College Applications & Athletic Prowess

As the college football bowl season ramps up, I thought that a recent paper by Devin G. Pope (Penn--Wharton) & Jaren C. Pope (Virgina Tech) was especially timely. In Understanding College Application Decisions: Why College Sports Success Matters, the authors assess the influence of college athletic success on applications (proxied by sent SAT scores). Using College Board (SAT) data, the paper finds:

"[T]hat college sports success has a large impact on student application decisions. For example, a school that has a stellar year in basketball or football on average receives up to 10% more SAT scores. Certain demographic groups (males, blacks, out-of-state students, and students that played sports in high school) are more likely to be influenced by sports success than their counterparts. We explore the reasons why students might be influenced by these sporting events and present evidence that attention/accessibility helps explain these findings."

Comments

[Joshua]

This finding is neither new nor illuminating. It is hardly clear that there is a strong link between college athletic prowess and the number of high-quality applicants a school receives. The fact that 10% more students check a box on a College Board form because they've seen a school on TV means very little as to the school's ability to actually improve its applicant pool. The greater name recognition does not necessarily translate to a meaningful boost.