According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the annual growth rate of 5.6% that occurred from 1963 to 1980 has slowed to a projected 1.25% growth for 2010 to 2021.\u00a0 For small schools that rely heavily on enrollment as a revenue source, this statistic is particularly frightening, and a 2015 Moody\u2019s Investor Service report predicted that the closure rates of small colleges and universities will triple in the coming years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One possibility is establishing or expanding its athletics program. Research has shown that athletics is one of the top three considerations, along with academics and campus-related influences, in impacting the enrollment choice of small-college student athletes. (Goss, Jubenville, & Orejan, 2006) Additional scholarship opportunities don\u2019t hurt either. A study showed that as the amount of financial aid offered was increased by $1,000, the probability of the given student enrolling increased between 1.1% and 2%. (Braunstein et al., 1999).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The percentage of student-athletes at colleges is growing. The number of colleges where at least 33 percent of the students played a sport increased from 96 to 124 between 2006 and 2011, according to an Associated Press report. When a prospective student is deciding between multiple institutions, the range of available sports can make the difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imagine stepping into uncharted territory with little guidance, yet possessing an unwavering determination to succeed. This is the reality for first-generation college students\u2014those trailblazers who are the first in their families to pursue higher education. Their journeys are inspiring tales of resilience, perseverance, and hope.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1166,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[193,191,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-archives","category-featured","category-return-on-athletics","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2022_0317_NAIAMBB_1601-16x9-1.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2022_0317_NAIAMBB_1601-16x9-1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Jen Saab","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/author\/jsaabnaia-org\/"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/2022_0317_NAIAMBB_1601-16x9-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8ueXi-hD","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.naia.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}