Erskine Football

[AHB1188]

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Interesting news from Due West. Perhaps the Flying Fleet and the Paladins may meet again. Looks like Erskine is going into Division II.

[mathprofhiker]

This is correct, per their college and athletics website. This is the 4th new varsity sport they have announced within the past few months, in addition to some club sports. This is a massive undertaking for such a small college, and their conference (Conference Carolinas) does not sponsor football. DII programs do not really compete with us, so hopefully this works out for them.

[AHB1188]

I didn't realize the overall trend of expansion, but my first thought is this is enrollment driven.

[FUBeAR]

I spoke to the Student-Athletes at Erskine about 7 or 8 years ago and had a long talk with their AD (still there) about adding Football and the associated enrollment benefits of Football and other sports. He was ready to add Football that day if he could have. My memory may be a little fuzzy, but I believe he told me that, at the time, they were bringing in 30+ baseball players each year. Obviously, most of those were receiving very little to no scholarship assistance, but they wanted to play college baseball. They are currently showing 73 Team Members on their Baseball roster and Furman, by comparison, has 33. As he said, some of them play, some of them quit baseball and stay in school there, and some transfer. But they were (mostly) paying tuition while they were there. So, yeah, them adding Football is, most likely, highly "enrollment driven." As long as they are up-front about the numbers (# of Players in the Program, Tuition (and other ) Costs, and Available Financial Aid) with the Kids and their Families, then I don't really see anything wrong with it.

Plus, their "Flying Fleet" Team name/mascot is pretty darn cool.
Due West, SC...not so much.

[Affirm]

Allen University, Columbia, SC, has a newly added team.

[cavedweller2]

Looking forward to the Paladins going on the road to play these two.

[fufanatic]

Helmets are pretty awesome.

Thought the school was close to shutting down a few years ago. Good for them that they've turned it around some enough to add sports.

[gman]

The logo on the helmet is goofy.

[FUBeAR]

Helmets are pretty awesome.

Thought the school was close to shutting down a few years ago. Good for them that they've turned it around some enough to add sports.

Though I don't know for certain, my sense is that it's kinda the other way around. I think adding sports / student-athletes, i.e., tuition-paying student-athletes has turned the school around.

They have 614 undergraduate students...and I just counted the number of Players on all of the online rosters. 352 Student-Athletes less a few that might participate in 2 (or more) sports. 57% of the students there are Student-Athletes. If we add 150 Football Players to that, that % goes to 66%, not accounting for any other additional new non-athlete students. If they control spending properly, leveraging Sports to drive Enrollment Management is a good 'business model' for Higher Education.

Baseball = 73
Men's Basketball = 57 (wow!)
Men's Golf = 26
Men's Soccer = 29
Men's Tennis = 9
Men's' Volleyball = 16
Women's Basketball = 22
Women's Cross Country = 8
Women's Golf = 7
Women's Lacrosse = 19
Women's Soccer = 36
Softball = 25
Women's Tennis = 7
Women's Volleyball = 18

[AHB1188]

I agree with FUBeAR. The cost pressures on those tiny colleges are tough. I think Brevard College has followed a similar path. They field 21 athletic teams (including things like cycling and climbing) which adds substantially to their enrollment.

The numbers on Erskine are interesting as well. If my impression of service academy prep school athletics is correct, what Erskine is doing seems similar.

Helmets are pretty awesome.

Thought the school was close to shutting down a few years ago. Good for them that they've turned it around some enough to add sports.

Though I don't know for certain, my sense is that it's kinda the other way around. I think adding sports / student-athletes, i.e., tuition-paying student-athletes has turned the school around.

They have 614 undergraduate students...and I just counted the number of Players on all of the online rosters. 352 Student-Athletes less a few that might participate in 2 (or more) sports. 57% of the students there are Student-Athletes. If we add 150 Football Players to that, that % goes to 66%, not accounting for any other additional new non-athlete students. If they control spending properly, leveraging Sports to drive Enrollment Management is a good 'business model' for Higher Education.

Baseball = 73
Men's Basketball = 57 (wow!)
Men's Golf = 26
Men's Soccer = 29
Men's Tennis = 9
Men's' Volleyball = 16
Women's Basketball = 22
Women's Cross Country = 8
Women's Golf = 7
Women's Lacrosse = 19
Women's Soccer = 36
Softball = 25
Women's Tennis = 7
Women's Volleyball = 18

[Davemeister]

How long before they join the Southern Conference?

[Affirm]

I agree with FUBeAR and AHB1188 on the fact that these matters are enrollment-related. AHB1188 used the phrase "those tiny colleges" in reference to Erskine and Brevard. Those 2 schools are "tiny colleges", but Furman has and will have its own issues. Furman is a relatively very small school. It is impressive that we have the quantity and quality of athletics that we have. Even so, if the school's addition of new sports team would help Furman, here are some suggestions:
Men's Wrestling
Men's, Women's, and Co-ed Rifle
Women's Beach Volleyball
Evidently, the SoCon sponsors competition in Wrestling and in Rifle (3 schools in each of those), and Mercer has Beach Volleyball competing in the ASUN as an associate member.

[Monday]

https://erskinesports.com/news/2018/8/2 ... ogram.aspx

How long before FU starts having intermural Fortnite tournaments?

[fufanatic]

https://erskinesports.com/news/2018/8/2 ... ogram.aspx

How long before FU starts having intermural Fortnite tournaments?

It's bizarre to most of us, but this sort of announcement is going to start happening more and more. Esports is giant with revenue projections over a billion dollars a year already. Those figures = TV appearances on big channels like ESPN and jobs for college students that are interested in that sort of thing. You won't catch me spending an evening watching someone else play video games, but to each their own I suppose.