Passing Up Uncertainty for Attendance: The NCAA Basketball Tournament Organizers Change Direction

Stephen Bronars () and Todd A McFall ()
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Todd A McFall: Department of Economics, Kirby Hall, Wake Forest University, Winston Salem, NC 27109.

Eastern Economic Journal, 2014, vol. 40, issue 4, 459-472

Abstract: We analyze the changes the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a widely studied cartel, made in 2002 to the organizational structure of its most valuable asset, the Division I men’s basketball tournament. The NCAA granted itself more freedom in assigning participating teams to their first-round games, and we conclude it used this freedom to provide the sports’ most powerful members with small advantages in their first-round games. The policy change allowed the organization, unwittingly or otherwise, to trade-off reduced uncertainty of tournament games for increased attendance at games, a move that helped maintain the status quo within the cartel.

Date: 2014
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