ITS ACADEMIC - OR IS IT - ADMISSIONS STANDARDS AND BIG-TIME COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Objective. The purpose of this research is to determine how far school s with big-time football programs deviate for football players in admi ssions standards, and how much these deviations pay off in terms of fo otball success. Methods. This analysis focuses on school-by-school ent rance exam scores for football players compiled by USA Today. Results. More selective schools recruit more academically qualified football p layers. However, new scholarship football players have substantially l ower entrance scores than all new students at the same school, and the more selective the school, the wider the gap between football recruit s' entrance scores and those of all students. There appears to be no c onnection between football players' scores and a team's success in foo tball, but there is a negative correlation between a school's success on the football field and the proximity of football players' mean SAT scores to all students' SAT scores. Conclusions. The last finding sugg ests that a school's academic quality, and more specifically its abili ty to surround its football recruits with students who will be their i ntellectual superiors rather than their peers, constitutes a decisive recruiting advantage.