Universities Behaving Badly: The Impact of Athletic Malfeasance on Student Quality and Enrollment

Abstract

National accolades and positive media attention are frequently lavished upon successful collegiate sports programs. Correspondingly, studies have demonstrated that universities often benefit from the achievements of their athletic teams by increasing the schools’ application numbers, student quality, and alumni donations. This study demonstrates that the opposite effect occurs when a university’s sports team is accused of engaging in impropriety. Our findings suggest that the negative attention given to the National Collegiate Athletic Association postseason tournament ban of a men’s basketball program could serve as a signal to prospective students regarding the quality of the institution. This perception ultimately leads to a decrease in the infracting university’s enrollment the year before the ban that then rebounds the year after the ban. However, the ban reduces the percentage of high-achieving students who choose to attend the university after the ban has been implemented.

The “Cinderella Effect”: The Value of Unexpected March Madness Runs as Advertising for the Schools

“…We find, by contrast, that unexpected, Cinderella basketball performances increase yield (the percent of admitted freshmen who choose to enroll) for private universities, which tend to be smaller and less well-known. The effect on enrollment from unexpected March Madness success is akin to the decline in enrollment following athletic team impropriety (and likely subsequent sanctions; Eggers et al, 2019Eggers et al, , 2020. Taken together, perhaps potential students respond to advertising from expected athletic success in applications, while unexpected changes to athletic team status affects enrollment decisions.…”

“…Academic studies have also found lower grades can result from participation in athletics and from fielding successful athletic teams (Hernández-Julián & Rotthoff, 2014;Lindo et al, 2012;Maloney & McCormick, 1993). Additionally, when a school has an athletic team that engages in impropriety, it can lead to lower enrollments and quality of incoming students (Eggers et al, 2019(Eggers et al, , 2020.…”

When the Game Stands Tall

“…As such, college athletic programs are inextricably linked to school branding and reputation. Further, college athletics have been found to play an integral role in student enrollment and increase college / university profiles (Goff, 2000;Eggers, Groothuis, Redding, Rotthoff, & Solimini, 2020). This in turn often results in financial windfalls in the form of corporate partnerships and donations that ultimately contribute to the financial solvency of the institutions.…”

The Lasting Impact of NCAA Sanctions: SMU and the Death Penalty

“…Sanctions can affect the competitive balance in sports (Depkin & Wilson, 2006) and employment and promotion decisions about coaches (Soebbing et al, 2015). Eggers et al (2020) and Groothuis et al (2019) find that postseason bans on collegiate level basketball teams negatively affect the quality and quantity of applications to the college or university, and these results persist for years after the ban is lifted. Johnson and McCannon (2019) also look at the quality of the incoming freshman classes at Penn State University after the football scandal in 2011.…”

“…Misconduct, athletic or otherwise, can hurt a school financially or in academic performance. Eggers et al (2020) and Groothuis et al (2019) show that sanctions on NCAA basketball programs have adverse effects on academic outcomes, such as the number of applications and the quality of those applicants. Rooney and Smith (2019) find that high-profile instances of misconduct, not just athletic ones, at universities negatively affect the number of applicants in the following year.…”