A framework to assess the impact of complying with college accreditation mandates is developed based on North's (1996) concepts of transaction costs, property rights, and institutions; Clayton's (1999) Systems Alignment Model; and the educational production function described by Hanushek (2007). The framework demonstrates how sought after accreditation performance outcomes may be obtained or missed, based on the organizational and economic interplay across transaction costs, property rights, institutions, and systems misalignment within a community college's operations.