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NATIONAL FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP Looking for crown's halo SOU could benefit from the 'Flutie effect,' attract more applicants Comment By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Dec. 26, 2014 at 2:00 AM Updated Dec 27, 2014 at 12:16 AM By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Dec. 26, 2014 at 2:00 AM Updated Dec 27, 2014 at 12:16 AM » RELATED CONTENT • SOU football team No. 1 in final coaches' poll • Victorious Raiders parade trophy through downtown Ashland • For fans who made trip, title game special • Raiders bring it home • NATIONAL CHAMPIONS! SOU tops Marian in NAIA football finals • Ashland to hold parade for the national champion Raiders • Cheering on the champs • Dodge named NAIA player of the year • Raiders won 55-31 » Social News When Austin Dodge delivered a picture-perfect 36-yard touchdown pass to Dylan Young to put the finishing touches on Southern Oregon’s 55-31 NAIA national championship victory over Marian, the Raiders may have secured much more than a shiny new centerpiece for their trophy case in McNeal Pavilion. The admissions department of the university on Monday sent out an “email blast” to potential applicants regarding the football team’s first-ever national title as SOU took a first step toward trying to cash in on what is commonly referred to as the “Flutie effect” or the “Flutie factor,” a phenomenon which has linked success of a school’s athletics programs — specifically football and basketball — to an increase in applications and enrollment. The “Flutie Effect” is named after former Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie, whose Hail Mary touchdown pass to Gerard Phelam gave the Eagles a dramatic last-second victory over Miami in 1984. The win reportedly sparked a 16-percent surge in applications to Boston College that year and, while a direct link from Flutie’s pass to enrollment was partially debunked by the university itself, a study by the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech in 2008 showed that there is something to be gained by success on the gridiron and basketball court. The study focused on NCAA Division I schools and its results, published in the Southern Economic Journal, should be music to the ears of any SOU administrator: “For football, the results suggest that ending the season ranked in the top 20 in football yields approximately a 2.5 (percent) increase in applications the following year, ending in the top 10 yields a 3-(percent) increase, and winning the football championship a 7-8-(percent) increase.” Basketball success sparked similar increases. Southern Oregon competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, not the NCAA, but the study may still point to a bump in enrollment on the horizon at SOU. The challenge facing the university now is how best to harness the potential. "It’s tough to predict, obviously,” said Eric Baird, the interim vice president for development and executive director of the SOU Foundation, the university’s fundraising arm. “Honestly, the way I look at it is more holistically — how it can help promote the university as a whole. One of the things that we’ll be doing after the break is to make sure that we meet with everybody and try to figure out strategic ways to utilize the effect of the football team’s success.” Even without a postgame propaganda push, the team’s victory in Daytona Beach, Fla., last Friday should give the school a major boost in name recognition and on-campus excitement, Baird said. The game was televised nationally on ESPNU, which reaches about 75 million homes, and Raider fans packed sports bars throughout the Rogue Valley and beyond to watch the championship game. Many of those fans and alums opened up their wallets, too. According to Baird, the Raider Club, which raises money for SOU athletic scholarships, received about $50,000 in donations leading up to the game to help fund the team’s six-day stay in Florida. “I think the best way to put it is, it’s a great way for us to nationally promote Southern Oregon University and introduce Southern Oregon University to a lot of people who may not otherwise know that we’re here,” Baird said. Lisa Garcia-Hanson, SOU’s associate vice president for enrollment and retention, has already witnessed first-hand how a football national title can impact a university. She was at Central Washington University when the Wildcats tied Findlay in the 1995 NAIA Division II national championship game. “I’ve seen what it can do — that national jolt of awareness,” Garcia-Hanson said. “We may get quite a bump. Traditionally, you’re going to see a large number of applicants the following fall and throughout that year, especially from traditional freshmen students — and it’s because of what they’ve heard through the grapevine. When you’re doing well, everybody’s looking your way.” Which provides a golden opportunity, says Garcia-Hanson, for the university to broadcast to a wider audience than ever before “what we knew all along, which is that we have a great university and you should come here.” In other words, all that print, television and web coverage, which increased considerably during the Raiders’ five-week postseason run, amounts to a whole lot of free advertising for a university that had already experienced a slight bump in enrollment — 1.02 percent, according to the Oregon University System fall report — for the 2014-15 school year. As an added bonus, all that exposure was positive. The team is led by a coach, Craig Howard, who turned “love, honor and respect” into the program’s motto, and features stars who are also exceptional students — Dodge was named SOU’s marketing student of the year, and linebacker Daniel Breaux has already landed a spot in the highly-competitive Berkeley, Calif., police academy. Of course, it also helps that Dodge and Breaux helped the Raiders trounce Marian in the NAIA championship game. “The buzz is pretty considerable,” Garcia-Hanson said. “I was just getting some routine blood work and the gal saw my coat and said, ‘Hey, isn’t that great that they won that.’ Then we talked for a couple of minutes. “It reinforces school spirit, and school spirit does a lot for raising moral and school interest.” Joe Zavala can be reached at 541-776-4469 or [email protected]. By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings DailyTidings.com By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings Posted Dec. 26, 2014 at 2:00 AM Updated Dec 27, 2014 at 12:16 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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