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USF Officials Prepare For Perks Of Success

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By ADAM EMERSON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 2, 2007

Updated: 10/02/2007 12:22 am

TAMPA - The University of South Florida's stratospheric rise in the nation's college football rankings over the weekend will test a commonly held theory: that gridiron success will yield academic benefits.

USF's leaders already are preparing for the perks. Admissions officers plan to woo high-performing students at home football games, and fundraisers anticipate more gifts from alumni who love to see a winning team.

The buzz will help expose the university to prospective students nationwide, said Robert Spatig, USF's undergraduate admissions director.

'This will cause a few people to sit up and take notice,' Spatig said after the school's football team reached No. 6 in national rankings. 'We will seek to capitalize on it as much as we can.'

Scholars have long debated such benefits, however. Although few dispute the value of name recognition, a Cornell University economist found that the academic boon from athletic success is 'small at best.'

'Alumni donations and applications for admission sometimes rise in the wake of conspicuously successful seasons at a small number of institutions,' wrote Cornell economics Professor Robert Frank in a May 2004 study. Any spike, however, is small and fleeting, Frank added.

Boston College concluded as much decades ago. In 1984, Boston College football quarterback Doug Flutie completed a long shot pass known as a Hail Mary that led to an upset victory over the University of Miami.

That year, the number of applications to Boston College rose 12 percent to 16,000, said Jack Dunn, spokesman for the Jesuit college. The increase bred the notion of the 'Flutie effect,' which argues that athletic success helps universities.

In reality, however, the number of applications to Boston College leveled off the year after the 1984 victory, Dunn said. Alumni donations, which were presumed to have skyrocketed after Flutie's pass and subsequent Heisman trophy, increased only slightly then, Dunn said.

'What Doug Flutie gave us was heightened exposure on a national stage,' Dunn said Monday. 'But while it definitely has a positive influence, you can't sustain a school academically on the strength of a successful football season.'

Name Recognition

Dunn notes, however, that more applicants from other parts of the country considered Boston College after Flutie's historic pass.

Something similar may be happening in Tampa. USF's own research shows that the university's entry into the Big East athletic conference in 2005 has led to increased name recognition among high school students nationally.

Last spring, USF commissioned a survey of high school students from outside Florida. The researchers concluded that televised coverage of USF sports significantly affected the students' familiarity with the school.

'In the future, it would behoove the University to find new ways to leverage this national exposure,' the researchers wrote.

USF admissions officers already are working with the athletics office to get blocks of tickets for prospective students they're trying to recruit this year, Spatig said. The university has been trying to increase its stature by recruiting high-performing students, particularly those who are the first in their family to go to college. Those students are highly coveted by other colleges who want diversity in their enrollments.

Spatig still anticipates that most students who enroll will come from within Florida. The greater number of applicants he expects will allow the university to be more selective.

It's already harder than ever to get into USF. The average high school GPA of freshmen who entered USF this fall is 3.71, and nearly 1 in 4 were ranked in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.

As budget cuts force universities to freeze freshman enrollments in the coming years, an increased number of applicants will mean a greater number of rejections. USF's Tampa campus currently enrolls about 38,000 students. 'We have a limited number of spaces,' Spatig said.

Happy Alumni

A greater number of applicants may be just one effect of a successful football season. Jeffrey Robison, chief executive officer of the USF Foundation, said Monday he expects more alumni will donate money.

'Alumni and friends want their institution to be well-regarded,' said Robison, the university's chief fundraiser. He said that USF athletics will see 'a tremendous spike' this year, and that academics will get 'some benefit.'

How USF alumni feel about their school is critical for the university. The university is in the 'quiet phase' of a fundraising campaign aiming for $500 million to $1 billion in private giving. But USF is still two years away from announcing the campaign's official start, Robison said.
Athletic success may help. It already has at the University of Florida. In the past two years, UF's men's basketball team has won two national championships, and the football team won last season's national title.

Fundraising at UF increased 38 percent to $183 million in that time, said Carter Boydstun, UF's senior associate vice president for development. Of that total, private giving to athletics increased 50 percent.

Just Friday, UF announced the official start of a fundraising campaign that seeks $1.5 billion in private giving.

'We certainly are appreciative of the fact that the championships have brought a lot of notoriety to the University of Florida,' Boydstun said.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.

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