This paper analyzes the net impacts of college football games on the sales tax revenues and taxable sales of four mid-sized cities in Texas. The paper addresses the question in the title, but also asks whether state policy makers might be justified in encouraging schools in their state to play...

Advocates of big-time college athletics posit large advertising effects from college football and men's basketball. Subsidies of about $20 million per year from universities to athletic department also motivate interest in this topic. Most research focuses on athletic success to quantify...