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More is More
The Great Recession means that everyone has to tighten up. Right? Nope, in classic counter-trend behavior, some D2 and D3 programs have actually ADDED sports. The economy’s bad, your budget cuts are increasing and your natural reaction is to tighten up right? Not necessarily. Some D2 and D3 schools with limited budgets are expanding their athletics department by taking in more sports teams. The expansion experiment, for some, is proving to be profitable.
Pacific University, a small D3 school west of Portland, bit the bullet on their football program 17 years ago. Now, they’re reviving the program next season to boost enrollment and revenue. Pacific will reach out to their alumni for pledges to meet the $1.5 million investment, but the school will expect to score about $500,000 annually from football.
Not only that, but the 2010 start-up football program will hopefully add 90 eager young men to its current 3,000 students.
Lake Erie College, east of Cleveland, added lacrosse and tennis for both genders this year, its first in D2. AD Griz Zimmerman said he expects the student-athlete population to triple. For a school with 1,200 students, that’s a significant jump.
In Alamosa, Colo., Adams State will add men’s soccer, men’s golf, women’s lacrosse and swimming for both sexes. According to the Associated Press, it’s one of 11 D2 schools adding sports for economic reasons.
“There is a perception out there from D1 I that adding sports just consumes all the money,” said Adams State AD Larry Mortensen. “But at our level it’s just the opposite -- generating sports adds revenue. It generates enrollment.”
Obviously not all schools can afford to hand out scholarships to every sport-loving student who wants to play. Some want to play so bad, they’ll pay out of pocket to go to a school that might have a spot for them.
Aaron Hill, an offensive lineman for Lagrange College in Georgia is a case in point. He’s a 5-11 offensive lineman that didn’t attract a scholarship. “It was either go to a private school or don’t play [football] at all,” Hill said.
“I wouldn’t have come to this school if not for football. It was exciting to think that we could build a tradition. We came in not knowing anything, crossing our fingers and hoping for the best,” he added.
According to the AP, there are 95 multi-sport conferences in all levels of the NCAA. Of those colleges within the conference, 174 new teams will be added and 59 will be dropped over the next two years.
In 2010, D3 schools with enrollments of 1,000 or more must sponsor a minimum of 12 sports (six for each gender). So in D3, added teams create more students’ tuitions and financial aid. All this without giving scholarships? It must be Christmas in July for D3 schools.
Merry Christmas D3 . . . .
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