LISTEN: Is investing in sports worth it for universities?

NPR | By Corey Bridges,

Ricky Mulvey, Adrian Ma, Kate Concannon

Published October 1, 2026 at 3:05 PM EDT

Universities spend millions of dollars every year on their athletics programs. But does that investment pay off? Today, we interrogate the “Doug Flutie Effect.”

Fact checking by Cooper Katz McKim.

Your Next Listen

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Corey Bridges

Corey Bridges is an assistant producer at NPR's daily economics podcast, The Indicator.

Ricky Mulvey

Adrian Ma

Adrian Ma covers work, money and other "business-ish" for The Indicator from Planet Money, the daily economics podcast from NPR.

Kate Concannon

Kate Concannon is the Supervising Senior Editor at The Indicator from Planet Money.