Having good D1 sports (the type you can see on TV) is great for the alumni and helps to give a school a positive vibe. Some could point to VT in football and UConn in basketball helping those schools improve their academic stature but knowing those states and campuses well I can tell you it had everything to do with being located in rising states and the price of private school tuition that drove many students into quality public schools. VT and UConn have backwoods campuses that limited their development in athletics for a long time. Even so I don't think their sports are strong enough to  make a serious impact in student recruitment. Virginia Tech and James Madison run about even in student profile though one school has ACC football and the other CAA. For Ohio State though it has such an elite athletic status that it does help attract students to the school. Students will go a semester just for the football tickets and then drop out by spring. I'm sure its a slight boost for admissions there. Private schools in AQ program receive more of a boost especially Notre Dame the traditionally most elite program. There was a time that Duke and Davidson were peers but Duke got into the ACC and it changed everything. Its very much a case by case basis and that is why the axioms you keep trying to promote are silly, Its conclusive that having good D1 sports raises alumni interest in going back to campus and attending games bringing money into the local economy. For the 30,000 different folks that walk through Peden Stadium on a given year including 10,000 students I'm not convinced it boosts academic giving appreciably. There are maybe 2,000 members of the Bobcat Club. How many are going beyond that and donating to academics? Then how many of those Bobcat Club members would be donating to academics without the sports lead in? There is more passion for donating to the department that you graduated from by alumni than donating for athletics at Ohio. Its more likely that alumni become motivated to attend the games after donating to the colleges for a while. 

 

They are counting those seat contributions made for those seats as donor contribution and it puts you on the OBC membership rolls. Then they put a release saying we have 1400 donor club members contributing 700,000 but its mainly how many people are making seat contributions and the aggregate dollar figure those contributions bring in.

 

Just an observation but I think students prefer a muscled up campus look with big buildings over a traditional stately college green campus. That is the direction OU has been going with the new student center and with the huge new dorms to fill in South Green. I can remember going along south green dr. before they put all the olympic sports athletic facilities in and the Convo looked as if it was in the middle of nowhere. They have the IPF built right next to the football stadium when the original plan was to have it out by the soccer field. The Journalism school has moved into the massive renovated Baker Center building and some of the faculty questioned if it would hurt student recruiting but based on modern preferences they are going to love it. Miami prides itself on the greens and the public Ivy campus but that isn't what today's football and basketball players want. They rode their reputation for a while but a couple of bad coaches has cost them to lose ground they can't recover. That two sideline stadium setup they have screams high school. Most recruits are expecting either a bowl or a horseshoe when they think of a major college stadium. Trying to place the IPF in the endzone like NIU isn't going to change that perception.

 

attack cat to come