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Athletics and Admissions: The Impact of the Penn State Football Scandal on Student Quality

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  • Candon Johnson
  • Bryan C. McCannon

Abstract

We ask whether a scandal in a university’s athletics department affects the quality of the incoming student body. To do so, we evaluate the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State University in 2011. The violations involved a former employee with the crimes occurring a decade prior. The plausibly-exogenous shock allows us to make a causal identification of the scandal's effect on the university. We use synthetic control methods establishing economically meaningful impacts. We find that the average high school GPA is 0.12 points less and the proportion of students with high SAT Math scores is down 4.8 percentage points.

Suggested Citation

  • Candon Johnson & Bryan C. McCannon, 2022. "Athletics and Admissions: The Impact of the Penn State Football Scandal on Student Quality," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 23(2), pages 200-221, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:23:y:2022:i:2:p:200-221
    DOI: 10.1177/15270025211039444
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    admissions; football; higher education; scandal; synthetic control;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z20 - Other Special Topics - - Sports Economics - - - General
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • H40 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - General

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