When college sports teams slam-dunk the competition, universities score by receiving boosts in enrollment applications.

Just ask Northern Illinois University, whose football team raced to seven consecutive victories, climbing to No. 12 in the Top 25 polls while playing on national television multiple times.

College-bound students took notice of the exposure, and at one point in the fall, the number of applicants were 40 percent more when compared to the previous year.

“Football gave us a higher profile around the country,” said Bob Burk, Northern’s director of admissions. “The other thing, more importantly, is that the atmosphere on our campus, it really was markedly different.”

On weekends, an energy overtook Northern’s campus located an hour west of Chicago. More than 20,000 people flooded the football stadium, and, as Burk said, “alumni came out of the wood works.”

“Those were the things that made it a whole lot of fun,” he said. “You can’t put a price tag on that.”

Stabilizing enrollment numbers and swelling alumni donations are on the wish lists of every university. With state funds drying up, universities have hiked student tuition and fees; therefore, the additional financial burden on college-bound students has never been greater. The competition for college-bound students has never been so fierce.

At Eastern, the athletic department justified its request for additional scholarship funds, in part, so it could stabilize the university’s enrollment.

Supporters stated that maintaining 22 sports ensures the more than 450 athletes – and their tuition and fees – come to Eastern each academic year. But their insecurity seems like overkill now because the university has accepted the two largest freshmen classes in successive falls. Three years ago, however, the enrollment dipped below 11,000.

The fall enrollment this year was 11,522, and the last two years, the university has cut off applications for the fall semester early.

“One of worst things that can occur is that people get arrogant,” President Lou Hencken said. “They take that they’ll get future students for granted, but every year is a new year.”

Sports serve as free publicity

At Eastern, the Athletic Department requested increases in its scholarship funding to capture some of the magic experienced at Northern. While Eastern has received the Ohio Valley Conference’s award for best overall sports program, the recognition comes partly because the university offers 22 sports – a number more than any university in the conference or state.

The large number of sports offered is both good and bad for the athletic department.

The positive effects are that more than 450 student-athletes come to the university each year. Having such diversity hurts the athletic department, which has the largest athletic budget in the conference, as each individual sport is funded sparsely.

Supporters of boosting the Grant-in-Aid fee state that Eastern falls 56 scholarships below the number of scholarships the NCAA would allow, 236.

“We need more scholarships to be competitive,” said Director of Athletics Rich McDuffie.

Men’s basketball and women’s soccer receive only half a scholarship less than the NCAA maximum, but other sports experience a significant gap. The football team has 10 fewer scholarships than the NCAA maximum of 63, while the swimming teams are each seven below the cap.

By better supplying the individual sports with scholarship money, McDuffie and other supporters believe coaches will be able to recruit better athletes, which in turn will make the teams improve.

Successful sports teams bring national publicity to a university that it would otherwise not be able to afford. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale experienced such attention recently because of the success from its nationally ranked basketball team. The school played on ESPN twice and had newspapers, such as The New York Times, write stories about them.

“It helps us in terms of introducing a student to SIU,” said Anne De Luca, Southern’s director of admissions, who added application numbers are up. “When we’re going out on the road recruiting, high school students know about us.”

“There’s no better free ad,” Burk said of the sports coverage.

Success in sports also creates an excited atmosphere, as evident at Northern’s campus last fall, which trickles down to prospective students during campus visits and when current students pass on their satisfaction to others.

Does sports attract students

The most optimistic supporters of athletics acknowledge that Eastern will not become a sports powerhouse even if the athletic department’s current $6.9 million is doubled. But could athletics attract prospective students here?

Currently, students come here because of affordability, a small campus and good student-to-faculty ratios, said Director of Admissions Dale Wolf.

But athletics, “as a reason for coming?” Wolf asked. “It’s probably not going to be in the top two or three. It goes in with activities, but I think students want to know what’s going on; they want a good selection.”

For the 463 student-athletes, the 22 sports allow them to play at the Division I level, which is an opportunity so enticing some must pay full tuition and fees to come here. Few athletes, McDuffie previously said, have full-ride scholarships.

Cutting sports and better funding a smaller number was considered, but the money saved is minimal. Again, concerns whether the university would be able to find replacement students for those roster spots squashed that option.

Whether rising higher education costs reduces the percentage of students who can afford attending school remains unclear, but Eastern’s former dean of enrollment management, Frank Hohengarten, estimated the university could replace all student-athletes if all sports were cut.