Fraternal researchers Jaren and Devin Pope recently completed their study of the impact of college sports success on admissions, finding that the number of applications increases between 2 percent and 8 percent for the top 20 football schools and top 16 basketball schools each year.
The variation in the percentages can be attributed to the schools' rankings in their respective sports. For example, the team finishing first in either sport will likely experience the 8 percent applicant pool increase, whereas the schools finishing 16th or 20th will see the 2 percent rise.
Dubbed the "Flutie Effect," the research is based on the 30 percent application increase in the two years after Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass gave Boston College a win over defending national champion Miami in 1984.
Jaren Pope, an assistant professor in the agriculture department at Tech, has been working on the research project since the idea was originally pitched in 2004.
The brothers gathered information from approximately 330 colleges and universities nationwide between 1983 and 2002. This included every American institution that has an NCAA Division I football or basketball team with the ability to play for a national championship. Among those studied was Virginia Tech.
Their findings, forthcoming in the Southern Economic Journal, also shows contrast between private and public universities. Private schools showed a 5 percent increase in applicants, compared to 3 percent among public schools.
David Warren, the president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, has spoken out against the premise behind the Flutie Effect, labeling it a myth.
Warren's reasoning is that a successful season on the playing field only translates to a one-year bump in applications, often not increasing the applicant pool.
Pope, however, said that his research shows an increased pool with students possessing both low and high SAT scores.
"A school can exploit that by enrolling more, or being more selective to improve their incoming freshman class," Jaren Pope said.
Additionally, Pope said it is almost impossible to accurately identify the impact that a successful sports program has over a one- or two-year period. Pope's research covers a 19-year period, enabling the studies to show the increase as well as the stability that followed.
Don Walsch, George Mason University's press secretary, said that his school had an experience very similar to that shown in Pope's research.
"We experienced a number of visible results from our Final Four experience," Walsch said. "They were in admissions, alumni activities, people participating in events and a wide-range of other things."
Walsch added that he did not think there were any drawbacks to attention surrounding Mason's 2006 NCAA tournament run, noting that it made much of the country curious about where the college is located and what they are about.
"It increased our visibility nationwide enormously," Walsch said. "It puts a spotlight on us in a big way for people who didn't know who we were or what we were about. There was a genuine sense of pride in those affiliated with the university, either currently or in the past."
Norrine Bailey Spencer, director of Undergraduate Admissions, said she feels as though the storied athletic program at Tech has helped to give the university exposure.
"Certainly increased national attention through the media has brought awareness to our institution from many fronts," Spencer said. "We are grateful for that and happy to talk to students about the academics needed to become a part of this amazing spirit."
Pope also described college athletics as an "arms race," in which universities are constantly devoting more money to athletics to stay competitive with one another. Because of this, Pope stressed that his research is not an indicator of how good an investment athletics are for universities.
"This study identifies the short-run benefits of athletics for colleges and universities," Pope said. "It does not address whether putting more money into sports programs is really the best use of resources."
Though Pope did not specifically study the effects of Tech's recent basketball success or its appearance in the 1999 Sugar Bowl, the college football national championship, he noted that he would expect them to fit his research.
Referred to as the "Vick Effect" by several of his colleagues, Pope noted that the teams second-place finish would have corresponded with a 6 percent or 7 percent application increase.
Pope's research shows that after the initial application boom, the numbers will gradually stabilize after two to three years, though they may never return completely to their original averages.
At George Mason, Walsch notes that his university could still be feeling the effects of its positive publicity.
"It hasn't continued at the level that we first experienced, in the first six to nine months after the Final Four, but the increase was fairly stable and has held," Walsch said. "One of our challenges after the Final Four was over was to figure out what we could do to maintain the intense interest in the university."
Possibly the biggest challenge for schools experiencing the increase in interest in their programs is keeping themselves in the limelight.
Walsch noted that their attempts to remain appealing to incoming freshman have been difficult, but not pressure inducing.
"We knew it would subside a bit, but we wanted to do our best to maintain it," Walsch said.
"In terms of the overall institution, we've always tried to be better this year than we were last year, and that will continue forever."