Dr. Jennifer Platania, assistant professor of Economics, has had her article, “An Economic Model of the College Football Recruiting Process,” co-authored with Michael DuMond (Research Economist, ERS Group) and Allen Lynch (Mercer University), accepted for publication in the Journal of Sports Economics. The results of this paper have already been cited by the Associated Press, as well as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and ESPN. An abstract of the paper is included below.
ABSTRACT: College football programs devote an enormous amount of resources in efforts to persuade high school football players to attend their schools. In this study, we develop an empirical model of the factors that recruits consider when selecting a school, using a database that combines school-specific attributes with recruit-specific information. Our estimates imply that recruits’ decisions are governed by a handful of primary factors such as the geographical distance between the recruit and the college, the school’s recent football rankings and whether the school is a member of one of the six BCS conferences.