The Effects of Marijuana Legalization on NCAA Men's Basketball Recruiting

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-1-2024

Publication Title

Journal of Sports Economics

Abstract

Over the past two decades, attitudes toward marijuana usage have softened. This shift in sentiment coincided with reduced punishments, decriminalization, and in some states, legalization. We find evidence of unexpected consequences of marijuana legalization. Using difference-in-difference estimation, we show that legalization correlates with recruiting outcomes in NCAA D1 sports. Specifically, legalization appears to improve basketball recruiting outcomes for in-state colleges but hurts recruiting outcomes for football programs. Since collegiate athletics are directly correlated with revenues and may affect the number of general applications that a university receives, our results reveal a channel through which marijuana laws could impact post-secondary education.

Volume Number

25

Issue Number

2

First Page

200

Last Page

216

DOI

10.1177/15270025231217975

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