The Financial and Competitive Value of NCAA Basketball Recruits

In this article, we examine the value of high school basketball prospects, and results indicate that each five-star (four-star) recruit generates US$625,000 (US$178,000) in marginal revenue for his university. Additionally, university academic donations are strongly related to basketball performance and five-star recruits bring in an additional US$5,800,000 in funding on average as a result of their contribution to team success. Calculations indicate that if five-star players were to be fairly compensated, their earnings would be approximately US$613,000. Four-star prospects would be paid roughly US$166,000, three-star recruits US$91,000, and two- and one-star players US$50,000.