Except we have a top 80 budget.
It’s definitely fair to say that the name confusion is not entirely Mike’s fault.
But if I could on the other hand say “I went to Charlotte” and then get a raised eyebrow then respond with “The Charlotte 49ers, They played [insert school] in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last year.” it would spark recognition in a lot of people. It’d be even better if you could say “we had a top 25 basketball team last year” or “we went to the Sweet 16 two years ago.”
Right or wrong (mostly wrong of course), performance in sports is what gives most schools outside of the Ivies their reputation and recognition. If you ask Joe Blow if Alabama is a good college, they will say yes. In reality, it’s very average, but everyone knows it because of their football team. Charlotte is ranked about 20 spots higher than Alabama on the USNWR.
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The thing about USNWR is it’s basically just a beauty contest and one skewed toward privates at that.
I strongly disagree with you.
We are already going to get relegated to “D2” with all but 2 or 3 dozen schools. No need to hasten to non scholarship levels.
Let’s wait and see how this shakes out. The truth is, about 75% of FBS programs are in the same boat as us. We will pretty much all end up doing the same thing.
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If the so-called Super League comes to pass, then it needs to be its own entity divorced entirely from the NCAA. As such, no reason for the G6 and the “expelled” P4s to drop to either FCS equivalency or D-II.
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Agreed but that won’t stop Jay Bilas from referring to it as D2, or some similar condescending term.
Do you mean athletically or academically?
I honestly don’t think it would hurt us academically. Are students really picking to go here because we have D1 athletics? That seems unlikely to me.
What sayeth the congregation on this question?
.
Condescending terminology - “mid-major” comes to mind for me - will always be used by the likes of Bilas currently and Billy Packer before him. Just gotta ignore it for the most part.
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Follow up on this.
Obviously this is anecdotal but:
Every kid I know who has enrolled in college in the last 10 years chose their school as follows.
Either
- The best academic school they could get into and afford.
- A school they felt comfortable with after visiting.
- A specific academic program.
- Close to home or friends going there too.
No mention of sports across the board. Literally not a word about sports.
Stay with the rest of our FBS peers. Let the wannabe pro programs go do their thing.
It’s that’s simple.
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Applications went up like 20%-25% the year we added football. I think that’s evidence that sports matter. “Full college experience” and all that.
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Fair enough.
I do think we can have the full college experience with sports including football and marching band without spending as much as we do.
Western Carolina. Take them for example. They have a full college experience and they seem to have alumni that love the school (anecdotal) but they are not in FBS.
I think there is a middle ground here where us and our peers are in a different division than the power programs and we stay together and cut costs.
I agree with Advocate that it would be best if the power schools leave and we don’t take any action.
But when is that going to happen?
What motivation would they have to do that?
In the current setup they get to pad their records and play up to 8 home games by paying schools like us to come in and be cannon fodder.
It’s like schools at our level are dogs at the table begging their owners for table scraps. And getting just enough to keep us alive.
I don’t like it.
I’ll try to find the source again but recently read that intercollegiate athletics is down the list of a prospective student’s factors when selecting a school. And, of course, for some students not a factor at all.
Ironic considering a number of “new” football programs were perceived as a drawing card for increasing male enrollment. And yet females on average account for 58% of the typical 4 year college student population.
There are far too many examples of applications increasing for schools that have a successful run in one of the big 2 sports.
What’s crazy is how much we have grown since 2005 despite it. As much growth as the rest of the entire state system combined.
Can you imagine if we went on a tear in hoops or football?
Not only have we grown, but acceptance rate has dropped as well I believe. So more applications, more students, better standards. It’s really interesting. Why is that? Is it because we have the space to grow? In Charlotte with its growing population? More jobs, etc? Are the other area schools experiencing similar growth? I don’t follow that very closely so I have no idea, but now I’m curious.
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Numbers from a 2022 survey by Inside Higher Ed. Athletics #12 in a list of top 14 factors in choosing a school:
Sports show up in those other categories though. Look and feel of campus and extracurricular things are both things that impacted by athletics but not athletics specifically.
Lots of kids who don’t care about sports and may not even want to go to games are still looking for a compete college campus and student life. I’d also add that schools that perform well have upticks in applications which increases academic rigor to attend.
I’ve always said athletics have few direct impacts but a lot of secondary ones.
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If you dont have football and hoops, you have no campus life on weekends. It makes a big difference. Same with if your programs are tanking.
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It depends on the kid. My oldest could not of cared less about sports but to my youngest it was important.
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Funny thing about surveys is that people will “say” one thing and then choose something totally different. Ask a group of women how important “money” is in picking a spouse. Ask a group of guys how important “looks” are. The survey results and actions will be much different.
How important was App States football success in their enrollment? I personally know people that went there with football as a big factor.
Aside from football, our enrollment numbers jumped when we made the tourney in basketball (if anyone remembers).
Regarding the name change, I live uptown and run into people all the time that have no idea where or what UNC Charlotte is. Not Mike’s fault by the way…
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