IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jospec/v12y2011i2p157-178.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Win or Go Home: Why College Football Coaches Get Fired

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Holmes

    (State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia, NY, USA, paul.holmes@fredonia.edu)

Abstract

Models of dismissals of sports executives frequently ignore the development of expectations regarding performance. The author explores the interplay between these expectations and the coach’s tenure by examining dismissals of college football head coaches from 1983 to 2006. Using a discrete-time hazard model, the author demonstrates that schools use prior performance in two ways: to evaluate the ability of the coach and to establish performance standards for retention. As recent performance is more relevant for estimating ability, the author shows that stronger recent performances decrease the chance of dismissal but stronger historic performances increase the chance of dismissal. Results describe a continual learning process on the part of schools. The author also considers the effects of race, insider-ness, rivalries, and rules violations on retention.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Holmes, 2011. "Win or Go Home: Why College Football Coaches Get Fired," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 12(2), pages 157-178, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:12:y:2011:i:2:p:157-178
    DOI: 10.1177/1527002510378820
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1527002510378820
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1527002510378820?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Franklin G. Mixon, Jr. & Len J. Treviño, 2004. "How Race Affects Dismissals of College Football Coaches," Journal of Labor Research, Transaction Publishers, vol. 25(4), pages 645-656, October.
    2. Nelson, Phillip, 1970. "Information and Consumer Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 311-329, March-Apr.
    3. John L. Fizel & Michael P. D'Itri, 1997. "Managerial Efficiency, Managerial Succession and Organizational Performance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(4), pages 295-308.
    4. Audas, Rick & Dobson, Stephen & Goddard, John, 2002. "The impact of managerial change on team performance in professional sports," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 54(6), pages 633-650.
    5. R. H. Koning, 2003. "An econometric evaluation of the effect of firing a coach on team performance," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(5), pages 555-564.
    6. Rick Audas & Stephen Dobson & John Goddard, 1999. "Organizational performance and managerial turnover," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 20(6), pages 305-318.
    7. Daryl Pregibon, 1980. "Goodness of Link Tests for Generalized Linear Models," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 29(1), pages 15-24, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wangrow, David B. & Schepker, Donald J. & Barker, Vincent L., 2018. "Power, performance, and expectations in the dismissal of NBA coaches: A survival analysis study," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 333-346.
    2. Nolan Kopkin, 2014. "You’re Fired!: The Impact of Race on the Firing of Black Head Coaches in Major College Football," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 41(4), pages 373-392, December.
    3. Deepak Srivastav & Puram Praveen & Rudra Sensarma & Anand Gurumurthy, 2021. "Does salary dispersion affect team performance in cricket? Evidence from the Indian Premier League," Working papers 441, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
    4. Foreman, Jeremy J. & Soebbing, Brian P. & Seifried, Chad S., 2019. "The impact of deviance on head coach dismissals and implications of a personal conduct policy," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 491-501.
    5. Gregory A. Falls & Paul A. Natke & Linlan Xiao, 2022. "College football attendance in the long run: The Football Championship Subdivision," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2172-2183, September.
    6. Yvon Rocaboy & Marek Pavlik, 2020. "Performance Expectations of Professional Sport Teams and In-Season Head Coach Dismissals—Evidence from the English and French Men’s Football First Divisions," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-20, October.
    7. Humphreys, Brad R. & Paul, Rodney J. & Weinbach, Andrew P., 2016. "Performance expectations and the tenure of head coaches: Evidence from NCAA football," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 482-492.
    8. Gilfix Zach & Meyerson James & Addona Vittorio, 2020. "Longevity differences in the tenures of American and foreign Major League Soccer managers," Journal of Quantitative Analysis in Sports, De Gruyter, vol. 16(1), pages 17-26, March.
    9. Daniel LaFave & Randy Nelson & Michael Doherty, 2018. "Race and Retention in a Competitive Labor Market," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(3), pages 417-451, April.
    10. Christopher Avery & Brian Cadman & Gavin Cassar, 2016. "Academics vs. Athletics: Career Concerns for NCAA Division I Coaches," NBER Working Papers 22120, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Humphreys, Brad & Paul, Rodney & Weinbach, Andrew, 2011. "CEO Turnover: More Evidence on the Role of Performance Expectations," Working Papers 2011-14, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    12. Kurt W. Rotthoff & Kaylyn R. Sanbower, 2016. "Professional ‘amateurs’ in the NCAA: the impact of downstream demand," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(5), pages 373-376, March.
    13. Ira Horowitz, 2017. "An Efficiency Evaluation of Men’s College Basketball Coaches," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 62(1), pages 77-98, March.
    14. Salaga, Steven & Juravich, Matthew, 2020. "National Football League head coach race, performance, retention, and dismissal," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 978-991.
    15. Lefgren, Lars J. & Platt, Brennan & Price, Joseph & Higbee, Samuel, 2019. "Outcome based accountability: Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 121-137.
    16. Andrew P. Davis & Tom R. Leppard & Alexander B. Kinney, 2022. "A shame of inches: Are teams with black head coaches more heavily penalized in Division 1 college football?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 103(2), pages 259-273, March.
    17. Ken Sanford & Frank Scott, 2016. "Assessing the Intensity of Sports Rivalries Using Data From Secondary Market Transactions," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(2), pages 159-174, February.
    18. Michael A. Roach, 2022. "Career concerns and personnel investment in the Major League Baseball player draft," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(1), pages 413-426, January.
    19. Marte Bentzen & Göran Kenttä & Pierre-Nicolas Lemyre, 2020. "Elite Football Coaches Experiences and Sensemaking about Being Fired: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-13, July.
    20. Yvon Rocaboy & Marek Pavlik, 2019. "Performance expectations of professional sport teams and in-season head coach dismissals: Evidence from the English Premier League and the French Ligue 1 using Monte Carlo simulation," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 2019-01, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Frick, Bernd & Barros, Carlos Pestana & Prinz, Joachim, 2010. "Analysing head coach dismissals in the German "Bundesliga" with a mixed logit approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 200(1), pages 151-159, January.
    2. Stefano d’Addona & Axel Kind, 2014. "Forced Manager Turnovers in English Soccer Leagues," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 15(2), pages 150-179, April.
    3. M. A. Roach, 2013. "Mean reversion or a breath of fresh air? The effect of NFL coaching changes on team performance in the salary cap era," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(17), pages 1553-1556, November.
    4. A. Balduck & M. Buelens, 2007. "Does sacking the coach help or hinder the team in the short term? Evidence from Belgian soccer," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 07/430, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    5. W. David Allen, 2021. "Work Environment and Worker Performance: A View from the Goal Crease," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 42(3), pages 418-448, December.
    6. Gerd Muehlheusser & Sandra Schneemann & Dirk Sliwka, 2016. "The Impact Of Managerial Change On Performance: The Role Of Team Heterogeneity," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(2), pages 1128-1149, April.
    7. Stefan Wagner, 2010. "Managerial succession and organizational performance-evidence from the German Soccer League," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(6), pages 415-430.
    8. Egon Franck & Stephan Nüesch & Jan Pieper, 2011. "Specific Human Capital as a Source of Superior Team Performance," Schmalenbach Business Review (sbr), LMU Munich School of Management, vol. 63(4), pages 376-392, October.
    9. Maria De Paola & Vincenzo Scoppa, 2012. "The Effects of Managerial Turnover," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(2), pages 152-168, April.
    10. Anne-Line Balduck & Anita Prinzie & Marc Buelens, 2010. "The effectiveness of coach turnover and the effect on home team advantage, team quality and team ranking," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(4), pages 679-689.
    11. Süssmuth Bernd & Wagner Stefan, 2012. "A Market’s Reward Scheme, Media Attention, and the Transitory Success of Managerial Change," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 232(3), pages 258-278, June.
    12. Antonio Samagaio & Eduardo Couto & Jorge Caiado, 2009. "Sporting, financial and stock market performance in English football: an empirical analysis of structural relationships," CEMAPRE Working Papers 0906, Centre for Applied Mathematics and Economics (CEMAPRE), School of Economics and Management (ISEG), Technical University of Lisbon.
    13. Gerd Muehlheusser & Sandra Schneemann & Dirk Sliwka & Niklas Wallmeier, 2018. "The Contribution of Managers to Organizational Success," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(6), pages 786-819, August.
    14. Claudio Detotto & Dimitri Paolini & J. D. Tena, 2018. "Do managerial skills matter? An analysis of the impact of managerial features on performance for Italian football," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 69(2), pages 270-282, February.
    15. Geyer, Hannah, 2008. "Auswechselverhalten im Fußball: Eine theoretische und empirische Analyse," IÖB-Diskussionspapiere 5/08, University of Münster, Institute for Economic Education.
    16. Agnieszka Bielinska-Kwapisz, 2014. "Do football teams learn from changing coaches? A test of the deceleration hypothesis," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(1), pages 1-9, December.
    17. Besters, Lucas, 2018. "Economics of professional football," Other publications TiSEM d9e6b9b7-a17b-4665-9cca-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. Janina Kleinknecht & Daniel Würtenberger, 2022. "Information effects of managerial turnover on effort and performance: Evidence from the German Bundesliga," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(3), pages 791-812, April.
    19. Julio Del Corral & Carlos Pestana Barros & Juan Prieto-Rodríguez, 2008. "The Determinants of Soccer Player Substitutions," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(2), pages 160-172, April.
    20. Michael A. Roach, 2022. "Career concerns and personnel investment in the Major League Baseball player draft," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(1), pages 413-426, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:12:y:2011:i:2:p:157-178. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.