With the NCAA tournament set to begin, fans' attention is on brackets and seedings. By at least one measure, this focus will mean a decrease in academic productivity, says Duke University professor Charles Clotfelter. In his 2011 book "Big-Time Sports in American Universities," Clotfelter analyzed the number of articles viewed during February, March and April at 78 research libraries in three different years. Using the retrieval of articles as a measure of work, he found declines corresponding to the tournament. He explains the study in this video (at 4:20): http://ondemand.duke.edu/video/26285/big-time-sports-in-american-un.Charles Clotfelter Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy at Duke University's Sanford School of Public PolicyContact information: charles.clotfelter@duke.edu or (919) 613-7361Website: http://sites.duke.edu/bigtimesports/A more in-depth video interview with Clotfelter: http://ondemand.duke.edu/video/30062/the-value-of-big-time-college- Quote:"The week after selection Sunday, the amount of work goes down. But, in addition to that, the amount of work goes down if your team wins a big game."
