Call it the March Madness effect.

New research confirms what college admission officials have been saying for years: Impressive performances by student-athletes can spur increases in freshman applications.

“Research by Devin and Jaren Pope, two economists, has found that colleges whose men’s basketball teams qualified for March Madness, the sport’s championship tournament, saw a 2.4 percent average increase in the total number of applications, as measured by the number of SAT college-entrance exam results received,” according to a recent article published by The Economist. “Colleges whose teams made the Final Four saw a 5.8 percent increase in applications, while colleges whose teams won the entire tournament saw a 10.9 percent increase in applications in the year after their victory.”

Continue reading Study: March Madness Victors See Boost in Applications →