You Can’t Cheer That: NCAA Division I FBS Stadium Speech Policies and the First Amendment

Abstract

Fan behavior at college sporting events has long been a concern for administrators. Particularly, fan speech—including inappropriate signs, vulgar cheers, and rude images on clothing—has proven difficult for policymakers to address. Yet, as previous scholarship has demonstrated, speech policies at public university spaces intending to curtail such behavior frequently violate the First Amendment protections of students and spectators (see, e.g., Calvert & Richards, 2004; Ulian, 2016). Using a comparative analysis of speech policies published on the athletic department websites for every public university in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), we determined that 94 of the 102 evaluated institutions had speech codes for one or more of their sports facilities that could be used to violate the First Amendment rights of spectators. We discuss the implications of such policies for potential litigation against universities and offer recommendations for crafting better policies for fan behavior at university athletic events.