Northwestern Master's Thesis
Synopsis: This paper analyzes 7,993 Division I FBS football transfers from 2018–2024 to show how the transfer portal and NIL have transformed college football into a dynamic labor market where athletes strategically move to optimize playing time, earnings, and professional opportunity. The findings demonstrate that downward transfers primarily increase on-field opportunity, while upward transfers—especially those with higher NIL valuations—are more strongly associated with NFL outcomes, reframing recruiting stars as secondary once market signals and mobility are considered
Revenue Above Replacement Podcast Link (Featured as Guest Speaker to discuss my research)
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Derailed Football Players & Mobility Papers
Clemson Independent Study: precursor of paper with Andy/Mark
Synopsis of Independent Study: This line of research began as an undergraduate independent study focused on a puzzling data problem: a non-trivial number of elite (3–5★) high school football recruits never appeared on a college roster despite holding scholarships. That project produced strong, statistically robust results showing that these “derailed” players disproportionately came from lower-quality high schools, lower-income neighborhoods, and counties with low intergenerational mobility, even after accounting for talent
Synopsis of Paper with Andrew and Mark: Building on previous findings, the project then scaled into a national analysis of 33,850 elite football recruits (2005–2022), reframing derailment as a systematic, place-based outcome rather than an individual failure. By combining school characteristics, neighborhood demographics, and Chetty–Hendren county mobility measures, the paper shows that elite talent is concentrated in low-mobility areas (an investment effect), while derailment is most prevalent in the lowest-mobility environments (a resource effect), highlighting how structural barriers persist even when access to college football is formally guaranteed.