What can athletics do for a University

Football
1

Good example of the impact of athletics on a University is happening right now at Coastal Carolina:

University leaders expecting significant impact from Chanticleers’ College World Series title

  • CCU president David DeCenzo said the school received 500,000 hits on its website in three hours after the CWS win Thursday
  • National exposure of the achievement expected to lead to rise in student applications
  • Chants also hoping to see a pronounced boost in fan support in the future as a result of the national championship
    http://www.thestate.com/sports/college/article87435752.html

“I think the biggest thing is it’s going to open up new markets and we’re going to see the profile of our student go straight up because now with the national exposure we’re going to probably double the number of applications that we have,” said Wyatt Henderson, chairman of the Coastal Carolina board of trustees. “We can still only accept a certain number of students, so I think we’re going to see the profile of our student go up. All of a sudden you’re going to see the attendance at every athletic event go up, so this just takes the university both academically and athletically to the next level. And I couldn’t be prouder.”

2

I mentioned it before in the old forum but there is a book I got at the College Football Hall of Fame called Saturday Millionaires: How Winning Football Builds Winning Colleges by Kristi Dosh. Very good read and runs counter to the argument that athletics departments are a drain on the university.