Will Winning Football Games Make a University Stronger Academically?

Parent Cafe
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<p>If Rutgers wins the fans in NJ will flock to follow them. NJ has so many residents that even though it might be less a percentage of the population than say Kansas the number of people far exceeds the number Kansas has.</p>

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<p>I also think the money spent on sports does not really help the university overall. What I though the question was does winning teams help academically. I think it increases alumni support and the total number of applicants therefore most likely creating a better academic pool of applicants. That increases the schools academic profile.</p>

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<p>From Wikipedia:

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<p>Though sports (really, the NJ market) got Rutgers in to the B10, which comes with a bunch of benefits like the CIC.</p>

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<p>It works when it works. There’s no question in my mind that Alabama’s football success has raised its national profile and helped it promote its huge OOS scholarships. The problem is that a lot of schools spend millions on this strategy, and by definition not very many schools can end up with championship-level programs. So it’s a bad bet for most schools, even though the winning program does attract strong applicants if you can make it happen.</p>

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<p>Actually it was the NY/NJ/CT market that got RU into the BIG. Big soon after opened NYC office.
<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/terrapins-insider/wp/2014/04/10/big-ten-to-open-new-offices-in-new-york-city/”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/terrapins-insider/wp/2014/04/10/big-ten-to-open-new-offices-in-new-york-city/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>NJ is one of the top 10 or so States in producing football talent. The problem is keeping the kids home. It is not surprising that NJ athletes go out of state in high numbers since our non-athletes go out of state in higher numbers than most other states also.
If Rutgers becomes a hot football school I believe it would help their out of state and in state applicant pool.</p>

<p>That does not mean I think Rutgers should give the football or any other athletic team a blank check.</p>

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<p>Rutgers has diverted spending on facilities, programs, faculty lines, library and lab resources to chase the big football dream. It made a calculated tradeoff. I personally don’t think it was worth it. Rutgers is not better regarded now as an academic institution that it used to be. It needs to focus on its own metropole identity and strengths rather than trying to model itself on a land-grant school; more Pitt and less Penn State. Yes, a lot of people in NJ like football. No, it’s not a religion like it is in the Midwest and South. It’s not the focus of campus identity the way it is elsewhere. I also feel that big-time college sports are extremely corrupting, but that’s another issue. I was sad when Rutgers took the decision to throw it all on the football program. I thought it was a real loss of soul.</p>

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<p>Decades ago, at Oklahoma, I think, a University president gave a tongue in cheek observation that he and the administration were “trying to build a university that the football team could be proud of”. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/18/sports/sports-of-the-times-the-grapes-of-wrath-at-oklahoma.html”>http://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/18/sports/sports-of-the-times-the-grapes-of-wrath-at-oklahoma.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>They did that in the early '70s and its only been recently that they’ve had any success in that program.</p>

<p>I think Rutgers is probably under-desired by out-of-state applicants. Football success and a BigTen association could help some with that. </p>

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<p>The choices made by the administrators at Rutgers, as well as U Maryland’s decision to abandon the Atlantic Coast Conference, I believe had less to do with enhancing their respective profiles than bringing more money into the athletic department. The Big Ten didn’t seem to care a lot about the quality of the football programs at those two schools. Rather, the Big Ten wanted to get its TV network into east coast major media markets. At Kansas State, it seems that once Coach Snyder was on board and stimulated on-field success, the KSU administration sought to spin that success into academic gold (given the school’s declining enrollment, etc), so to speak.</p>

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Many studies have found that having winning football games leads to increased applications and increased measures of academic strength. For example, the abstract of the study at <a href=“http://are.berkeley.edu/~mlanderson/pdf/Anderson%20College%20Sports.pdf”>http://are.berkeley.edu/~mlanderson/pdf/Anderson%20College%20Sports.pdf&lt;/a&gt; concludes :</p>

<p>“We find that winning reduces acceptance rates and increases donations, applications, academic reputation, in-state enrollment, and incoming SAT scores.”</p>

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<p>I think the BIG also believes that the added exposure for RU and UMd and the $$$ will allow them to better capitalize on their strong local talent and build successful football teams. I also think RU really craved the enhanced identity as a major public U. They still get way too much of the RU, where’s that type of questions. I think it will work. RU also has a limit on OOS students they would love to change. </p>

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<p>@NJSue:</p>

<p>Well, Penn State didn’t become Penn State overnight. It took decades of Rip Engel and JoePa winning to get them there and now they’re seen as a pretty desirable (if pricy) destination for many PA kids and a football powerhouse. Yet they are in the Northeast as well (and located out in the wilderness). Now, RU may never get there, so the gamble may not ever pay off, but I believe NJ is the state that exports the most students for college (I believe that PA is a net importer of college students). How would you explain that?</p>

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<p>If Rutgers is hoping for football popularity, they are destined for failure. One of the smallest states geographically, New Jersey has two NFL teams plus a third right across the border in Philly. Unlike much of the country, where college sports are the big thing locally, this is a pro sports area. Wherever you live in NJ, there are 13 pro teams in the 4 major sports nearby. College sports are an afterthough.</p>

<p>NJ is a large exporter of college students because they have relatively few colleges for a populous state, and many students with the means to go elsewhere.</p>

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<p>Interesting article in the Chicago Tribune about smaller schools in IL building their Division I athletic programs with very high student fees as a percentage of athletic revenue. Building the athletic programs is seen as a way to market the school and gain exposure.</p>

<p><a href=“Illinois college athletic programs heavily funded by students”>Illinois college athletic programs heavily funded by students;

<p><a href=“http://www.trbimg.com/img-53f2a1ea/turbine/chi-whats-the-bill-athletic-fees-at-illinois-c-010/751/16x9”>http://www.trbimg.com/img-53f2a1ea/turbine/chi-whats-the-bill-athletic-fees-at-illinois-c-010/751/16x9&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Although the UIUC athletic fee is only $34/year, the cost of attending the high profile sports contests could add up over the school year.</p>

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<p>I think many people assume that colleges they’ve heard of–for whatever reason–are good schools.</p>

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<p>@Hunt:</p>

<p>They certainly seem to assume that schools they have heard of are better than schools they haven’t heard of.</p>

<p>Some psychological bias at work there, I’m sure.</p>

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<p>Hunt:</p>

<p>I agree with you. Its also remarkable that you can’t convince any of those people that Tufts, Williams, or Amherst is as good or better than fill-in-the-blank local or regional school that they know about.</p>

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<p>The tristate area also has a large population of BIG alumni. It is not that hard to be a fan of both pro and college teams. Seattle does LA does it. Atlanta too. </p>

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<p>^^^LA does it? You mean the city that hasn’t been able to hold onto an NFL franchise???</p>