NIACC Cuts Football

[Panthers to the Bone]

http://wcfcourier.com/articles/2009/03/17/news/breaking_news/doc49c01cc77700b749389100.txt

Well, it's starting. I wonder who the next Iowa school will be to cut sports?

NIACC has been a good program for UNI to recruit from.

[Newt99]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

This is a shame. NIACC has had a pretty decent program over the years, and we have certainly found some good transfers from there.

We may see more of this at the JUCO level. If UNI can't make money with their football program, I imagine it is probably a drain on the budget at most community colleges as well.

[UNI Prof]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

Man, that really stinks.

[crich1]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

They mentioned that the football program has a roster of about 100 every year. NIACC just lost a few hundred thousand dollars in tuition that they would usually generate from the football players.

It was a good feeder program for UNI and gave a lot of area kids a place to continue with football after high school.

[Newsbreaker]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

As a tool to increase enrollment, I would expect more community colleges to add sports in these times. Sports like cross country, soccer and golf if they don't have them already. You can carry pretty heavy rosters, the student-athletes must be enrolled full time and minimal amounts of financial aid need to be expended on this group.

Football is an expensive sport to maintain, but I assume NIACC's overall enrollment will go down as well...which will huirt them more in the long run as it's hard to build back enrollment and credit hours at this level.

Oh no, I think you have it exactly backwards. Community College enrollment is very high, and applications are setting all-time records right now. An estimate on the NBC Nightly News a few weeks ago stated that the current record number of applications are expected to increase by at least another 50% over the next few years.

As the tuition at traditional 4-year institutions continues to spiral out of control, Community College educations become more and more attractive to more and more students. I think you'll see capital improvement and physical size increases at many CC's, with or without any athletic programs. I'll be shocked if NIACC sees any decrease from this move.

[Newsbreaker]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

You're a smart guy, so I'm sure you didn't believe a national nightly newscast was discussing community colleges in small town Iowa.

With enrollment rising nationally, most CC's are going to have to add programs, academic rooms and instructors. I doubt very much that the average CC is going to need to add sports teams to increase enrollment - nor will the be able to afford to when they have up to 50% more students to contend with.

To address NIACC specifically. Tuition for an in-state student, 12 credit hours is $1,300 (non-resident is just over 2k). I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that carrying a football team costs at least $1,000 per student. That means the "profit" on a football player, even over an entire year, is quite small as compared to your average student. In fact, since they are dropping the program, it's possible that it's a net loss.

[Roy Fleming]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

Most community college out where I live are doing very well. I wonder if NIACC is a victim of the demographics of the area.

As for the football programs...I watch several JC games a year. Usually there are around 200 - 300 people at the games. I think most of them have some kind of pass, so paid attendance is probably less than a 100. Probably not enough to even pay the officials. It's really quality football, but nobody cares. How many people here went to the Graphic Edge Bowl games at the UNI-Dome last year?

[Pirateye]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

[QUOTE=Newsbreaker;167115]You're a smart guy, so I'm sure you didn't believe a national nightly newscast was discussing community colleges in small town Iowa.
I certainly do not believe a national newscast!

[Newsbreaker]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

As always News you're OVER-thinking.

What I'm saying is that NIACC had (let's say) 80 football players on their roster. It's an NJCAA requirement that they be enrolled full-time. That means 1920 credit hours to NIACC at $103 per credit hour for a tuition of $197,760.

Now, I'm assuming that all of the football players will now find other schools. So they're enrollment is down 80 full-time students at a college where the total enrollment is right around 6749 and a full-time enrollment of 4475.

I'm saying that they might increase total head count, but they won't replace the 80 they lost with 80 additional full-time students. They can't make up the number of credit hours that those football players were enrolled.

That's all probably correct - but clearly there is a reason they're cutting the program, and people with a vested interest have decided that football isn't worth the expense at that school. That should count for something.

I am "over-thinking"...I'm also taking a somewhat broader view of the subject matter.

[TH1974]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

That's all probably correct - but clearly there is a reason they're cutting the program, and people with a vested interest have decided that football isn't worth the expense at that school. That should count for something.

That's a good point. If football *is* 'profitable' for the school, why get rid of it?

[Mudrafan]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

how many academic or vocational programs are "profitable" at colleges across the country? crickets...that's what I thought...

[Newsbreaker]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

how many academic or vocational programs are "profitable" at colleges across the country? crickets...that's what I thought...

You don't see the difference there, do you?

[northwest iowa panther]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

What the dropping of football at NIACC does is eliminate the opportunity of many football players to play two years of quality football and then be given another chance to move on with their football and educational experiences. As a former high school coach, I had players that used the junior college route to then transfer to D I, D II, DIII and NAIA four year institutions. These players did not qualify academically and/or were not heavily recruited by bigger schools. Participation in JC football allowed a couple of these individuals to experience higher education when they may not have otherwise done so.

[Roy Fleming]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

There are also players who will:
- Play a year at a Division I,II, or III program
- Transfer to play at junior college for a year
- Transfer to a Division I,II or III program

[Roy Fleming]

Re: NIACC Cuts Football

I don't see any other Community Colleges added football either due to the immense start-up cost. I've advocated for the addition of sports at Community Colleges to boost enrollment (studies have shown that on average a student-athlete will bring 1.5 other full-time students to campus with them when they enroll), but football is a tough sell to many places.

I think you are hitting on a good reason for sports at community colleges. Although there are many community colleges out here, if not for sports, I would really know little about these schools. I certainly would not just visit the campus on impulse or anything. I suspect for high school kids it might be the same. But have a few of their fellow students enroll and all of a sudden that school is on their radar. I know every time I leave a game I am always saying/thinking "I wish I had known about community colleges when I was in high school." I did not say or think that when I was just passing the sign (to the college) daily on the freeway.