Do Colleges Need Sports to Survive?
Athletics can amplify a college’s brand and support enrollment, but long-term survival depends far more on institutional economics than on winning programs.
A quiet assumption in higher education holds that strong athletics can steady a college through financial stress. Recent closures challenge that belief. Birmingham-Southern College ended operations in 2024 even as its baseball team surged into the Division III College World Series. Notre Dame College closed the same year despite a dominant Division II football program with multiple conference titles and playoff runs. Cabrini University, a national champion in men’s lacrosse, ceased independent operations after acquisition. Athletic success created visibility and community, but it did not change balance sheets, debt obligations, or enrollment trajectories.
Big Sports Programs and Institutional Resilience
Large athletic identities can diversify revenue at the highest levels of college sports, especially in major Division I conferences where media contracts, ticket sales, sponsorships, and licensing create meaningful income streams. Universities such as University of Alabama or University of Texas at Austin operate in an environment where athletics contributes tens to hundreds of millions annually, reinforcing brand visibility, alumni engagement, and national reach. In these cases, athletics behaves like an auxiliary enterprise that supports institutional reputation and, at times, cross-subsidizes other functions.
Tennessee Volunteers vs. Ohio State Buckeyes during the College Football Playoff First Round at Ohio Stadium, December 21, 2024. Photo by Nheyob, CC0 Public Domain.
Yet this model is narrow and highly concentrated. Less than 25 athletic departments in the United States consistently generate net positive revenue. Most Division I programs rely on institutional support, student fees, or subsidies to balance budgets. Outside the Power Five ecosystem, athletics rarely functions as a financial stabilizer. Instead, it operates as a cost center justified by intangible returns such as school spirit, application volume, and alumni affinity.
At the Division II and III levels, athletics shifts almost entirely into an enrollment strategy. Colleges expand roster spots to attract tuition-paying students, particularly in sports like lacrosse, soccer, and track where participation scales efficiently. Research from the Urban Institute, summarized in higher education reporting, shows that this strategy produces uneven results. Among hundreds of Division III institutions that invested in athletics, fewer than half realized enrollment gains. Many saw flat or declining enrollment despite increased athletic offerings. The conclusion is consistent: athletics can influence marginal recruitment outcomes, but it does not reverse demographic decline, nor does it offset structural financial imbalances.
The closures cited earlier reinforce that point. Birmingham-Southern College had a strong regional athletic identity and national visibility at the moment of closure, yet lacked the liquidity and state support required to continue operations. Notre Dame College demonstrated sustained football success, a sport often associated with enrollment growth, but still could not overcome financial pressures tied to enrollment declines and operational costs. Cabrini University maintained championship-caliber programs that strengthened institutional identity, yet consolidation became the only viable path forward.
Brand amplification is where elite athletics quietly delivers its greatest institutional return. Programs like Duke Blue Devils men's basketball and Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball generate repeated national exposure through March broadcasts, highlight cycles, and sustained media narratives that few academic campaigns can replicate. Each NCAA tournament appearance places the institution’s name before millions of viewers at near-zero marginal cost relative to traditional marketing spend. That visibility compounds over time, reinforcing reputation, increasing application volume, and strengthening selectivity. The effect resembles a long-duration branding annuity rather than a single revenue stream. Importantly, the benefit accrues even when the athletic department itself does not produce net profit, because the value is realized upstream in admissions demand, alumni engagement, and institutional prestige. At the same time, successful programs often subsidize less visible sports within the same department, reinforcing the reality that athletics operates as an internal portfolio rather than a collection of independent businesses.
Athletics, even when successful, operates downstream from institutional economics. It can amplify a brand that already has momentum, but it rarely creates that momentum independently.
SLACs With and Without Sports Identity
Liberal arts colleges present a more revealing contrast because they operate closer to the margin of financial sustainability. Among SLACs, athletics rarely approaches the revenue scale seen in major universities, so its role becomes clearer as either a recruitment lever or a cultural feature.
Reed College represents the extreme case of a successful institution without varsity athletics, with a model centered on academic rigor, intellectual identity, and disciplined financial management; its strong balance sheet and consistent operating surpluses demonstrate that demand for a distinctive academic experience can fully substitute for sports as a driver of enrollment and institutional cohesion. Other highly resourced SLACs such as Swarthmore College and Grinnell College compete in Division III without relying on athletics as a defining identity, drawing financial strength instead from large endowments and high selectivity, with endowment distributions funding a substantial share of operations and insulating them from short-term enrollment volatility, leaving athletics to support campus life and recruitment rather than determine financial outcomes.
Mid-tier SLACs often rely more directly on athletics as an enrollment hedge. Expanding teams increases the number of students who identify as athletes, a group that tends to enroll at higher rates once admitted. This approach can stabilize headcount in the short term, especially in regions facing demographic decline. However, it also introduces complexity. Additional teams require coaching staff, facilities, travel budgets, and administrative support. The cost structure grows alongside enrollment gains, and the net financial benefit can narrow or disappear if tuition discounting remains high.
Cases under financial strain illustrate these limits. Guilford College achieved national athletic visibility through a Final Four appearance in Division III basketball, yet continues to face operating deficits and restructuring needs. Hampshire College, with a minimal athletics footprint, struggled for different reasons tied to enrollment and debt, ultimately announcing closure. One institution had athletics success without financial stability. The other lacked athletics prominence and still faced the same structural pressures. The common variables were enrollment trends, cost structure, and access to capital.
A pattern emerges across SLACs. Institutions with strong endowments, clear academic identity, and disciplined financial management perform well regardless of athletic prominence. Institutions with weaker balance sheets may use athletics to stabilize enrollment, but the strategy carries limits and risks. Athletics can hedge against decline, but it cannot substitute for institutional strength.
Commentary: The Ideal of the Whole Student
The classical model of education valued the balanced development of mind and body. Athletics formed part of that tradition, reinforcing discipline, community, and character. Modern college sports, however, often diverge from that ideal. At the highest levels, athletics resembles a commercial enterprise detached from the academic mission. At smaller colleges, it is more often a recruitment strategy than a formative pillar.
Survival now depends less on whether a college fields winning teams and more on whether it sustains a coherent mission with sound economics. Institutions that align academic identity, financial stewardship, and student demand tend to endure. Athletics can complement that balance, but rarely defines it.
Further Reading