The impact of visibility on school athletic finances: an empirical analysis using Google Trends

Sarthak S. Behera () and Divya Sadana ()
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Sarthak S. Behera: Centre College
Divya Sadana: University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

Empirical Economics, 2025, vol. 69, issue 3, No 16, 1585-1629

Abstract: Abstract Many papers in the past literature provide evidence on the impact of athletic performance on various school outcomes. This paper uses the weekly college football poll by the organization Associated Press (AP), to investigate the effect of a college team ranked in top 25 on various school outcomes such as revenues and expenses of school, coaches’ salary, and enrollment. The college football poll also known as AP poll conducts weekly voting to assign the teams certain points based on which these teams are ranked. The results are twofold: first, we verify the visibility of a school using Google Trends by exploiting the discontinuity arising due to the points of 25th ranked versus 26th ranked team. And second, the results provide evidence of the impact of this visibility of being in top 25 on positive school outcomes.

Keywords: College football; Google Trends; School finances; Enrollment; Student quality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 I22 Z20 Z23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s00181-025-02764-7

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