USF Hopes Big East Means Big Bucks

[achiever1911]

http://tampatribune.com/MGBKL7OGPIE.html

TAMPA - Ann Liguori, a sports talk-show host in New York and a 1982 USF alumnus, no longer has to tell friends her alma mater is in Tampa.

The University of South Florida's July entry into the Big East athletic conference, combined with the Bulls' first bowl game appearance three weeks ago, secured the football program's exposure in the nation's largest media market.

"And I can't help but think that more and more graduates are going to see this and respond by giving back in some way," said Liguori, who donates yearly to a USF scholarship named for her late brother, Jim Liguori.

University leaders think so, too. The football program already played a big part in a 633 percent overall increase in alumni donations since the team played its first game in 1997, they say.

Jo-Ann Alessandrini, USF's chief fundraiser, expects the team's heightened national visibility will lead to a spike in alumni gifts.

That could mean a big turnaround for a university that ranks last among the 16 schools in the Big East in alumni giving, as well as a bounty for an endowment that pays for many USF programs.

Football 'Doesn't Hurt'

The university has seen a nearly 14 percent rise in the number of applicants from this time last year, said Bob Spatig, director of undergraduate admissions.

Although reluctant to attribute the interest directly to the football team's success, Spatig said, "I know it doesn't hurt."

"I think it creates a favorable environment, and I think over time, the name exposure will help us statewide."

It is common belief that a school's athletic success leads to additional donations and increased applications. For example, Northwestern University, long an underdog in Big Ten football, saw applications jump after its trip to the 1996 Rose Bowl.

But several academic studies suggest that over time, the benefits are less tangible.

About a year ago, Cornell University economist Robert Frank wrote that "alumni donations and applications for admission sometimes rise in the wake of conspicuously successful seasons at a small number of institutions." But those jumps may be small and short-lived, he wrote.

Much of the debate, though, focuses on Division I schools such as the University of Notre Dame, which was established in 1842 and where 49 percent of a large alumni pool financially supports its academics and athletics, the highest rate in the Big East.

By comparison, only 5 percent of USF alumni give to the school. But its first graduates received their diplomas just 42 years ago, so the alumni donor base is building, university officials say.

Football is helping.

In 1996, the year before USF launched its football program, alumni gave $900,000 to the university. Last fiscal year, which ended just before the school's official entry into the Big East, alumni gave $6.6 million.

During that time, the university embarked on a major fundraising campaign to build its endowment, which is worth about $300 million.

The National Stage

University leaders say football, which put USF on the national stage, played a big part of that campaign, especially among alumni.

Alumni donations represented just 12 percent of the $54 million in gifts the university received last fiscal year. But while total giving increased 54 percent from 1996 to 2005, alumni giving jumped 633 percent.

Despite a 14-0 loss to North Carolina State, USF's appearance in the Dec. 31 Meineke Car Care Bowl should boost that momentum, Alessandrini said.

"Athletics are a door opener, a gateway to the entire university," she said. "Just being in our first bowl game kind of put us on the map."

The widely presumed link between athletic success and university largesse has been kept alive by the "Flutie factor." The phrase was coined after Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie completed a Hail Mary pass in a 1984 football game in which BC upset the University of Miami.

Reports for years stated that applications and alumni donations skyrocketed in the aftermath of the game. But the Flutie factor is largely a myth, Boston College spokesman Jack Dunn said.

Applications to the Jesuit college dipped slightly in the year after BC's victory over Miami, and alumni donations had been climbing steadily in the years before the game, Dunn said.

What Flutie brought was exposure, buzz, said Dunn, who admits he had never heard of USF before the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Big East and bowl exposure could be one factor in the greater number of applications to USF, which were at 12,574 as of Thursday. That's a 13.5 percent increase, or 1,493 more, from the same period last year, said Spatig, the admissions director.

Part of that jump probably is because of last year's busy Florida storm season, which led many students to apply late. But two storms this year, hurricanes Katrina and Wilma, affected southeast Florida. Yet admissions officers have seen an applications spike out of that region, Spatig said.

"It's hard to measure it directly, but the national exposure helps, certainly for those students who want big-time college athletics," Spatig said.

Of course, the football team's success adds pressure to win. "Like other programs in the Big East, they are under the microscope with the increased media exposure," said alumnus Liguori, who also serves on USF's alumni association board.

In December, USF awarded Bulls football coach Jim Leavitt a seven-year, $7 million deal. Cornell economist Frank noted in his 2004 study that it takes an investment like that to keep a Division I athletic program successful - and alumni happy.

[ChiTownBull]

Nice article....

Football is def getting us attention nationally

before we played uconn i had people at work saying it would be great if we made a bcs game

that then lead to questions about USF

[bulls96go]

$$$$ keep it rolling