BY KYLE NELSON
Out of all the possible marketing strategies a college can use, ten seconds in a sports arena can impact their student enrollment by thousands.
In the 2016 Orange Bowl Game, Florida State’s quarterback Deondre Francois launched a 92 yard touchdown pass directly into the hands of receiver Nyqwan Murray, leaving both FSU fans and Michigan fans in disbelief. Little did fans or players know, but this single pass would have effects that would carry all the way across campus, even to the admissions office.
With the astounding win against Michigan, FSU finished the season ranked number 8 in the NCAA. This season-ending win would establish a promising omen for the Seminoles moving into 2017-2018. Interestingly enough, the numbers of applicants flew through the roof. In 2015, 36,429 students applied to Florida State for fall of 2016; this is substantially less than FSU’s application total the following year, which hit a whopping 42,325. Essentially, after finishing off their football season with a promising outlook, FSU saw a 16 percent jump in applicants from the year prior.
This is not seen in strictly football, either. After back to back successful basketball seasons, the number of applicants to Georgetown University grew by 45 percent between 1983 and 1986.
The idea that students choose universities based off of their athletic success is known as the Flutie effect. The Flutie effect is a theory that students often pick schools that have an established athletic program, whether or not they are student athletes. This theory is named after Boston College‘s quarterback Doug Flutie, whose successful Hail Mary pass secured a win in the 1984 game against the University of Miami. Applications to Boston College then increased 16 percent the following year. This does not mean that students are applying to colleges based solely on the number of NCAA trophies they have in their hallways, but it still has a major effect on how students pick their school of choice. The more athletically successful the school is, the more of a household name it becomes – so, when a student is applying to colleges, they are more likely to pick the school they know of.
Harvard business administration professor Doug J. Chung, whose recent research paper, The Dynamic Advertising Effect of Collegiate Athletics, shows how on-field success increases the number of applicants schools receive. The idea that athletics are narrowing down where a student will attend college is slightly alarming at face value, but it is actually beneficial to both the school and students if the institution is athletically successful. For a public university, in order to fund their academic programs, they have to build up income from grants, alumni donations or successful sports programs, which generally come from a large student population. In 2010, intercollegiate sporting events generated an estimated $2 billion in revenue and $1 billion in profit in 2010. These funds come from ticket and product sales, TV contracts and alumni donations. For example, in 2008, the University of Alabama athletic department brought in nearly $124 million, largely because of its football program. The school saw revenue of more than $13 million from media and branding rights, almost $30 million in donations and $28 million in ticket sales. Put simply, better sports teams means more money, which in turn provides resources for a more substantial education.
Though sports are not the central focus of all students’ college careers, they should still play a role in an applicant’s decision. Because collegiate athletic success gives way for benefits beyond the field of play, it is important for a student browsing colleges to investigate the school’s athletic legacy.
Photo by Sabrine Brismeur
