Long-run impacts of athletic conference membership changes on athletic department revenues

Purpose The purpose of this study is to evaluate the long-run athletic department revenue impacts of these athletic conference membership changes by university administrators. Design/methodology/approach University administrator’s decision to change athletic conference is estimated as a panel with conference fixed effects and robust standard errors. An advantage of using panel data is that it allows one to control for variables that are not observable. Findings I find that entry increases revenues and exit decreases revenues. Schools that changed from one Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conference to another did not see long run increases in media revenues, while universities moving to another FBS conference after the demise of the WAC saw increases in revenues. Finally, changing athletic conference did not statistically impact subsidies during this time period. Originality/value This study addresses the long-run financial impacts of changing athletic conferences on athletic department revenues.