Television Revenue and the Structure of Athletic Contests: The Case of the National Basketball Association
This study points out that changes in the format of the playoffs in the National Basketball Association have had the effect of lengthening the championship series and reducing the variance in the length of the series. These are valuable goals for the organization because they provide higher television ratings and revenues for the teams involved. Empirical evidence presented here suggests that viewership among 1.2 million additional households is at stake.
The existence of serial correlation and its effect on the format of a championship playoff series
The specific home/away sequencing of games has been a point of contention in the championship series of professional sports leagues. This research analyses data from the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals in developing a logistic-regression model to predict the outcome of games that takes into consideration several factors, including home-court advantage and game-to-game momentum. It is found that negative serial correlation exists such that the team that wins one game is more likely to lose the next game of the series. This model is then used to predict the probability of each team winning each of the games within the series, and these probabilities are combined to evaluate alternative playoff formats. It is found that different formats are appropriate depending on the nature of momentum, and that the format used by the NBA may minimize travel requirements, but other formats may perform better in extending the length of the series.
Marketing the mpa degree: Access and program structure as determinants of successful enrollments
During the months of October through December of 1982, a national comparative evaluation of 186 MPA programs was undertaken to determine which variables are associated with enrollment strength across these programs. Two sets of variables, one corresponding to the structural characteristics of the program, the other corresponding to measures of access for these programs, were statistically analyzed. The findings are as follows: (1) the highest enrollments are determined by access to a market population and whether or not the program was located in a school of public administration; (2) there is a fundamental difference between programs oriented towards full-time students and those oriented towards part-time students; (3) full-time oriented program enrollments are dependent on structured characteristics of a program while part-time oriented programs are sensitive to access variables and not program characteristics and; (4) larger enrollments are associated with organizational autonomy with the lowest enroll...