IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v5y2015i4p2158244015611186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Division I Intercollegiate Athletics Success and the Financial Impact on Universities

Author

Listed:
  • Adam G. Walker

Abstract

Private monetary contributions and the role of athletics are topics of discussion at nearly all institutions, and thus any relationship between the two has become increasingly valuable to determine donor motivations. This quantitative research study analyzed universities’ overall private contributions to determine whether there was a significant difference in the percentage of overall financial support to the institutions following a year of athletics success. For this study, athletics success included participation in either the Division I (DI) men’s basketball National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Final Four or DI Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Bowl Championship Series (BCS) Bowl Game. The study focused on a period of 10 years (2002-2011) using a sample of 129 observations (Council for Aid to Education’s [CAE] Voluntary Support of Education [VSE] Survey)—satisfying the criteria above, then comparing them with the baseline (all institutions) during the same period of time to determine whether the change in the percentage of overall contribution was statistically significant over a 2-year period. The results show a significant statistical difference of more than double in the percent increase of overall private contributions for institutions with athletics success compared with all higher education institutions. Furthermore, a small statistical difference was found for the athletics success in private institutions compared with public institutions that experienced similar athletics success. No difference was found by region, for history of athletics success, or between basketball or football athletics success for those institutions experiencing athletics success. The study concluded that there are significant implications for overall private financial support for institutions that experience athletics success, especially those with a private affiliation.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam G. Walker, 2015. "Division I Intercollegiate Athletics Success and the Financial Impact on Universities," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(4), pages 21582440156, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:5:y:2015:i:4:p:2158244015611186
    DOI: 10.1177/2158244015611186
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2158244015611186
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/2158244015611186?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. Meer, Jonathan & Rosen, Harvey S., 2009. "The impact of athletic performance on alumni giving: An analysis of microdata," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 287-294, June.
    2. Devin G. Pope & Jaren C. Pope, 2009. "The Impact of College Sports Success on the Quantity and Quality of Student Applications," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 75(3), pages 750-780, January.
    3. Michael L. Anderson, 2012. "The Benefits of College Athletic Success: An Application of the Propensity Score Design with Instrumental Variables," NBER Working Papers 18196, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. McCormick, Robert E & Tensley, Maurice, 1987. "Athletics versus Academics? Evidence from SAT Scores," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 95(5), pages 1103-1116, October.
    5. Phanindra V. Wunnava & Albert A. Okunade, 2013. "Do Business Executives Give More to Their Alma Mater? Longitudinal Evidence from a Large University," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 761-778, July.
    6. Irvin B. Tucker, 2005. "Big-Time Pigskin Success," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 6(2), pages 222-229, May.
    7. Stinson, Jeffrey L. & Howard, Dennis R., 2008. "Winning Does Matter: Patterns in Private Giving to Athletic and Academic Programs at NCAA Division I-AA and I-AAA Institutions," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, May.
    8. Jeffrey L. Stinson & Dennis R. Howard, 2008. "Winning Does Matter: Patterns in Private Giving to Athletic and Academic Programs at NCAA Division I-AA and I-AAA Institutions," Sport Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, January.
    9. Meer, Jonathan & Rosen, Harvey S., 2009. "The impact of athletic performance on alumni giving: An analysis of microdata," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 287-294, June.
    10. John Goddard & Peter J. Sloane, 2005. "Economics of sport," Chapters, in: Simon W. Bowmaker (ed.), Economics Uncut, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. repec:pri:cepsud:162rosen is not listed on IDEAS
    12. TA. Rhoads & S. Gerking, 2000. "Educational contributions, academic quality, and athletic success," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 18(2), pages 248-258, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Benjamin Baumer & Andrew Zimbalist, 2019. "The Impact of College Athletic Success on Donations and Applicant Quality," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-23, April.
    2. Michael L. Anderson, 2017. "The Benefits of College Athletic Success: An Application of the Propensity Score Design," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 99(1), pages 119-134, March.
    3. Jerome Segura & Jonathan Willner, 2018. "The Game Is Good at the Top," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(5), pages 645-676, June.
    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. Daniel C. Hickman & Andrew G. Meyer, 2017. "Does Athletic Success Influence Persistence At Higher Education Institutions? New Evidence Using Panel Data," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 35(4), pages 658-676, October.
    6. Laura Beaudin, 2018. "Examining the Relationship Between Athletic Program Expenditure and Athletic Program Success Among NCAA Division I Institutions," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 19(7), pages 1016-1045, October.
    7. D. Randall Smith, 2009. "College Football and Student Quality: An Advertising Effect or Culture and Tradition?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 553-579, April.
    8. Jerome Segura III & Jonathan Willner, 2019. "Athleticism in NCAA D-III: It Ain’t Only Football That Matters," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 20(7), pages 929-958, October.
    9. Mark D. Groza, 2010. "NCAA conference realignment and football game day attendance," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(8), pages 517-529, December.
    10. Robert Baade & Robert Baumann & Victor Matheson, 2011. "Big Men on Campus: Estimating the Economic Impact of College Sports on Local Economies," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(3), pages 371-380.
    11. Daniel R. Marburger, 2015. "How Are Athletic Directors Rewarded in the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision?," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 16(3), pages 254-267, April.
    12. Malcolm Getz & John Siegfried, 2010. "What Does Intercollegiate Athletics Do To or For Colleges and Universities?," Vanderbilt University Department of Economics Working Papers 1005, Vanderbilt University Department of Economics.
    13. 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.
    14. Kerianne Lawson, 2021. "The Lasting Impact of NCAA Sanctions: SMU and the Death Penalty," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 22(8), pages 946-981, December.
    15. Jonathan Willner, 2019. "Private Universities and NCAA D-III Athletics as a General Recruiting Tool," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 25(3), pages 293-307, August.
    16. Robert A. Baade & Robert W. Baumann & Victor A. Matheson, 2008. "Assessing the Economic Impact of College Football Games on Local Economies," Journal of Sports Economics, , vol. 9(6), pages 628-643, December.
    17. 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.
    18. David Ong, 2022. "The college admissions contribution to the labor market beauty premium," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 40(3), pages 491-512, July.
    19. Tucker, Irvin B., 2004. "A reexamination of the effect of big-time football and basketball success on graduation rates and alumni giving rates," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 655-661, December.
    20. Christopher Avery & Brian Cadman & Gavin Cassar, 2016. "Academics vs. Athletics: Career Concerns for NCAA Division I Coaches," NBER Working Papers 22120, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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:sagope:v:5:y:2015:i:4:p:2158244015611186. 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.