High profile athletic success as a predictor for athletics revenue generation in NCAA Division I FBS institutions

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Authors
Wanless, Elizabeth A.
Advisor
Wessel, Roger D.
Issue Date
2015-07-17
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (D. Ed.)
Department
Department of Educational Studies
Other Identifiers
Abstract

Researchers criticize intercollegiate athletics institutions for a lack of investment in revenue generating processes such as ticket sales (Bouchet et al., 2011; Drayer et al., 2012; Howard & Crompton, 2004; Irwin & Sutton, 2011) as well as failing to properly evaluate revenue generation programming (Martin et al., 2011). The purpose of this research project was to assess the relationships between high profile athletic success and athletics generated revenue in the form of ticket sales, basketball-specific, football-specific, and total athletics-related revenue in NCAA FBS schools as well as outline how this relationship should fit into the program theory evaluation model. The results of the fixed effects regression models for all four revenue categories support research that suggested there should be more to generating revenue from year to year within an athletics program than the overemphasis of the pursuit and achievement of high profile athletic success at the NCAA Division I FBS level. Not all high profile athletic success variables predicted revenue generation, and not all high profile athletic success variables that did predict revenue change, predicted a positive change. The relationship between high profile athletic success and revenue generation should be used as a mark of revenue generation programming stability and efficiency in the evaluation process.