GCL SportsBiz Brief: Benefits of College Athletics Success

Roll Tide...

The SEC proved it is the dominant conference in college football once again in what ended up as a less than entertaining BCS National Championship Game. But sometimes, a victory is more than just a victory!! On this week's GCL SportsBiz Brief, we'll analyze a hidden aspect of the 'Bama victory.

Do you ever wonder what the impact of Alabama's "dynasty" in college football will have on-campus? There's no doubt that Alabama's 42-14 thrashing of Notre Dame will definitely help Nick Saban secure another Top 5 recruiting class on signing day in February and will help the ticket office continue its streak of consecutive sellouts in the 100,000 stadium. But what impact will this victory have on the # of applicants, the SAT scores of those applicants, donations to the university, and more? Does a strong football program impact the quality of student who attends a university?

We are joined by Professor Michael Anderson who will discuss the correlation between strong athletic programs at the collegiate level and SAT scores (or academic success).

Anderson, Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economics, has written a fascinating research paper that states that spending on college athletics is justified because a successful college program attracts better students to the institution as well as other beneficial outcomes.

Join us Tuesday at Noon ET/9am PT for this conversation (and more) as we also cover 5 Hot Topics in SportsBiz heading into 2013!