What Really Influences the Outcome of Sports?

     During this past week, as a student of the University of Michigan, I was able to attend to the basketball game our school had against Indiana University on Wednesday night.  I normally do not attend our basketball games, but as a fan of basketball in general I found the game to be very entertaining and quite an experience.  However, the impact that this class has had on me made my experience a little different than a normal sports event, but very interesting.  As a spectator, I was able to observe parts of the game in very different perspectives that gave me a very different insight into sporting competitions in general.

Point Guard Trey Burke drives past Indiana's Victor
Oladipo during the game.

     One major concept we learned about and discussed in class is the psychology behind sports/games and the motives associated with it.  Specifically, Mr. Garcia had explained to us what drives us towards close competition with others, including both situational factors such as number of competitors, and individual factors such as relevance and relationship closeness.  As I kept these in mind at the game, the entire environment all of a sudden seemed to make so much more sense to me.  Right from the start, you could observe the high levels of excitement and energy throughout the Crisler Arena.  As one of our conference members and among our top rivals, Mr. Garcia’s theories explaining relevance and closeness to the competitor became very appropriate to the situation.  Because the other team was so close to us in ranking (22 vs. 20) and very relevant to us because of our conference, the game’s importance and competitiveness was sky rocketed.  You could easily tell how hard the players were battling each other as well as the intensity of the crowd.  Also, pertaining the the concept of the “N-effect,” in a game like basketball there is only one other competitor, which also led to an increase in competition.  Knowing these theories behind competition not only bettered my game experience, but also enhanced my understanding of the game’s environment.

     Another important perspective we learned about in the course so far was the incorporation of game theory.  Game theory involves strategic decision making based on both the consequences you will receive and the decisions that your opponent also makes.  What makes the game theory complex is the fact that you do not know how our opponent will act, so you must weigh your options accordingly.  It is all basically a mind game deciding between what you should and/or how you could deceive your opponent into doing something that either helps you or hurts them.  I found this theory to be very relative to how the basketball game played out.  During the beginning stages of the game, Michigan held a big lead, but soon enough Indiana had cut down the lead to about 3 points.  After another half of close battling, Michigan finally came out with a safe victory.  When I think about the course of how the game played out though, game theory was the first thing that came to my mind.  It became apparent to me that in the beginning of the game, Michigan must not have only been scoring easily on Indiana, but clearly they knew their opponents’ tendencies well and used this to also play great defense.  Like game theory, Michigan was making the best decisions for their team to succeed while keeping in mind the actions of their opponents.  Additionally, when Indiana started to make a comeback, it became evident to me that at that point during the game, they were performing exactly as Michigan was previously.  Essentially, game theory was the prime factor behind the outcome of this game.

     Sports and games have always been a pretty big part of my life, but the perspectives we’ve learned so far int he course have significantly changed my outlook on them.  Watching games is not simply rooting for my favorite team anymore, but rather examining very influential aspects of the game that normally are not even discussed.  Both the psychology behind competition and game theory are two concepts that are much more relevant to my life than I had originally thought.