Who Profits from Amateurism? Rent Sharing in Modern College Sports

Abstract

Intercollegiate amateur athletics in the United States have historically prevented student-athletes from receiving market wages, creating substantial economic rents that are primarily generated by men's football and basketball programs. Using financial data from college athletic departments, we estimate rent-sharing elasticities to measure how rents flow to women's sports and other men's sports and lead to increased spending on athletic facilities and coaches' salaries. Using player-level data, we find that the rent-sharing transfers spending away from students who are more likely to be Black and come from poor neighborhoods toward students more likely to be White and come from higher-income neighborhoods. (JEL I23, J15, J16, J31, L83, Z21, Z22)