BSC pulls plug on men’s basketball, baseball

For the Dakota schools, it's more about football than the piece of the basketball pie. They wanted to be I-AA in football and ND St. especially is playing very well at that level. They won at Montana when they were still DII and beat Northwestern State last fall.

 

I'll disagree about the Dakota schools.

If they get into the Big Sky, they'll be in fine shape. The key is to not overshoot your support system. While neither NDSU or SDSU is a huge school from a huge state, they have pretty good support in their communities and if they don't develop dreams of being the next Gonzaga or even Creighton, they'll be OK competing against the likes of Montana State, Northern Colorado (which made a riskier jump) and Idaho State.

The key, I think, is that the Dakota schools won't be overshadowed by much larger instate schools in the D-I market. Birmingham never had a chance with all the other powers in Alabama stealing support, dollars and exposure.

 

Actually, Idy, I disagree.
BSC got fair play in TV and print, had their hoop games on radio and had good support in the community. They werent going to go head to head once in a while and knew their spot. Hell, BSC hoops damn near beat Alabama at Alabama last year. They knew their spot. They werent going to compete against Bama and Auburn, but could against Troy, Samford...
Were they losing money? Maybe, but since it is a private school and the president doesnt have the balls to answer questions, we dont know.
They'll save money on scholarships, but also have to shell out more money for modes of travel, football coaches, football equipment, facility, added aid to the football players they bring in... they wont save much -- not in the short run...

 

Add in the private vs. public funding differences and BSC had no good chance. Articles in the newspaper and 500 fans at the baseball games won't pay for a program.

I'm not saying BSC had no chance as much as I'm saying the Dakota schools have a much better chance given their geography, state funding and support. NDSU and SDSU have a much better chance of making ithe transition (even with I-AA football) than small private schools like BSC, Elon or that school in Macon, Ga., that closed up shop.

 

Birmingham-Southern's president thinks they will get rich off this.

The truth is that Birmingham-Southern wasn't going to draw many fans or broad-based corporate financial support whether they are playing DI Campbell or DIII Sewannee. Their finances for operational costs were going to be roughly the same, except now they will pay their coaches less. BSC spending about 5x what they projected when they made the move up, with an athletic budget of about $5 million per year. Most of that was scholarships, which now of course will not be a factor. In fact, where BSC previously was having to pay for the education of all of those student athletes in Division I, the school now will get paid BY those athletes (or actually, a much less talented, more academic-minded bunch).

At about $20K per athlete for tuition, that's a nice chunk of change. Especially now that they are going to add football players to the mix. The football program will cost the school about 200K per year in operational costs, but if they get 70 tuition-playing players to fill that roster, they more than cover the cost of the program and most of their other sports as well. In fact, with such a small student body (1,300) , a football team that attracts 100 new students to the university in fact would represent a significant increase in student population.

BSC did this with $$$$ signs in mind. It's not about saving money. It's about MAKING money. They are thinking they won't have to sell a single ticket to make a windfall -- out of the wallets of their students.

In fact, I think you will eventually see BSC actually ADD more sports -- sports like lacrosse, crew, etc., that are not widely played at most major public schools but are played by the kind of affluent students BSC (and schools like them) wish to attract.

 

You make a good point, dog. I'd add that when big-time schools go to the Final Four or BCS title game, or mid-majors just get into the Dance, there are usually fairly large spikes in new applications to those schools.

I'm not proud of it, but one of the reasons I chose my alma mater, a D-1 mid-major, over D-2 and D-3 schools in the area was because it IS a D-1 and had been in the NCAAs a couple of years before, and I wanted to be able to follow them in future years after graduation. Sounds silly, but it is a selling point. [None of them were journalism factories, either, so the decision probably didn't hurt or help me.]

 

You're 100 percent right, and it's already happening. There's a tiny school near me that just added football simply as a tool to expand enrollment and broaden the application base... bring in 75 tuition-paying kids who otherwise might go to Big State U.

 

Very interesting thought. I hadn't considered the recruitment angle. Thanks guys.

I'm also guessing this is one reason the tiny private school in SLC brought back athletics six years ago and will now be adding men's lacrosse next season. It's already the only school in the state with a varsity men's soccer team. The school had a definite reputation as a place only the elites went to and even then the student body was probably 65-35 female to male. Enticing 20 young men to attend the school for the purpose of playing lacrosse makes sense in more ways than I realized.

 

Here's something else that will cost them: The D-3 conference BSC just joined, the Southern Collegiate, already stretches from Texas to Indiana and has just added a team in Colorado. It makes for a pretty big travel budget at that level.

http://www.scac-online.org/birminghamtojoin.htm

 

SI had a great story a couple years ago about the schools that switch to D-I just for the supposed glory. i remember binghamton, which until recently was SUNY-Binghamton, being spotlighted. the piece talked about how they just had no chance whatsoever to be competitive in basketball. ever.

i think travel costs aside, this is a smart move for BSC. it runs counter to the trend to upsize. it sounds like they realize who they really are. nothing's wrong with that except the timing of the move. college should be about education first, not athletic field glory for the board of trustees who want to brag to their pals at their backyard BBQs that they beat 'bama or got an automatic berth in the tournament, where they proceeded to lose by 55 to kansas.

 

I know this is an old thread, but NYT had a good story today on the phenomenon of small colleges adding football teams.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/education/10football.html

 

Jeez dude, you nailed that one on June 16. I didn't have any idea that football recruited tuition-payers like that.