In the early 2000s, Robert Witt, then-president of the University of Alabama, gave the school’s admissions office clear instructions: Approach recruiting top academic prospects the same way you would top athletic prospects — and look out of state to find them. Various sectors of the school embarked on that mission, according to a 2010 case study of the university’s approach that was co-authored by three University of Alabama employees and two other experts in enrollment management, as the practice of shaping a college class is known.
In 2007, athletics gave that strategy an enormous boost when the school hired Nick Saban as its head football coach. Saban, who announced his retirement this week, famously went on to lead Alabama to six national championships. In 2013, Witt, who by then was chancellor of the University of Alabama system, called Saban “the best financial investment this university has ever made.” In his last year coaching at the school, Saban earned more than $11 million. During Saban’s time at Alabama, enrollment grew from 25,580 to 39,623. His tenure overlapped with Alabama’s aggressive effort to recruit out-of-state students, which began in 2003. The school has been a leader in the use of this tactic — which public colleges across the country have adopted amid state funding cuts and which have helped schools raise their academic profiles and boost tuition revenue. Out-of-state students are more financially valuable to state schools than their in-state counterparts because they pay more in tuition. At Alabama, out-of-state undergraduate students pay $32,400 per year, compared with $11,100 for in-state students. In a viral social-media post, Joe Pompliano, who writes a popular newsletter on sports economics, estimated that, over the course of Saban’s tenure at Alabama, those students have brought in some $1 billion in extra revenue.
“‘They have charted a course that a lot of other schools are following. They still le …
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In 2007, athletics gave that strategy an enormous boost when the school hired Nick Saban as its head football coach. Saban, who announced his retirement this week, famously went on to lead Alabama to six national championships. In 2013, Witt, who by then was chancellor of the University of Alabama system, called Saban “the best financial investment this university has ever made.” In his last year coaching at the school, Saban earned more than $11 million. During Saban’s time at Alabama, enrollment grew from 25,580 to 39,623. His tenure overlapped with Alabama’s aggressive effort to recruit out-of-state students, which began in 2003. The school has been a leader in the use of this tactic — which public colleges across the country have adopted amid state funding cuts and which have helped schools raise their academic profiles and boost tuition revenue. Out-of-state students are more financially valuable to state schools than their in-state counterparts because they pay more in tuition. At Alabama, out-of-state undergraduate students pay $32,400 per year, compared with $11,100 for in-state students. In a viral social-media post, Joe Pompliano, who writes a popular newsletter on sports economics, estimated that, over the course of Saban’s tenure at Alabama, those students have brought in some $1 billion in extra revenue.
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