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The Faculty Flutie Factor: Does Football Performance Affect a University’s US News and World Report Peer Assessment Score?

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Listed:
  • Mulholland, Sean
  • Tomic, Aleksandar
  • Sholander, Samuel

Abstract

Analyzing the peer assessment portion of the US News and World Report’s college rankings, we find that administrators and faculty rate more highly universities whose football team receives a greater number of votes in either the final Associated Press or Coaches Poll. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, our estimates suggest that a one standard deviation increase in the number of votes received in either the Associated Press or USA Today Coaches’ Football Poll is viewed as positively as a forty point increase in a school’s SAT score at the 75th percentile.

Suggested Citation

  • Mulholland, Sean & Tomic, Aleksandar & Sholander, Samuel, 2010. "The Faculty Flutie Factor: Does Football Performance Affect a University’s US News and World Report Peer Assessment Score?," MPRA Paper 26443, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:26443
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    As found by EconAcademics.org, the blog aggregator for Economics research:
    1. Football has an impact on college quality
      by Economic Logician in Economic Logic on 2010-12-13 21:10:00
    2. How Football Improves College Quality
      by Ariel Goldring in Free Market Mojo on 2010-12-16 18:00:31

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    Cited by:

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    2. 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.
    3. Behera, Sarthak & Sadana, Divya, 2022. "The Impact of Visibility on School Athletic Finances: An Empirical Analysis using Google Trends," MPRA Paper 114818, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Bouchet, Adrien & Laird, Mary Dana & Troilo, Mike & Hutchinson, Michael & Ferris, Gerald, 2017. "Effects of increased commitment on reputation and status: Evidence from NCAA Division I universities," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 395-407.
    5. Austin F. Eggers & Peter A. Groothuis & Parker Redding & Kurt W. Rotthoff & Michael Solimini, 2020. "Universities Behaving Badly: The Impact of Athletic Malfeasance on Student Quality and Enrollment," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(1), pages 87-100, January.
    6. Austin F. Eggers & Peter A. Groothuis, 2021. "The Impact of Winning an NCAA Men's Basketball or Football Championship on Academic Quality," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(2), pages 263-275.
    7. D. Randall Smith, 2019. "The Lure of Academic and Social Reputations Versus Athletic Success: Influences on Enrollment Yield at NCAA Division I Institutions," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 60(6), pages 870-904, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    college football; football bowl subdivision; national universities; peer assessment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • L83 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Sports; Gambling; Restaurants; Recreation; Tourism

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