Flutie effect may be for real

[sportschick]

Study finds that schools do seem to experience a bump in applications after their football or basketball team does well in the post-season.

George Mason (Hi, BYH) saw the average SAT score of their applicants go up.

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Study finds that schools do seem to experience a bump in applications after their football or basketball team does well in the post-season.

George Mason (Hi, BYH) saw the average SAT score of their applicants go up.

There was much discussion about this among schools in the Atlantic Sun Conference, a low-major league with some good, not great, schools.

Obviously the Ivy League and the Patriot League aren't needing this kind of TV and sports exposure to increase applications and the quality of the applicants. But some the other mid- and low-major schools are shelling out for basketball in particular in hopes of a trickle-down effect for their schools.

 

[John]

Appalachian State has had its largest freshman classes the past two years, which is certainly due in part to the school winning back to back I-AA national titles. Given the win over Michigan and the attention it received, plus a third straight national title, I'm sure the school will get a record number of applications this year.

It also helps that Boone is a great, scenic place to go to school.

 

[expendable]

Appalachian State has had its largest freshman classes the past two years, which is certainly due in part to the school winning back to back I-AA national titles. Given the win over Michigan and the attention it received, plus a third straight national title, I'm sure the school will get a record number of applications this year.

It also helps that Boone is a great, scenic place to go to school.

Everything you state is true, John. [Says the ASU fanboy]

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

I wanted to apply to Augustana when it won four straight D3 football titles, or something like that. I didn't know anything about it, but it was the type of school I wanted to go to.

 

[Pulitzer Wannabe]

The Seattle Times did something about this recently, I believe.

 

[Bob Cook]

Murray Sperber would be happy to provide a counterpoint.

 

[Pulitzer Wannabe]

I don't know that Sperber thinks it doesn't actually happen. I just think he thinks that there's an inherent danger of it swinging the other way - earning a reputation as a party school, or throwing tons of money at a lost cause (Buffalo is the example he uses in "Beer and Circus"). Sperber and his ilk may think that the "Flutie Effect" is real, but they believe that it's an inefficient way to chase academic excellence compared to some of the other options available.

 

[Walter_Sobchak]

Appalachian State has had its largest freshman classes the past two years, which is certainly due in part to the school winning back to back I-AA national titles. Given the win over Michigan and the attention it received, plus a third straight national title, I'm sure the school will get a record number of applications this year.

It also helps that Boone is a great, scenic place to go to school.

Everything you state is true, John. [Says the ASU fanboy]

I thought people wanted to go there because it's HOT HOT HOT!

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

When I saw the original story, I thought it was about how smaller, athletic quarterbacks were gaining popularity on all levels.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

And here he thought he had a chance...

 

[BYH]

Study finds that schools do seem to experience a bump in applications after their football or basketball team does well in the post-season.

George Mason (Hi, BYH) saw the average SAT score of their applicants go up.

nowhere to go but up from zero.

Yeah I said it. Hi Sonner!!!!

 

[Bubbler]

I thought that was a really interesting story. I ran it on our cover today as a sort of aside to NCAA coverage.

 

[Bob Cook]

I don't know that Sperber thinks it doesn't actually happen. I just think he thinks that there's an inherent danger of it swinging the other way - earning a reputation as a party school, or throwing tons of money at a lost cause (Buffalo is the example he uses in "Beer and Circus"). Sperber and his ilk may think that the "Flutie Effect" is real, but they believe that it's an inefficient way to chase academic excellence compared to some of the other options available.

He would argue that it happens, but that the applicants are not as high a quality of student as the school would otherwise get because the brightest students are turned off by a school that overemphasizes athletics.

That's not true in all cases, of course. Butler is a good example of a school that improved its applicant pool by raising the status of its basketball team, but that was only part of an overall campaign to raise the school's profile and improve its performance in academics as well as athletics.

 

[expendable]

Appalachian State has had its largest freshman classes the past two years, which is certainly due in part to the school winning back to back I-AA national titles. Given the win over Michigan and the attention it received, plus a third straight national title, I'm sure the school will get a record number of applications this year.

It also helps that Boone is a great, scenic place to go to school.

Everything you state is true, John. [Says the ASU fanboy]

I thought people wanted to go there because it's HOT HOT HOT!

Gee Walter, never heard that one before. :

 

[dixiehack]

Study finds that schools do seem to experience a bump in applications after their football or basketball team does well in the post-season.

George Mason (Hi, BYH) saw the average SAT score of their applicants go up.

There was much discussion about this among schools in the Atlantic Sun Conference, a low-major league with some good, not great, schools.

Boy, the ole Kennesaw State degree just pays off more and more each day. :

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Appalachian State has had its largest freshman classes the past two years, which is certainly due in part to the school winning back to back I-AA national titles. Given the win over Michigan and the attention it received, plus a third straight national title, I'm sure the school will get a record number of applications this year.

It also helps that Boone is a great, scenic place to go to school.

Everything you state is true, John. [Says the ASU fanboy]

I thought people wanted to go there because it's HOT HOT HOT!

Gee Walter, never heard that one before. :

A win against Michigan lasts as long as it takes to prepare for the next game.

But the 80's-era style graphics and production, and thus humor, of that recruting video . . . are evergreen.

 

[expendable]

Appalachian State has had its largest freshman classes the past two years, which is certainly due in part to the school winning back to back I-AA national titles. Given the win over Michigan and the attention it received, plus a third straight national title, I'm sure the school will get a record number of applications this year.

It also helps that Boone is a great, scenic place to go to school.

Everything you state is true, John. [Says the ASU fanboy]

I thought people wanted to go there because it's HOT HOT HOT!

Gee Walter, never heard that one before. :

A win against Michigan lasts as long as it takes to prepare for the next game.

But the 80's-era style graphics and production, and thus humor, of that recruting video . . . are evergreen.

I'll agree that it's...ummmm...yeah. But it was never a recruiting video. It was produced to show to rich old alumni (not that we have that many rich ones) at dinner functions. It was never intended to see the light of day on the internet, and was put on there by mistake for maybe a day (which shows the poison of the internet).

Still, I don't think Appalachian is hurting for applicants. Last I read numbers were 20-25 percent ahead of last year, so if Hot Hot Hot is hurting, it's keeping the numbers from being, say, 40 percent.

 

[DanOregon]

I went to Oregon State when they were at their nadir. More than 10 years later, there is a bigger football stadium, the alumni magazine is thicker and of better quality, I'm getting more regular requests for money (and giving more often) and the females at the school are exponentially hotter. In a lot of ways, spending big bucks on an athletic program might be the best investment a school can make.
Now if we can just come up with a solid hoops coach..

 

[micropolitan guy]

Buffalo is the example he uses in "Beer and Circus").

A check of the facts reveals an interesting trend:

Buffalo's full-time undergraduate enrollment dipped to its lowest in recent history from 1996-98, with a low of 15,552 in that three-year span.

UB went Division I-A full-time when it joined the MAC in 1999. Low and behold, undergraduate enrollment has steadily increased to a record 18,515 for the fall, 2008, semester.

That's an increase of 2,963 students, or an increase of 19 percent in a period when the area's and state's population was relatively static.