In football, the Hail-Mary pass is a last-second, desperation play that has a chance of winning or tying the game, but has a very low probability of success.
Colleges and universities try something like the Hail-Mary when they attempt to use success in athletics as a means of improving their academic reputations and finances. The idea is that winning at sports will transfer over to the institution as a whole, boosting applications and funding. Like the Hail-Mary pass, it’s unlikely to succeed, but college administrators keep trying.
On July 7, the board of trustees of Winston-Salem State University approved a plan that would move the school’s athletic teams from Division II of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to Division I. (The football team, however, would compete only at the Division I-AA level.) In case anyone doesn’t know, WSSU is currently a member of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), but hopes to enter the Mid-Eastern Athletic Association (MEAC) where it would compete with such athletic icons as Coppin State, Hampton, and Florida A&M.
When people do things, it usually means that they think the benefits will outweigh the costs. Let’s take a look at each.
In explaining the decision, WSSU Chancellor Harold Martin said, “Moving up to NCAA Division I advances our university’s strategic plan and will offer our talented student-athletes even more challenging competition. Specifically, competing on a larger stage will elevate awareness of WSSU and our reputation for excellence regionally and nationally, while creating opportunities to generate even more revenue from our athletic programs.”
That sounds good, but let’s bear in mind that people who aren’t spending their own money often exaggerate the benefits of things they want to do.
Martin states that having Division I status will offer WSSU student-athletes tougher competition. Probably true, but why regard that as a benefit? It isn’t the case that the WSSU Rams so dominate their current conference that they “need” to move up, but more to the point, none of the small percentage of WSSU students who play varsity sports ever become professionals. Whether a kid played football or volleyball or tennis in the CIAA or the MEAC simply doesn’t matter.
What about the claim that entering Division I athletics will “elevate awareness of WSSU and our reputation for excellence regionally and nationally?” In other words, competing against a different set of schools in sports will cause people to take more notice of WSSU’s stellar reputation.
First, what reputation is Martin talking about? In sports? Aside from a few students and alums who are sports fans, I doubt very much that anyone pays attention to the records of WSSU teams. Many people do follow teams with real reputations, such as Notre Dame or Duke, but WSSU? Give me a break.
Or does Martin mean WSSU’s reputation for excellence academically? Even if WSSU had a strong academic reputation, which is doubtful, why would it be enhanced in people’s minds by virtue of the fact that the school’s teams play in a Division I rather than a Division II conference? If WSSU wants people to think more highly of it academically, it would make far more sense to try to do that directly, rather than through the indirect route of sports.
Moving up to Division I will entail considerable expense. WSSU will have to spend $10.7 million over a 5-year period to upgrade its athletic facilities in order to comply with NCAA rules for Division I. The school will also have to add six new intercollegiate sports, including track, baseball, and women’s golf. The athletic department staff will increase by 15 coaches and administrative personnel. And it will have to grant at least 50 full-time athletic scholarships to students.
Chancellor Martin optimistically says that WSSU will “create opportunities to generate even more revenue” from athletics, but he cagily avoids saying anything about costs. The fact of the matter is that virtually all college athletic programs, even the major sports at the top universities, lose money. For WSSU, revenues will be scant and unpredictable, but the costs will be steady and increasing. The bigger commitment to athletics will cause lots of red ink.
Professor Andrew Zimbalist, author of the book Unpaid Professionals, says that moving to Division I for financial reasons is a poor strategy. “I’d sooner bet on the Expos winning the World Series,” he says.
WSSU’s trustees should have said no, saving students and taxpayers lots of money.
George Leef (georgeleef@popecenter.org) is the executive director of the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Raleigh.