March 11, 2026 3:48AM # Does Competition Reduce Discrimination? Evidence from College Football By [Jeffrey Miron](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-miron) --- SHARE Listen to this article Generated with [ ElevenLabs](https://elevenlabs.io/) AI technology. Loading the [Elevenlabs Text to Speech](https://elevenlabs.io/text-to-speech) AudioNative Player... A standard [economic view](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MloWj0e7UTs) holds that markets will moderate some kinds of discrimination because “profit” maximizing organizations will recognize that discrimination is costly to their bottom line or other goals. A [recent study](https://www.cato.org/research-briefs-economic-policy/remembering-college-football-titans-integrating-college-football) looked at the integration of college football in the 1970s for supporting evidence. By comparing conference-wide rankings and team win percentages before and after a team integrated, the study found that > poorly performing teams, potentially seeking to improve their win rate, choose to integrate. Also, > worse teams were more likely to integrate than better teams.… A likely explanation … is that poorly performing teams integrated to attract talented players. These results indicate that > firms with low profits stop discriminating, or discriminate less, in a bid to increase profitability. Somewhere, [Gary Becker](https://www.chicagobooth.edu/review/how-gary-becker-saw-the-scourge-of-discrimination) is smiling. *Cross-posted from* [*Substack*](https://jeffreymiron.substack.com/p/immigration-restrictions-cause-enforcement)*.* ##### Related Tags [Libertarianism](https://www.cato.org/libertarianism) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).