A study has proved some basis for the long-held anecdote that the better a college's sports team does in high-profile sporting events, the more student applications are submitted in the following years.
The study, titled "The Impact of College Sports Success on the Quantity and Quality of Student Applications," was conducted by brothers Devin and Jaren Pope, who set out to quantify this belief.
Devin Pope, assistant professor of operations and information management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and Jaren Pope, assistant professor of environmental, public and urban economics at North Carolina State, were sitting around their kitchen table one day when they began discussing sports and economics.
"We decided that this could be looked at comprehensively from a statistical point of view," said Devin Pope, who published the essay in January.
According to Pope, after purchasing data from the Thompson Corp. for all 330
universities that have a Division I basketball or football program, the brothers concluded that winning the NCAA football or men's basketball title means a bump of about 8 percent in applications the following year.
This phenomenon, known as the "Flutie Effect," has been on the minds of college administrators since the famous Doug Flutie miracle Hail Mary pass that helped Boston College to beat Miami in 1984.
In an AP article in the Seattle Times published March 24, Gonzaga is used as an example. The article asserts that until the mid-'90s, when the Zags broke into NCAA Tournament success, the school was practically unknown.
Asked why Gonzaga was such a good example of the effects, Pope said: "We find that private schools receive a larger boost in applications due to sport successes than public schools. One potential reason for this is that there may be many private schools, like Gonzaga, which do not have the same name recognition that large public universities like Ohio State and UNC have."
According to Pope, when Gonzaga does well in basketball, more people learn about Gonzaga for the first time, thus bringing an influx of applications.
"I think that Gonzaga is the type of university for which a sports success can affect the most," Pope said. "The same could be said of Davidson in this year's tournament."
The study concluded that schools that make it to the Sweet 16 in the men's NCAATournament saw an average 3 percent boost in applications the following year.
The champion prepared for a 7 to 8 percent increase, and just making the 65-team field could net schools an average 1 percent bump.
"In sixth grade I fell in love with Gonzaga's basketball team," sophomore Thomas Knowlton said. "That's when I knew Gonzaga was my No. 1 choice."
Since the 1999 Elite 8 appearance by the Zags, enrollment has grown from slightly more than 4,500 to nearly 7,000, said Dale Goodwin, University spokesman.
Pope's study suggests that schools use this boost in applications to increase student quality and increase enrollment.
The study even provides evidence to suggest that colleges use this applicant increase to modify tuition levels.
An additional study the brothers are working on right now tries to answer the question of why individuals use athletic success in their application decisions.
According to Pope, they will consider two reasons students choose a school based on sports success.
"Either because they want to be part of a school that has a strong sports program or the attention generated by sports success causes them to be more likely to include the school in their choice set," Pope said.
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