ABERDEEN, S.D. –?Dr. Aaron Scholl, assistant professor of economics at Northern State University, has co-authored a journal article with recent Northern graduate Dante Casanova.
Their work, titled “Beyond the Field: Analyzing the Relationship Between Division I Athletics and Postsecondary Enrollment,” appears in the May 2025 edition of the Economics and Business Journal: Inquiries and Perspectives.
The study looks at data from 2012 to 2021 to determine how NCAA Division I football success affects student enrollment. By combining football rankings from Pro Football Reference with enrollment numbers from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, the authors identified measurable increases in both applications and enrollment at universities with successful football programs.
Among the findings: schools ranked in the year-end Associated Press Top 25 saw a 5.3 percent rise in applications, along with 8.7 percent growth in both total and undergraduate enrollment. The analysis also showed that a one-point increase in a team’s Simple Rating System score corresponded with modest but consistent gains in enrollment.
“I couldn’t be happier to see the culmination of this project result in publication. What began as an honors project grew into a full research proposal, with Dante continuing to push the work across several analytics and honors courses,” said Scholl. “It’s incredibly inspiring to watch students take what they’ve learned in the classroom and translate those skills into contributions that are recognized and valued by scholars in the field.”
Undergraduate enrollment showed the strongest response, particularly among female students.
“Working on my Honors thesis with Dr. Scholl was truly the icing on the cake to my degree at Northern,” Casanova said. “To go from brainstorming thesis topics in Dr. Scholl’s office to now seeing our work published in a recognized academic journal is incredibly rewarding. It is my hope that this makes our research more visible and accessible for university decision-makers who advocate for the vital role college sports play in the framework of postsecondary education.”
The article can be read online at: neb-a.org