Joshua D. Pitts

Racial Position Segregation in Intercollegiate Football: Do Players become more Racially Segregated as they Transition from High School to College?

This study revisits the issue of racial position segregation or racial “stacking” in intercollegiate football. Estimating a probit model, we examine the impact that a player’s race has on the probability of him changing positions when he moves from high school to the collegiate ranks. Descriptive statistics of our data reveal significant evidence that racial position segregation is widespread in high school football. The data also offers much information about which players are likely to change positions and the positions that they are likely to switch to when transitioning from high school to college. Most notably, our probit results reveal that African American high school quarterbacks and white high school running backs are significantly more likely to change positions in college than their white and African American counterparts, respectively. Thus, while other positions do not appear to become more racially segregated as players transition from high school to college, the quarterback and running back positions do appear to become significantly more racially segregated.

The Role of Conference Externalities and Other Factors in Determining the Annual Recruiting Rankings of Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Teams

ABSTRACT In this article, we analyse the impact of school, head coach and conference characteristics on a college football team’s annual recruiting ranking. Utilizing panel data collected from various sources covering 2002–2014, we find that measures of recent school success such as having winning seasons and finishing seasons ranked in the Associated Press (AP) top 25 poll have a positive impact on a team’s recruiting ranking. Similarly, schools with more successful head coaches tend to earn better recruiting classes, while schools facing bowl bans, scholarship restrictions and probation tend to earn worse recruiting classes. Various measures of conference achievement indicate that conference externalities in recruiting may indeed be positive as is often suggested; however, there is much potential for a negative externality as well.

Determinants of Success in the National Football League's Postseason: How Important is Previous Playoff Experience

This study investigates many commonly purported beliefs by fans and media concerning a team’s likelihood of advancing in the National Football League’s (NFL) postseason, including the impact of a team’s previous playoff experience on its future postseason performance. Using data covering the 1966-2012 NFL postseasons, four empirical models are estimated to examine the factors that influence various outcomes associated with a team’s postseason performance. Overall, there is little evidence to suggest that a team’s previous playoff experience has a significant impact on its future postseason performance.

Athletic scholarships in intercollegiate football.

Despite the financial and cultural importance of intercollegiate athletics in the United States, there is a paucity of research into how athletic scholarships are awarded. In this article, the authors empirically examine the factors that universities use in their decision to offer athletic scholarships to high school football players. Using a Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial (ZINB) model, the authors find a player’s weight, height, body mass index (BMI), race, speed, on-the-field performance, and his high school team’s success often have large and significant impacts on the number of scholarship offers he receives. There is also evidence of a negative relationship between academic performance and scholarship offers. In addition, the authors find evidence of a scholarship premium for players from Florida and Texas. The results also show that running backs, wide receivers, and defensive backs appear to generate the most attention from college football coaches, other things equal.

The determinants of NCAA basketball recruiting outcomes

ABSTRACT Using recruiting rankings from Rivals.com, the authors examine the determinants of recruiting success among D1 NCAA men’s basketball programmes. After controlling for a host of potentially relevant variables, the authors find that recruiting outcomes are correlated with recent on-court success, historical on-court success, stadium size and playing in a ‘power’ conference. Additionally, teams with a history of sending players to the NBA receive heightened recruiting outcomes. A team with a new coach can expect difficulties with recruiting, while head coaches with national championships receive a recruiting boost. Finally, the authors show that recruiting strategies for guards may differ from recruiting strategies for other players.

The role of supervisors in the determination of wages and wage gaps

This article considers labour market discrimination by supervisors as a potential contributor to racial and gender wage gaps. Empirical analysis reveals evidence that all workers, except Hispanic males, earn significantly higher hourly wages when working for a supervisor of the same race and sex as themselves. Furthermore, the results suggest that sex has a larger impact on wages than race for workers with white supervisors, while race has a larger impact on wages than sex for workers with minority supervisors. Based on past research, we theorize that the degree of labour discrimination workers face may also be dependent upon the location and size of the firm in which they are employed. However, decomposing the samples by firm location and size suggests that these two factors cannot adequately explain the observed matched supervisor–worker wage effects, which supports the notion that these wage effects are largely driven by factors other than supervisor discrimination.

Full Cost-of-Attendance Scholarships and College Choice

In 2015, the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I schools were permitted to cover the “full cost of attendance” as a part of athletic scholarships for the first time, which allowed schools to provide modest living stipends to its athletes. Differences in cost-of-attendance allotments across schools have the potential to affect the allocation of talent, with higher stipends attracting better student-athletes. Using recently published cost-of-attendance data, we estimate the impact of cost-of-attendance allowances on college football recruiting. Estimates reveal that cost-of-attendance scholarship allowances were positively associated with football recruiting quality immediately following their implementation, indicating that the modest differences in stipends swayed student-athletes’ college choice.

Educational Attainment and the Gender Wage Gap: A Comparison of Young Men and Women in 1984 and 2007

This study pools data from two sources to investigate the role of educational attainment in determining the gender wage gap. The empirical analysis reveals that the returns to education remained largely unchanged for young men but declined significantly for young women over the period 1984–2007. We find significant evidence of a decline in the returns to a Bachelors degree for young women as well as evidence of increasing wage inequality over time among young men and women with a Bachelors degree. Also, in 2007, the gender wage gap between young men and women was largest for those with a Bachelors degree. Further, our analysis suggests that young women with a college education may confront more discrimination in the labor market than young women without a college education. We conclude that promoting educational attainment among young women may be a necessary but not sufficient condition for addressing the gender wage gap.

Cross-Sport Recruiting Effects in NCAA D1 Football and Basketball:

Using an extensive data set, we conduct an academic study of the determinants of recruiting success in Division 1 basketball and football. Among many findings, we show that football recruiting is correlated with on-court basketball success, although the relationship is not always positive. However, we do not find any evidence supporting the oft-held claim that on-field football success aids in basketball recruiting. Additionally, our models indicate that recruiting effects differ between “power” and “mid-major” conferences. These findings, among others provided herein, should enhance the literature on recruiting in college sports and could encourage administrators and coaches to reconsider recruiting tactics.

Evidence of Skill and Strategy in Daily Fantasy Basketball

Using hand-collected data from DraftKings.com, a major daily fantasy sports website, we analyze draft selections of thousands of participants in daily fantasy basketball (DFB). In our study, the first thorough examination of DFB, we show that DFB is a game in which skill is necessary for success. Using econometric analysis, we find that winning participants utilize different strategies than losing participants; for example, winning participants more frequently select NBA rookies and international players. We also find that participants paying to enter more lineups in a given contest earn profits far more often than those entering few lineups, indicating that the number of lineups entered can serve as a proxy for skill. Additionally, we provide a thorough discussion of industry characteristics, prior literature, and gameplay, which should help readers familiarize themselves with this burgeoning fantasy sports variant. This study should further the literature on the contentious activity, which has been outlawed in many U.S. states and continues to elicit controversy.