressions of fandom were positioned as a variable that explained the diversity in responses to Young’s transgression. Indeed, findings illustrated in-group and out-group biases, whereby Ohio State fans supported Young and fans of other teams disputed his story. Interestingly non-expressed fans engaged in image repair on Young’s behalf via externalizing blame to other institutions, especially the NCAA, which may demonstrate the interplay of multifaceted identities. Results from this manuscript help lay the groundwork for audience-centered efforts to understand athlete transgressions.

Chinese Universities’ Image Repair after Network Public Opinion Events: Strategy Choice and Effect Evaluation

“…is is often mentioned in the research on European and American universities' sports crisis management. Previous studies found that fans not only publicly support and defend their players and teams after a crisis, but also take the initiative to repair their players' and teams' image thus relieving the enormous pressure caused by players' violations by externalizing responsibility to other institutions, adopting certain image repair strategies on behalf of the team, and other ways [39][40][41].…”