{"id":29085,"date":"2022-03-24T01:02:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-24T01:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=29085"},"modified":"2022-03-25T01:11:32","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T01:11:32","slug":"how-much-is-the-media-buzz-from-a-march-madness-cinderella-run-worth-to-a-school-like-saint-peters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-much-is-the-media-buzz-from-a-march-madness-cinderella-run-worth-to-a-school-like-saint-peters\/","title":{"rendered":"How much is the media buzz from a March Madness Cinderella run worth to a school like Saint Peter\u2019s?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nancy Haskell<\/a>, University of Dayton<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few people outside Jersey City had heard of the No. 15 seed Saint Peter\u2019s Peacocks before they upset No. 2 seed Kentucky<\/a> in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two days later, Saint Peter\u2019s beat No. 7 seed Murray State<\/a> to advance to the Sweet 16<\/a> and become the darlings of the men\u2019s college basketball world. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski even suggested that the national media attention could be worth tens of millions of dollars<\/a> to the small New Jersey school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, I<\/a> published a study<\/a> with economists Trevor Collier, Kurt Rotthoff and Alaina Baker that explored the value of unexpected NCAA basketball tournament runs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach K\u2019s forecast is a bit bullish. But we were able to show that earned media<\/a> from a Cinderella run does boost enrollment, which has a tangible financial benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basketball fans tend to know one when they see it, but what exactly is a Cinderella team<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notable examples include No. 10 seed Davidson, led by Stephen Curry, making the Elite Eight in 2008<\/a>; No. 5 seed Butler\u2019s run to the national championship game<\/a> in 2010; and No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast dunking its way to the Sweet 16 in 2013<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We studied teams in the NCAA men\u2019s basketball tournament from 1985 to 2017. During this period, there were 57 instances of Cinderella runs by 52 different schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We defined Cinderella schools as teams that won at least two games, excluding play-in games<\/a>; did not enter as a No. 1 or No. 2 seed; and were dubbed a \u201cCinderella\u201d or something similar by the media. Our results were consistent even when using slight variations of these criteria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found that private schools, such as Saint Peter\u2019s<\/a>, experience the largest gains, with an average increase in freshman enrollment of 4.4% two years after a Cinderella run. Furthermore, student quality \u2013 as measured by SAT scores \u2013 doesn\u2019t decline with this added enrollment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The national media coverage following unexpected tournament success generates large spikes in Google search trends by curious viewers, which, of course, include prospective students. The sudden attention and interest are basically a form of free advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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