IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jospec/v9y2008i1p67-87.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

An Economic Model of the College Football Recruiting Process

Author

Listed:
  • J. Michael Dumond

    (ERS Group, Inc.)

  • Allen K. Lynch

    (Mercer University)

  • Jennifer Platania

    (Elon University)

Abstract

College football programs devote an enormous amount of resources in efforts to persuade high school football players to attend their schools. In this study, we develop an empirical model of the factors that recruits consider when selecting a school, using a database that combines school-specific attributes with recruit-specific information. The authors' estimates imply that recruits' decisions are governed by a handful of primary factors such as the geographic distance between the recruit and the college, the school's recent football rankings, and whether the school is a member of one of the six Bowl Championship Series (BCS) conferences.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Michael Dumond & Allen K. Lynch & Jennifer Platania, 2008. "An Economic Model of the College Football Recruiting Process," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(1), pages 67-87, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:9:y:2008:i:1:p:67-87
    DOI: 10.1177/1527002506298125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1527002506298125
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1527002506298125?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Card & Alan B. Krueger, 2005. "Would the Elimination of Affirmative Action Affect Highly Qualified Minority Applicants? Evidence from California and Texas," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 58(3), pages 416-434, April.
    2. Brown, Robert W, 1993. "An Estimate of the Rent Generated by a Premium College Football Player," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 31(4), pages 671-684, October.
    3. Marc Frenette, 2004. "Access to College and University: Does Distance to School Matter?," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 30(4), pages 427-443, December.
    4. Audrey Light & Wayne Strayer, 2000. "Determinants of College Completion: School Quality or Student Ability?," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 35(2), pages 299-332.
    5. Marc Frenette, 2006. "Too Far to Go On? Distance to School and University Participation," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(1), pages 31-58.
    6. Dominic J. Brewer & Eric R. Eide & Ronald G. Ehrenberg, 1999. "Does It Pay to Attend an Elite Private College? Cross-Cohort Evidence on the Effects of College Type on Earnings," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(1), pages 104-123.
    7. George Langelett, 2003. "The Relationship between Recruiting and Team Performance in Division 1A College Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 4(3), pages 240-245, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Philip L. Hersch, 2012. "Does the NCAA Coaching Carousel Hamper the Professional Prospects of College Football Recruits?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(1), pages 20-33, February.
    2. Brad R. Humphreys & Jane E. Ruseski, 2018. "Strategic Interaction in a Repeated Game: Evidence from NCAA Football Recruiting," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 52(2), pages 283-303, March.
    3. Joshua D. Pitts & Jon Paul Rezek, 2012. "Athletic Scholarships in Intercollegiate Football," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(5), pages 515-535, October.
    4. Matthew Kotchen & Matthew Potoski, 2011. "Conflicts of Interest Distort Public Evaluations: Evidence from the Top 25 Ballots of NCAA Football Coaches," NBER Working Papers 17628, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. W. David Allen, 2015. "The Demand for Younger and Older Workers," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(2), pages 127-158, February.
    6. Kotchen, Matthew J. & Potoski, Matthew, 2014. "Conflicts of interest distort public evaluations: Evidence from NCAA football coaches," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 51-63.
    7. Kristina Gavin Bigsby & Jeffrey W. Ohlmann & Kang Zhao, 2017. "Online and Off the Field: Predicting School Choice in College Football Recruiting from Social Media Data," Decision Analysis, INFORMS, vol. 14(4), pages 261-273, December.
    8. J. D. Pitts & B. Evans, 2016. "The role of conference externalities and other factors in determining the annual recruiting rankings of football bowl subdivision (FBS) teams," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(33), pages 3164-3174, July.
    9. Jill S. Harris, 2018. "State of Play: How Do College Football Programs Compete for Student Athletes?," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 52(2), pages 269-281, March.
    10. Brad R. Humphreys & Jane Ruseski, 2014. "Adolescent Steroid Use and Intercollegiate Athletic Incentives," Working Papers 14-25, Department of Economics, West Virginia University.
    11. E. Woodrow Eckard, 2013. "Is the Bowl Championship Series a Cartel? Some Evidence," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 14(1), pages 3-22, February.
    12. Jesse Bricker & Andrew Hanson, 2013. "The Impact of Early Commitment on Games Played: Evidence from College Football Recruiting," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 79(4), pages 971-983, April.
    13. Franklin G. Mixon & Rand W. Ressler & Richard J. Cebula, 2012. "Beyond the Friday night lights: Social networks, migration, and individual success in college football," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(1), pages 16-26.
    14. Trey Dronyk-Trosper & Brandli Stitzel, 2017. "Lock-In and Team Effects," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(4), pages 376-387, May.
    15. Humphreys, Brad & Ruseski, Jane, 2009. "Tit-for-tat Strategies in Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma Games: Evidence from NCAA Football," Working Papers 2009-24, University of Alberta, Department of Economics.
    16. Gary J. Colbert & E. Woodrow Eckard, 2015. "Do Colleges Get What They Pay For? Evidence on Football Coach Pay and Team Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(4), pages 335-352, May.
    17. Stephen A. Bergman & Trevon D. Logan, 2016. "The Effect of Recruit Quality on College Football Team Performance," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 17(6), pages 578-600, August.
    18. Bradley R. Curs & Casandra E. Harper & Charles Frey & Brandon Wolak, 2023. "The Effect of College Football Bowl Game Participation on Student-Athlete Academic Outcomes and Team Athletic Success," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(4), pages 497-519, June.
    19. Brent A. Evans & Joshua D. Pitts, 2018. "Cross-Sport Recruiting Effects in NCAA D1 Football and Basketball," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(6), pages 820-842, August.
    20. Matt Ryan Huml & N David Pifer & Caitlin Towle & Cheryl R Rode, 2019. "If we build it, will they come? The effect of new athletic facilities on recruiting rankings for power five football and men's basketball programs," Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(1), pages 1-18, January.
    21. McDonald Paul Mirabile & Mark David Witte, 2017. "A Discrete-Choice Model of a College Football Recruit’s Program Selection Decision," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(3), pages 211-238, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Polina Bugakova & Ilya Prakhov, 2020. "Regional Accessibility Of Higher Education In Russia," HSE Working papers WP BRP 58/EDU/2020, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    2. Hinrichs, Peter, 2014. "Affirmative action bans and college graduation rates," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 43-52.
    3. Albertini, Julien & Terriau, Anthony, 2019. "Informality over the life-cycle," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 182-202.
    4. Peter M. White & David M. Lee, 2020. "Geographic Inequalities and Access to Higher Education: Is the Proximity to Higher Education Institution Associated with the Probability of Attendance in England?," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 61(7), pages 825-848, November.
    5. D. Flannery & J. Cullinan, 2014. "Where they go, what they do and why it matters: the importance of geographic accessibility and social class for decisions relating to higher education institution type, degree level and field of study," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(24), pages 2952-2965, August.
    6. Philipp Gareis & Tom Broekel, 2022. "The Spatial Patterns of Student Mobility Before, During and After the Bologna Process in Germany," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 113(3), pages 290-309, July.
    7. Long, Mark C., 2010. "Changes in the returns to education and college quality," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 338-347, June.
    8. Pigini, Claudia & Staffolani, Stefano, 2013. "Enrollment costs, university quality and higher education choices in Italy," MPRA Paper 50364, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Nicolas Grau, 2013. "The Impact of College Admissions Policies on The Performance of High School Students," PIER Working Paper Archive 13-040, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    10. Allen, Jeff & Farber, Steven, 2018. "An Examination of Time-Use and Transportation Barriers to On-Campus Participation of University Students," SocArXiv q652t, Center for Open Science.
    11. Smith, Jonathan & Pender, Matea & Howell, Jessica, 2013. "The full extent of student-college academic undermatch," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 247-261.
    12. Gibbons, Stephen & Vignoles, Anna, 2009. "Access, choice and participation in higher education," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 23656, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Clifford Afoakwah & Isaac Koomson, 2021. "How does school travel time impact children’s learning outcomes in a developing country?," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 1077-1097, December.
    14. Peter Arcidiacono & Michael Lovenheim, 2016. "Affirmative Action and the Quality-Fit Trade-Off," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(1), pages 3-51, March.
    15. Jonathan Smith & Kevin Stange, 2016. "A New Measure of College Quality to Study the Effects of College Sector and Peers on Degree Attainment," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 11(4), pages 369-403, Fall.
    16. Trey Dronyk-Trosper & Brandli Stitzel, 2017. "Lock-In and Team Effects," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 18(4), pages 376-387, May.
    17. Audrey Light & Wayne Strayer, 2004. "Who Receives the College Wage Premium?: Assessing the Labor Market Returns to Degrees and College Transfer Patterns," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 39(3).
    18. Sørensen, Elise Stenholt & Høst, Anders Kamp, 2015. "Does distance determine who is in higher education?," MPRA Paper 74517, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Philip R P Coelho & Tung Liu, 2017. "The Returns to College Education — An Analysis with College-Level Data," Eastern Economic Journal, Palgrave Macmillan;Eastern Economic Association, vol. 43(4), pages 604-620, September.
    20. Philip L. Hersch, 2012. "Does the NCAA Coaching Carousel Hamper the Professional Prospects of College Football Recruits?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 13(1), pages 20-33, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    college; football; recruiting; probit; BCS;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jospec:v:9:y:2008:i:1:p:67-87. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.