North Carolinians are divided on a number of matters that range far and wide. Many disagree on whether Republican or Democratic policies are best for the state. Some vehemently argue on which university is the best in the state. But one thing that Deacons, Dookies, Tar Holes and the Wolfpack can all agree on is that college hoops is the premiere sport of North Carolina.
This realization became increasingly evident after seeing on Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament that almost 10 percent of the teams would be from North Carolina. This year, North Carolina entered NC State, Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, UNC-Greensboro, NC Central and Davidson into the bracket. Along with providing a great number of the teams, North Carolina also hosted the part of the first two rounds of the tournament in Charlotte.
It is not hard to see why basketball has become such a beloved sport in our state. There have been 13 total national championships won by North Carolina schools. The success of these basketball programs is the number one driving reason behind the success of the sport. An immediate second to the popularity of the sport are the economic benefits that the sport provides the local areas of the state.
A Forbes’ article shows that cities which have hosted parts of the tournament in the past have seen large amounts of revenue come into the city. Philadelphia was estimated to have generated $18 million when they hosted the East Regional matches in 2016. The trip to Charlotte this past week by the NCAA provided a sizeable amount of revenue to businesses within the city.
Greensboro will see these benefits by hosting the tournament in 2020, followed by Raleigh in 2021. With the clear positive impact that the sport has on local economies, it is not hard to see why the controversial House Bill 2 was repealed only days after the NCAA announced it would withdraw future events from being held in North Carolina.
Having such strong basketball programs for North Carolina schools is not just great for revenue, but also for the academic success of the schools. A 2017 article published by Bloomberg explains that unpredicted success in the NCAA tournament often leads to an increase in the amount of applicants the school receives in the following years.
The reason for this uptick in applications occurs because of the large amount of news coverage the school receives and the great increase in traffic that is brought to the school webpages. Had UNC-G pulled off the upset in their close 64-68 loss against Gonzaga University, the school would have likely witnessed a substantial boom in 2019 applications.
But it is not just these one-and-done examples of basketball achievement that create athletic success. While it may be hard for some admissions offices to accept, a significant portion of what can drive interest into a school are the schools athletics in what is known as the Flutie Effect. Named after a Boston College quarterback that made a last effort Hail Mary touchdown, Doug Flutie, the theory explains the relationship between school athletic programs and their application rates. The study found that “when a school rises from mediocre to great on the gridiron, applications increase by 17.7 percent.”
The impact of the Flutie Effect is far ranging on college applicants. The study conducted on the effect by Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Doug J. Chung shows that it has a greater effect on people with lower-than-average SAT scores, but that students with high SAT scores are still significantly influenced by the athletic success of a school. Chung’s findings about the Flutie Effect also show that schools become academically “more selective with athletic success.”
