If you don't think athletics can also turn around a university........

[bbtds]

Baylor has 40,000 applications for 3,000 freshman spots.

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/college/baylor-has-made-remarkable-rise-of-redemption/article_a74e6d92-faf0-5c00-b585-892626715fbe.html

"It's almost of epic proportion," said Bob Beaudine, whose executive search firm brought men's basketball coach Scott Drew and athletic director Ian McCaw to Baylor nearly nine years ago in the aftermath of a tragic scandal that shook college sports like nothing before.

Baylor President Ken Starr _ yes, the former independent prosecutor best known for his investigation into the Clinton White House and the Monica Lewinsky scandal _ believes athletics provide a voice through which the university speaks to the entire world.

"I'm so proud of the way our athletes use their God-given gifts coupled with their very hard work to bring great joy and pride to all of Baylor nation," Starr said. "The voice of Baylor athletics is quite eloquent right now."

While hard to determine the true impact of athletic success on freshman applications, the numbers have drastically increased.

There are more than 40,000 applications for the upcoming fall semester for only about 3,000 freshman spots. That's up from 15,458 applicants for the Fall 2005 class, right after the Lady Bears won their first national title. Average SAT and ACT scores for incoming freshmen also have significantly increased during that time.

[valpotx]

The fact that they are actually competitive in football has helped a lot.  Most Texans who follow sports don't want to go to a school that is terrible at football.  TCU's applications are up a lot from a decade ago as well.

[bbtds]

The fact that they are actually competitive in football has helped a lot.  Most Texans who follow sports don't want to go to a school that is terrible at football.  TCU's applications are up a lot from a decade ago as well.

I don't think TCU is anywhere close to 40/3, though. Those are numbers Valpo couldn't even process the applications in time for this August.

[agibson]

At Valpo we're talking about, very roughly, 7,000 applications for 1,000 spots.

Or, if we were three times as large (like Baylor), and the numbers scaled, about 20,000 applications for 3,000 spots.  So, only a factor of two away from the lauded Baylor numbers.

If our applications were up by a factor of six, I'm sure we'd be scrambling, indeed.  (I suppose it'd be tempting just to slap some easy cuts like GPA and test scores on many applications.) 

A factor of two?  To the same ratio as Baylor?  Not quite as daunting. 

[VULB#62]

New England perspective:  Another religion-afilliated university had a similar experience a few (well, now a lot) years back -- Boston College.  When Flutie won the Heismann the world of BC exploded:  1) campus expanded enormously, and 2) the applications absolutely skyrocketed.  It's now one of the toughest schools to get into in NE (not an easy thing), but the athletic program is still able to compete in the ACC. 

Baylor and BC both validate the investment in good athletics for expansion, selectivity, endowment and facilities growth. BTW I'm watching the Baylor/X NCCA game and apparently a BC guy Xferred to Baylor -- wow! Irony.

[historyman]

Baylor and BC both validate the investment in good athletics for expansion, selectivity, endowment and facilities growth. BTW I'm watching the Baylor/X NCCA game and apparently a BC guy Xferred to Baylor -- wow! Irony.

Heslip is Canadian with a rich history of Canadian basketball in his family. But his hand has cooled off some this game over other Baylor games. Wonder what Scott did to convince Brady to go to Baylor in Waco, TX of all places. You wonder how much sun block Brady has to use.