Enrollment management in small college

[Ruralguy]

The only need 20 to fill the current 1st string roster, but most schools have a huge number of backups even on the travelling team, and tack on the guys who basically never play, and your are up to nearly 100. It its a school with a lot of parallel men's and women's teams, they could already be getting 33-50% from athletics.

[Hibush]

The only need 20 to fill the current 1st string roster, but most schools have a huge number of backups even on the travelling team, and tack on the guys who basically never play, and your are up to nearly 100. It its a school with a lot of parallel men's and women's teams, they could already be getting 33-50% from athletics.

Which sports, in addition to men's football, have the most potential as a draw for low-aid students in this region?
What does it take for a small regional school to develop an athletics following among high-school students and their parents?

[tuxthepenguin]

The only need 20 to fill the current 1st string roster, but most schools have a huge number of backups even on the travelling team, and tack on the guys who basically never play, and your are up to nearly 100. It its a school with a lot of parallel men's and women's teams, they could already be getting 33-50% from athletics.

Which sports, in addition to men's football, have the most potential as a draw for low-aid students in this region?
What does it take for a small regional school to develop an athletics following among high-school students and their parents?

Basketball. Track. Just about anything if they can tell their high school friends that they're playing college sports.

When I was in high school several* years ago, small college recruiters would use sports as a major selling point. They'd explain that nobody gets cut from the teams. "If you go to [big school], all they want is your tuition, and you even have to pay to watch the games. Our philosophy is that some players aren't coached properly in high school, or just that they need more time to develop, so you'll have an opportunity to show what you can do with four years of college coaching and competition." It's compelling for a high school senior. Luckily I never fell for it. I thought the older kids looked ridiculous when they did it. As for recruiting international students, look at the rosters of some of the small college soccer teams. It seems to work.

* For some definition of several.

[Ruralguy]

Yeah, my school is absolutely working on this model (add swimming to the mix, which in the last decade or two has really exploded as a popular kids sport since every little town has a Y with a pool).

As for international...its getting harder for us to get truly international students, i.e., students who are citizens of another country and living there. We do get some who are 1st gen American, or who grew up in another country, but came to US for high school, and for some, parents are also here.

[Hibush]

Today, we have one counterexample of the football program failing to be a recruiting tool. Grinnell College announced they were giving up on football because they could not attract enough football players who were able to meet the admissions requirements.

They were clearly not getting anywhere close to Ruralguy's estimate of ~100 as the potential base of students involved with the football program. Grinnell started the season with only 38 players and lost 11 of them to injuries in the first three games.

To tie this back to the thread, Grinnell is in the same geographic region as Luther, is about the same size, and has a historic connection with a mainline protestant church. As lightning pointed out way upthread, Grinnell has a lot more money and a stronger academic reputation. Is Grinnell administration choosing their words carefully to reinforce that academic reputation, counting on that to be the stronger draw?

[spork]

Somewhat hypothetical example: you are a soon-to-be high school graduate (or the parent of one) who gets admitted to both Grinnell and Luther. Your choice is:

• Go to Grinnell and benefit from its greater academic resources and reputation (includes institutional name recognition, network of successful alumni, social capital gained from fellow students, etc.), but don't play football.
• Go to Luther and play football.

Any student with the academic ability and financial means to get into Grinnell is going to choose Grinnell, not Luther. It's an outlier. I'm surprised it even has a football team -- far more expensive to operate than track and field, in which more than thirty-eight students would participate. Grinnell's football program is probably a pre-WWII historical tradition that no administrator has yet had the good sense to eliminate.

[polly_mer]

Somewhat hypothetical example: you are a soon-to-be high school graduate (or the parent of one) who gets admitted to both Grinnell and Luther. Your choice is:

• Go to Grinnell and benefit from its greater academic resources and reputation (includes institutional name recognition, network of successful alumni, social capital gained from fellow students, etc.), but don't play football.
• Go to Luther and play football.

Any student with the academic ability and financial means to get into Grinnell is going to choose Grinnell, not Luther. It's an outlier. I'm surprised it even has a football team -- far more expensive to operate than track and field, in which more than thirty-eight students would participate. Grinnell's football program is probably a pre-WWII historical tradition that no administrator has yet had the good sense to eliminate.

Ditto.  Grinnell is a SLAC that I expect to survive because it has a target audience and shouldn't be scrambling to fill seats with anyone who can get a student loan.