"The Business of College Football" Part 2 - Small Time Ball
Tuesday, November 13, 2007SUSIE GHARIB: Think college football and you probably think big: Ohio State, Florida, Texas. With their big stadiums and big television deals, those schools hog the publicity spotlight. But small schools also have successful football programs. In part two of his series "The Business of College Football" Jeff Yastine visits one school where the sport is taking root, despite an unlikely track record.
JEFF YASTINE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Drive onto the campus of Seton Hill University and you can feel the weight of nearly 90 years of history. For nearly all that time, it was a Catholic, all-women's college, turning out generations of graduates schooled in the liberal arts. That all-women policy changed in 2002, when Seton Hill became a co- educational institution. But just because you let men become students doesn't mean they'll enroll unless, you have a football team. Now in its third season, the Seton Hill Griffins play in a rented high school stadium. The crowds number in the hundreds, not tens of thousands. And the team faces off against other small universities in the region. But school President Dr. Joanne Boyle, who has led the institution for the past 20 years, says it was a business decision to build a football program.
JOANNE BOYLE, PRESIDENT, SETON HILL UNIVERSITY: How do we get the word out that we are fully co-educational? We were offering sports programs in tennis and golf for men, but they are not programs that attract large numbers of men. Programs that really attract men to your campus is football. They can come in large quantities, 40s and 50s and 60s of them at a time.
YASTINE: Since football came to Seton Hill, enrollment has nearly doubled to almost 2,000, and about one third of the students are men. Seton Hill has found an additional benefit to fielding a football team: alumni contributions. While schools stand or fall on their academic reputations, there's nothing like a football team, even for one from a formerly all-women's school like Seton Hill to generate excitement and convince alumni to open their wallets. Chief fundraiser, Christine Mueseler, says the football program raised its profile with donors.
CHRISTINE MUESELER, VP INSTITUTIONAL ADV. & MKT., SETON HILL UNIV.: We've raised almost $70 million, and some of that goes into athletics, but it's really a minor portion of it, so I would say it's the visibility aspect that makes people want to support us.
YASTINE: That support and public recognition are key reasons why schools often feel pressure to develop a football team. The start-up costs are considerable, several hundred thousand to several million dollars just for coaching salaries, equipment and stadium rental. Student fees are usually raised as well. Yet sports business analysts like Rick Horrow say the idea of starting a football program is alluring to university boards.
RICK HORROW, CEO, HORROW SPORTS VENTURES: The point is that college football is dynamic and evolving. You help build stadiums. You help with alumni donations. You help with applications. You help with this ephemeral notion of college sports as it relates to a positive benefit of a university. Harrow points to schools like this year's Cinderella story, the University of South Florida. It is ranked among the top teams with a football program started just a decade ago. Seton Hill has no such ambitions for its football team. But administrators and head coach Chris Snyder, say the school's investment.
CHRIS SNYDER, HEAD COACH, SETON HILL UNIVERSITY: Football certainly brings the university some notoriety in our area.
YASTINE: . is already paying big dividends.
SYNDER: Football is so popular in western Pennsylvania. And Seton Hill has football and you have people talking about Seton Hill every week. Hey, did you see the Seton Hill score? How did Seton Hill do? And that only helps the institution, attract students, whether they're athlete or non-athlete.
YASTINE: Jeff Yastine, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Greensburg, Pennsylvania.
KANGAS: Tomorrow turning the gridiron into green, a look at the big business of logo licensing in college football.
