Does it really matter if the football team is winning or losing when it comes to alumni giving? Jonathan Meer and Harvey S. Rosen do not seem to think so. The National Bureau of Economics Research has published a study conducted by the Stanford University graduate student (Meer) and Princeton University economics professor (Rosen) that challenges the common notion that a winning football or men’s basketball team (arguably the 2 biggest college sports) will bring in more donations.

Their study focuses on one particular university, which is to remain anonymous, and matches data on alumni donations with extensive data about graduates/donors including their majors, extracurricular activities, SAT scores, and post graduate information such as occupations and marital status. It goes on to find that it’s not necessarily the success of the bigger sports that impact alumni giving and that men are more influenced by their previous role in the athletics program than women. Here are the specific findings of the study:

1. Former male athletes are more likely to donate more to both the athletics department and the university as a whole when the team they played on as undergraduates wins conference championships. The same does not hold true for women.
2. Former male athletes are more likely to donate more if they won conference championships themselves while playing in college. Again, the same cannot be said for women.
3. The winning or losing of a school’s football or men’s basketball team had “small and statistically insignificant” effects on giving by alums who were not athletes in college.

So while it may be tempting to think that some of America’s favorite pastimes can be utilized to attract donations, colleges and universities should incorporate these findings into their strategies when approaching alumni. A personal approach and a little nostalgia (especially with men) could go a long way.