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The Impact of Early Commitment on Games Played: Evidence from College Football Recruiting
Author(s) -
Bricker Jesse,
Hanson Andrew
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.4284/0038-4038-2010.119
Subject(s) - scholarship , ordinary least squares , athletes , football , football players , association (psychology) , college football , psychology , advertising , economics , political science , econometrics , business , economic growth , law , medicine , physical therapy , psychotherapist
We use data on athletic scholarship acceptance decisions to show that high school football players signal their ability level by delaying commitment. Although colleges can obtain information about student athletes, National Collegiate Athletic Association regulations limit information flow, making private information an important component of the scholarship market. Using ordinary least squares, censored regression, and negative binomial estimation, we show that for a given observed ability level, committing to a scholarship offer early is associated with less playing time after acceptance. In one season and at a typical average early signing date, early‐committing athletes played in 0.21 fewer games per season, or about 4% of the average number of games played.