Trophies and Transcripts

Attracting More Students

Once a school gains notoriety from athletic success, prospective students take notice. Dr. Baker notes in his study that admission inquiries from prospective students to GMU went up 350 percent, out-of-state applications increased by 40 percent, and total freshmen applications increased by 22 percent after its success in the college basketball tournament.³

A similar study out of the University Of Chicago and Brigham Young University that examined where students choose to send their SAT scores showed that a university that “has a stellar year in basketball or football on average receives up to 10 percent more SAT scores,” meaning more prospective students,⁴and potentially a more competitive pool of applicants for the school to choose from, which in turn could create a stronger academic profile for the incoming class.

Fostering Academic Success

For a university, more applicants can mean a stronger class, and a stronger class brings greater academic success. This is one factor that may lead to greater retention and graduation rates among universities with strong athletic programs; however, a stronger group of students is not the only key to academic success.⁵

As Dr. Franklin Mixon and Dr. Len Treviño explain in their study From Kickoff to Commencement: The Positive Role of Intercollegiate Athletics in Higher Education,a strong athletic program can foster a sense of excitement and pride for students at a university. They assert that this can “help students deal with the psychic costs of leaving home” for the first time, a positive effect that would spill over into the classroom, promoting academic success.

The sense of school pride that comes with athletic success also helps a student feel more connected to a school. This can create an environment where students are less likely to transfer, and more likely to work hard to stay at the university, boosting graduation rates for universities across the state, and increasing the breadth and reach of a school’s alumni network, typically a good measure of the academic reputation of an institution.

3  George Mason University. The Bussiness of Being Cinderella: Mason Releases Study on Final Four Impact.
4  Pope, Devin G., and Jaren C. Pope. “Understanding College Application Decisions: Why College Sports Success Matters.” Journal of Sports Economics 15.2 (2012): 107-31.
5  Mixon, Franklin G., and Len J. Treviño. “From Kickoff to Commencement: The Positive Role of Intercollegiate Athletics in Higher Education.” Economics of Education Review 24.1 (2005): 97-102.

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