The Faculty Flutie Factor: Does Football Performance Affect a University’s US News and World Report Peer Assessment Score?

Abstract

Analyzing the peer assessment portion of the US News and World Report’s college rankings, we find that administrators and faculty rate more highly universities whose football team receives a greater number of votes in either the final Associated Press or Coaches’ Poll. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity, our estimates suggest that a one standard deviation increase in the number of votes received in either the Associated Press or USA Today Coaches’ Football Poll is viewed as positively as a twenty-five point increase in a school’s SAT score at the 75th percentile.

Keywords: college football, football bowl subdivision, national universities, peer assessment

JEL Classification: I2, I23, L83