New Episode of BBOC: Countering the Enrollment Cliff with Drew Weatherford, Brent Richard, and Phil Andrews
On the latest episode of JohnWallStreet Presents: Big Business on Campus, a college sports podcast powered by Playfly Sports and sponsored by Short’s Sports Travel Logistics, JohnWallStreet Founder Corey Leff and Playfly Sports Chairman Michael Schreiber sit down with Weatherford Capital Founding Partner Drew Weatherford, IMG Academy CEO Brent Richard, and USA Fencing CEO Phil Andrews to discuss the so-called “enrollment cliff” —a projected decline in college-age students that has started to materialize— and a solution to help navigate it.
In this 40-minute conversation, we touch on:
The Perfect Storm Fueling the Enrollment Cliff
“At its core, it's aging population meets the cost of college going up, meets the improving quality of what you can get out of a digital degree,” Richard said. “Those three things are going to result in [a dip in the freshman population and] more pressure, not less, on universities going forward.”
Schools without a ‘brand name’ and/or differentiated on-campus student experience are going to feel the pain first.
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More Teams Means More Tuition—and Why Fencing Leads the Way
Adding sports is a pragmatic way to attract more tuition-paying students to campus. No sport has been launched by more colleges and universities over the last six months than fencing (6 programs, four more anticipated by June), simply because its financial proposition makes sense.
“We developed a tool with CFOs of universities which demonstrates what the discount rate [is], the average [the school is] going to make from each student on the team…Some D3 [fencing] teams have 68 people on their roster. So, you do that [number] times each person's tuition [and] suddenly [it is] a very good revenue proposition,” Andrews said. “And [schools are able to] reuse existing basketball or volleyball courts [meaning there is no need to build any new facilities].”
Roster Expansion as an Admissions Strategy
Layering in ‘B’ or ‘C’ teams within existing programs is also viewed as part of the solution. Proponents argue the market can support as many as 500,000 additional student-athletes.
Enterprising lower-level division schools have already begun to move in this direction. But the opportunity isn’t limited to them.
“There are plenty of metrics about retention, likelihood to succeed, long-term likelihood to give back to the school [etc.], where even if [a school has an abundance of applicants], if [it is] picking between two equal students, one [that] is going to engage on campus and is going to be on the second team, and someone who's not, the better business decision would be to take the student athlete,” Weatherford said. “So, there's a real argument to be made that it's not just the small schools that should be thinking about this…There's a really good argument that if [a school] wants to be really thoughtful and strategic, [it too] would focus on this [approach] regardless of what the demand is.”
📺 Watch the full video on JohnWallStreet’s YouTube Page.
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
We’ll be back with the next episode of JohnWallStreet Presents: Big Business on Campus in two weeks. Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez will be our guest.
In the meantime, make sure to check out our sponsor, Short’s Sports Travel Logistics—the fastest-growing company in collegiate athletics travel, and the trusted choice of over 108 athletic departments nationwide. Short’s simplifies every aspect of team travel (think: air charters, commercial flights, buses, and hotels) and helps to turn complex logistics into a competitive advantage.
Previous episodes of BBOC, including sit-downs with Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, Arizona AD Desiree Reed-Francois, Maryland AD Jim Smith, American Commissioner Tim Pernetti, Pittsburgh AD Allen Greene, Wake Forest AD John Currie, Kansas AD Travis Goff, Ivy League Executive Director Robin Harris, Big Sky Conference Commissioner Tom Wistrcill, SMU AD Damon Evans, Ohio State AD Ross Bjork, and West Virginia President Michael Benson can be found on JohnWallStreet’s YouTube channel.
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