More than a few Americans apparently think that a college or university is probably worth going to based on the success of its big sports teams. Could that be true?
In today’s Martin Center article, economics professor Jody Lipford argues that it might be. He writes:
More directly, do universities with winning athletic programs rank high on metrics of academic and educational quality? And does it matter if the athletic program is well-run financially? The findings indicate that winning athletic programs and educational quality do go together but also that financially sound athletic programs and educational quality go together.
So, schools with winning sports teams tend to educationally sound, based on Lipford’s analysis. What should students and parents make of that?
Lipford advises caution:
Yet, as shown in the scatterplots, the correlations are not perfect: Some schools win on the field and court but offer low-quality educational programs, and other schools lose on the field and court but offer high-quality educational programs. There must be more to the story.
Certainly so. There are many splendid schools that don’t get much into sports at all. Also, even schools that have good academic reputations might be poor in the specific areas the student wants to focus on. Fielding successful sports teams might be probative, but it’s not dispositive.