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<p>Advocates of big-time college athletics claim that there are large advertising effects from football and men’s basketball that can act to differentiate horizontally the product that is offered by higher education institutions. Most past research focused on athletic success to capture advertising effects. Universities that are interested in increasing exposure to potential applicants cannot rely on athletic success alone, since athletic competitions generate zero sum outcomes. Instead of success, we estimate the effect of the presence of big-time college sports on incoming freshman class SAT scores over the period 2003-2018 with the use of athletic conference switching as quasi-random shocks to the advertising effect. Difference-in-differences estimates show 2% to 4% increases in SAT scores that followed conference moves that occurred in 2004-2005. Conference moves that occurred in 2011-2014 generated no changes in SAT scores, which reflected a substantial decline in the advertising effect over time.</p>

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Horizontal Product Differentiation in Higher Education Markets and Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Changes

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月3日

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  • Brad R. Humphreys,
  • Patrick A. Reilly

摘要

Advocates of big-time college athletics claim that there are large advertising effects from football and men’s basketball that can act to differentiate horizontally the product that is offered by higher education institutions. Most past research focused on athletic success to capture advertising effects. Universities that are interested in increasing exposure to potential applicants cannot rely on athletic success alone, since athletic competitions generate zero sum outcomes. Instead of success, we estimate the effect of the presence of big-time college sports on incoming freshman class SAT scores over the period 2003-2018 with the use of athletic conference switching as quasi-random shocks to the advertising effect. Difference-in-differences estimates show 2% to 4% increases in SAT scores that followed conference moves that occurred in 2004-2005. Conference moves that occurred in 2011-2014 generated no changes in SAT scores, which reflected a substantial decline in the advertising effect over time.