There are concerns among admissions offices and enrollment managers about enrollment yield for Fall 2020.
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As COVID-19 Realities Impact 2020 Enrollment and Budget Forecasts, should Presidents and Chancellors Financially Incentivize Athletics Departments to Recruit Additional Students (Athletes, Managers, Interns) for 2020-21?
Executive Summary
COVID-19 is impacting admissions standards and timelines due to test cancelations and potential challenges accessing credentials.
There are concerns among admissions offices and enrollment managers about enrollment yield for Fall 2020.
Athletics Departments are tightening their budgetary belts while navigating Title IX considerations.
University leadership could bring enrollment managers and athletics department CFOs together for a potential win-win solution as it pertains to revenue-producing students that seek out some role in Athletics.
COVID-19 is not visible to the naked eye, yet the scores of uncertainties it spawns can be seen and felt daily in the higher education and college sports sectors.
Campus leaders across the country are rightfully worried about their enrollment yield for 2020-21, both in terms of returning students and incoming freshmen.
On the other side of campus, Division I athletics departments are as concerned with the state of their revenues and overall budget forecasts even if the 2020 college football season begins on time. The financial consternation stems from the NCAA’s recent announcement that only $225 million of a projected $600 million would be distributed this spring to Division I institutions along with tempered football ticket sales and concerns about whether people will seek out events (like college football games) with large crowds once the brunt of COVID-19 passes.
For university enrollment managers, the same practical, if not pragmatic, COVID-19 considerations are at play. Will prospective students’ concerns about being in groups on campus (e.g., classrooms with 20-plus other students) or in other close quarters (e.g., dorm rooms and hallways) hamper enrollment projections for the fall?
The virus could adversely impact prospective high school seniors’ and transfer students’ ability to enroll, and Division I institutions’ admissions offices are already on record stating they will consider a prospective student’s extenuating circumstances stemming from COVID-19 within the application process. An increasing number of institutions are showing a proclivity to make standardized test scores an optional component of the admissions process irrespective of COVID-19. This flexible approach may become a must for admissions offices considering Fall 2020 applications of students who were unable to sit for ACT or SAT exams this spring due to test date cancellations.
Those in college admissions circles note COVID-19’s impact on informed college selections and affordability are also disconcerting in light of the recent deep-bruises to the job and stock markets, the inability for high school students to make in-person campus visits, and other consequential impacts, especially to lower-income high school students. Many students were unable to take more standardized exams this spring or have had challenges readily accessing help with their college search from high school guidance counselors.
The athletic facilities on Division I campuses are also universally closed at this time. The sudden stop to the college athletics rhythm is causing Division I Athletic Directors and CFOs to also prepare for dampened revenues and a bleak economic picture.
With all of those sobering realities understood, could these two COVID-19-induced problems -- muted Fall 2020 enrollment projections and stifled Athletic Department revenues -- be mashed up into a win-win solution?
Right now, like other units around campus, Division I athletics departments are scrambling to cut near- and long-term costs, stressing to coaches and staff the importance of “essential spending only” while sorting the consequences of lighter-than-expected revenue. This is a particularly acute reality for public institutions with frayed state funding and private institutions with depleted endowments.
One way Division I athletics operations cut costs could involve retreating from the cache of additional students that Athletics Departments bring aboard to serve in various roles -- students that serve a preferential function as opposed to an essential one.
These extra students might be football walk-ons, social media interns for Olympic sports, additional student managers for women’s basketball and the like. Many of those additional students stepping in to a role in Athletics are also paying significant, if not full, freight when it comes to your school’s tuition, housing, meals, and books -- all revenue direly needed from the university’s perspective.
Financially speaking, an athletics department could reasonably conclude that these “extra” students within the athletics department staffing chart are additional, fungible costs. Those extra student on-boarding costs manifest in the form of athletic uniforms, incidental meals, equipment, insurance and sports medicine support, pay in the case of student workers or paid interns, travel, and other support costs, all of which are borne by Athletics. When it comes to trimming costs, a Head Coach may need to live without as many walk-ons or student managers at their disposal as in years past.
In a nutshell, these additional students could help the University’s revenue stream through additional tuition, housing, meal plan, and book charges while simultaneously exacerbating the Athletics Department’s expense ledger for supporting them in their athletics department roles.
Today’s article is not suggesting that all walk-ons, student managers, student interns, or other students associated with Athletics would or should be cut from any Division I institution’s 2020-21 staffing plan. The roles students serve in Athletics are important. The question is: How many of these extra students does Athletics truly need in this COVID-19 environment? To find cost-savings, these additional students might be the first cost-generators on the org chart scrutinized by athletics department CFOs.
From a student recruitment and enrollment standpoint, many of these ‘Athletics’ students might not enroll in your institution but for the coaches and administrators who recruited and invited them to be a walk-on, student-manager, or athletics intern. Admissions Offices can’t assume that these students’ enrollments were inevitable -- in many instances, they are not. Coaches often are a university’s best recruiters, including when it comes to non-athlete students’ who wish to pursue a career in college athletics.
A student’s enrollment (and their tuition money) could be headed toward a different campus minus a coach or athletics administrator playing the closer role in “recruiting” these students to your campus as part of your institution’s enrollment yield.
Cutting back on the number of walk-on student-athletes isn’t taken lightly either. Reducing walk-on student-athlete numbers can directly impact an institution’s Title IX compliance. Athletic Departments are annually monitoring overall participation numbers, including walk-ons, as a matter of course.
With the COVID-19 cloud still lingering, would it behoove a president or chancellor to incentivize his or her athletics department to not trim these tuition-paying students from the Athletics’ 2020-21 staffing model?
It could be the right time for university enrollment managers and athletic department CFOs to get together -- virtually, of course -- and explore a “finder’s fee” for Athletics' ability to recruit additional, non-athlete students who might not otherwise enroll. And in doing so, this student recruitment tailwind could provide a boost to the university revenue stream and take the sting out of COVID-19 unraveling your freshmen class yield.
This cross-campus collaboration might assuage two conundrums at once.
Athletics Veritas is presented for information purposes only and should not be considered advice or counsel on NCAA compliance matters. For guidance on NCAA rules and processes, always consult your university’s athletics compliance office, conference office, and/or the NCAA.
