My guest today is Dr. Welch Suggs, Associate Professor in journalism and mass communications at the University of Georgia. Welch and his colleagues had a study published in Spring 2024 with the journal Research in Higher Education that may be interesting for university leaders to consider. Simply speaking, adding a college football team may not be the enrollment panacea once believed.

The conversation revolves around three key points:

1. Adding a football program results in a short-term spike in enrollment, but no long-term increase in overall enrollment, tuition revenue, or male/diversity enrollment.

2. After the initial spike from recruiting football players, enrollment patterns tend to shift back over time, with the new football players essentially replacing other students who would have enrolled anyway.

3. In their final analysis comparing schools that added football to those that didn't found no significant long-term differences in enrollment numbers, tuition revenue, or gender/racial makeup of the student body, unless the schools did something very specific beyond just adding football.

Its an important consideration in the higher education space that is dealing with varying enrollment challenges. I think you’ll enjoy the conversation.

 The Forbes.com referenced in the podcast is available here:

"In A Rising Tide Of College Closures, Impact On Division III Athletics Becomes Clear" https://www.forbes.com/sites/karenweaver/2024/04/30/in-a-rising-tide-of-college-closures-impact-on-division-iii-athletics-becomes-clear/?sh=527ed08170f3