Big-Time College Basketball and the Advertising Effect

Proponents of big-time intercollegiate athletics highlight the public relations produced by successful programs and how this supports the educational mission. In the sports economics literature, this is called the "advertising effect,'' and several studies have found little or no effects for big-time basketball programs. Such conclusions may be premature because most analyses use subsets of all schools playing Division I basketball. The author analyzes how performance is related to academic quality in the first year class using all Division I schools during a 12-year panel. Neither the proportion of freshmen from the top 10th of their high school class, or with a grade point average of B or better, nor the number of entering National Merit Scholars are significantly related to measures of success. Freshman SAT scores are marginally related to one aspect of basketball performance. The conditions needed for a basketball advertising effect appear fleeting and difficult to accomplish.