I asked a university president how athletics really impact enrollment

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March and April are typically big months for writing about “The Flutie Effect.” That’s the shorthand for a bump that a college might experience in publicity, applications, donations and other positive outcomes following unexpected athletic success….like, Miller say, a big upset in the early rounds of March Madness.

There’s plenty of actual, peer-reviewed research on how athletic success may impact fundraising, applications, and other outcomes. The consensus among papers I’ve read is that there is a relationship between unexpected athletic success and PR, engagement, applications and more…but that it is limited, expires quickly, and comes with a load of caveats.

But as I was debating writing another version of the “no, a March Madness upset isn’t going to save your school” type of newsletter, I realized something. You can’t really write about the impact athletic success (or marketing) might have on student enrollment without better understanding the non-athletics ways a school tries to recruit students. What are we comparing athletic related marketing to, anyway?

That’s going to vary significantly from school to school. But I wanted to start somewhere.

So I called Dr. Gary Miller, the current president of the University of Akron.

What else is Akron doing to recruit students? Besides, you know, anything that might have to do with sports?

Like many other schools in the Midwest, enrollment is “a daily topic” at Akron, Dr. Miller told me. Many of the methods the school uses right now are, “more traditional”, like reaching out and building relationships with local high schools, direct marketing in specific markets (like Northeastern Ohio, Columbus, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati), and an explicit focus around promoting specific majors (at Akron, for example, that means highlighting the school’s Engineering programs).

But Akron also can’t depend exclusively on traditional students coming out of high schools.

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