Among large universities, success inhigh-profile intercollegiate athletics appears to be onefactor among several in the college choice process foraspiring undergraduates. Winning a national championship in one of the two most visible college sports— football and men''s basketball — isroutinely accompanied by significant positive attentionfor an institution. That attention appears to translateinto increases in applications received for undergraduateadmission in subsequent admissions cycles. We comparedyear-to-year and multiyear changes in the number ofapplications submitted following winning a national championship with changes in parallel sets ofdata from peer institutions that did not experience achampionship, thereby isolating athletic success as afactor in the college choice process. We found that notable increases generally occurred inadmissions applications received-both in absolute termsbut more importantly relative to peer schools — inthe years following the championship season.