We find that, controlling for player performance, players with darker skin tones are consistently rated higher than their lighter-skinned peers. Interacting skin tone with wins and losses finds that darker-skinned players are insulated slightly from the negative effect of losses.

But the problem has always been data. It’s hard to tell how fans rate players. Enter Hupu, a Chinese social media app that allows players to rate the performance of athletes. In the 22/23 NBA seasons, they could rate every player after every game.

This project is particularly close to me as I began working on it as a college freshman over a decade ago. This was part of my honors thesis at Berry, and I’m so happy to finally get it out. A big thanks to John Heywood, the anonymous referees, Berry College, and a few great SEA participants.

So, does it work? We pull enrollment data from IPEDS and use a CEM approach to match football and non-football schools and find that schools with a football program see fairly large increases in enrollment of both male AND female students.

The chief addition is college football. We find 20 DIII schools from 2005/06 to 2022/23 that add college football programs. These were touted as ways to boost male enrollment, but also female enrollment as well (football has an amenity value).