University Business - March 2012 - (Page 44)

By Ron Schachter Teams In an era when many schools are dropping team sports, a growing number are bucking the trend by taking to the gridiron. that campus, thanks to the sprawling new field and gleaming bleachers immediately visible to the right. While Anna Maria’s administrators and coaches have more modest ambitions for their three-year-old Division III football team than their counterparts at UTSA, both schools belong to an expanding phalanx of colleges launching football teams during tough economic times—and realizing considerable returns on their investment, from higher institutional profiles and greater school spirit to new revenue streams. Over the past three years, according to the National Football Foundation, 19 new college football teams have taken the field at all levels of competition, including Georgia State University, Lamar University (Texas), and Old Dominion University (Va.). More than a dozen schools will be adding intercolhe University of Texas at San Antonio campus is dominated by modern cream-colored buildings with dark red tile roofs and acres of parking lots, testimony to 40 years of serving largely as a commuter school. But last fall, it was also hard to miss the rectangular color posters attached to almost every lamppost—showing alternately a running back clutching a football, a tight end leaping for a pass reception, close-ups of a marching band, and enthusiastic fans doing the Wave. The pictures represented a low-key advertisement of a big-time endeavor: the first year of a brand new football team aiming to compete among the sport’s Division I elite. Across the country in Paxton, Mass., meanwhile, anyone turning onto the main drive of much smaller Anna Maria College gets the message that football has come to Scoring Big Football With New T legiate football in the coming three seasons, among them Mercer University (Ga.), The University of New Orleans, and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “Football’s popularity has never been greater,” notes National Football Foundation President and CEO Steven Hatchell. “And the fact that so many schools are embracing it is a testament that more college administrators see the value of the sport to the student’s overall educational experience.” UTSA’s Fast Track Adding football, say administrators at The University of Texas at San Antonio, was a natural choice in a state where the nation’s top 25 rankings routinely feature such heavyweights as Baylor, Texas A&M, and The University of Texas at Austin. UTSA Athletic Director Lynn Hickey recalls her universitybusiness.com 44 | March 2012 http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - March 2012

University Business - March 2012
Contents
Editor’s Note
College Index
Ad Index
Behind the News
Human Resources
Campus CFO
ERP in the Ethers
Digital Treasure
Scoring Big With New Football Teams
Money Matters
End Note

University Business - March 2012