How does having a football program affect enrollment at small private colleges?

Clay Collins and E. Frank Stephenson

Education Economics, 2026, vol. 34, issue 2, 311-320

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of fielding college football on enrollment and other aspects of NCAA Division III (DIII) institutions. Unlike larger Division I universities, DIII schools, which are primary private colleges, do not award athletic scholarships. Using two-way fixed effect regressions and coarsened exact matching approaches, we examine the presence of a football program on colleges’ enrollment, admissions standards, and finances. We find that having a football team is associated with significant increases in total enrollment as well as increases in both male and female enrollment. We find no evidence that football negatively affects admissions rate or college revenues.

Date: 2026
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DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2025.2501068

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