Dominance in College Football and the Role of Scholarship Restrictions

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between player compensation in college football and competitive balance on the field. It shows that National Collegiate Athletic Association rule changes restricting football-player compensation are not associated with an improvement in football's competitive balance. Although college football is marginally more balanced than professional sports in any given year, an examination of cumulative records spanning numerous seasons proves college football to be as unbalanced as professional sports. The movement toward reducing player compensation, coincident with an increasing value to player talent, raises issues over how the financial gain from college football talent should be used. The significant degree of talent (and financial) imbalance among college football teams suggests that more attention should be paid to the determinants of talent distribution in college football.