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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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  • Mulholland, Sean E.
  • Tomic, Aleksandar (Sasha)
  • Sholander, Samuel N.

Abstract

Analyzing the peer assessment category of the US News and World Report's America's Best Colleges rankings, we find that universities fielding a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) team are more highly rated by administrators and faculty at peer institutions. Universities are also more highly rated if their 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 votes from one season to the next is associated with a peer score increase that is about equal (in absolute value terms) to the mean year-over-year peer score decline witnessed by the institutions in our sample. Performance matters even if we only focus on FBS schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Mulholland, Sean E. & Tomic, Aleksandar (Sasha) & Sholander, Samuel N., 2014. "The faculty Flutie factor: Does football performance affect a university's US News and World Report peer assessment score?," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 79-90.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:43:y:2014:i:c:p:79-90
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2014.09.006
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    Blog mentions

    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. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Trevor Collier & Nancy Haskell & Kurt W. Rotthoff & Alaina Baker, 2020. "The “Cinderella Effect†: The Value of Unexpected March Madness Runs as Advertising for the Schools," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 21(8), pages 783-807, December.
    5. 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.
    6. 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.
    7. 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.
    8. 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:

    • I2 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education
    • 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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