This study revisits the issue of racial position segregation or racial “stacking” in intercollegiate football. Estimating a probit model, we examine the impact that a player's race has on the probability of him changing positions when he moves from high school to the collegiate ranks. Descriptive statistics of our data reveal significant evidence that racial position segregation is widespread in high school football. The data also offers much information about which players are likely to change positions and the positions that they are likely to switch to when transitioning from high school to college. Most notably, our probit results reveal that African American high school quarterbacks and white high school running backs are significantly more likely to change positions in college than their white and African American counterparts, respectively. Thus, while other positions do not appear to become more racially segregated as players transition from high school to college, the quarterback and running back positions do appear to become significantly more racially segregated.

Ample research in nonsports labor markets suggests that managerial quality significantly impacts worker productivity; however, studies using sports data have been less likely to find such evidence supporting the importance of managers/coaches. We examine the impact of offensive coordinators on quarterback performance in football. While we find that various offensive coordinator characteristics have little impact on quarterback performance, we show that individual offensive coordinators do seem to play a role in quarterback development. Consistent with research on manager effects outside of sports, this suggests that elite and poor offensive coordinators do significantly impact the productivity of the quarterbacks they manage.

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Using an extensive data set, we conduct an academic study of the determinants of recruiting success in Division 1 basketball and football. Among many findings, we show that football recruiting is correlated with on-court basketball success, although the relationship is not always positive. However, we do not find any evidence supporting the oft-held claim that on-field football success aids in basketball recruiting. Additionally, our models indicate that recruiting effects differ between “power” and “mid-major” conferences. These findings, among others provided herein, should enhance the literature on recruiting in college sports and could encourage administrators and coaches to reconsider recruiting tactics.