Authors Paul W. Grimes and George A. Chressanths acknowledge that many studies have been done in the area of relating donations to athletic programs and athletic success. However, they seek to extend the argument by questioning whether contributions as a whole to the school increase with athletic achievement. They propose three improvements on previous studies: time series data for one university over an extended period to determine alumni giving, looking at the effects of NCAA sanctions and punishments, and by looking at the impact of televised sports coverage on alumni donations. They ran the following regression equation:
CONTRIBUTIONSt
= alpha + beta1ALUMNI BASEt + beta2ENROLLMENTt
+ beta3APPROPRIATIONSt
+ beta4INCOMEt + beta5WINNINGt
+ beta6POST
SEASONt +beta7TELEVISIONt + beta8SANCTIONSt
+ epsilont
where the variables are
explained as follows.
CONTRIBUTIONS Annual alumni contributions to
development foundation in real
thousands of dollars (1982).
Independent Variables
ALUMNI BASE (+) Cumulative number of degrees
granted during previous
50-year period.
ENROLLMENT (+) Total university student
headcount for the Fall
academic semester.
APPROPRIATIONS (-) Annual level of funding
provided by the state in real
dollars (1982).
INCOME (+) U.S. per capita personal
income in real dollars (1982).
WINNING % (+) Total games won / total games
played during season.
POST SEASON (+) Team invited to post season
bowl or tournament - 1;
otherwise - 0.
TELEVISION (+) Annual number of games
broadcast on television.
SANCTIONS (-) NCAA sanctions imposed for
rules violation = 1;
otherwise = 0.
In answer to their main research question, the authors conclude that
indeed, athletic team success does create spillover for all alumni donations.
Source:
Grimes,
Paul W. and Chressanths, George A. “Alumni
contributions to athletics: The role
of intercollegiate sports and NCAA sanctions.”
American Journal of Economics and Sociology: Jan 1994, Volume 53 Issue
1, pg 27.
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