Future of Division III

[WUPHF]

Indeed it is....no division is immune. Maryland is cutting $104 million between 2025-2027
Kansas - $32 million this year.
Oregon - staff cuts, non-essential travel ban.

In some cases, it is far crazier at the other levels as institutions layoff faculty and staff specifically to pay student athletes.

[CNU85]

Indeed it is....no division is immune. Maryland is cutting $104 million between 2025-2027
Kansas - $32 million this year.
Oregon - staff cuts, non-essential travel ban.

In some cases, it is far crazier at the other levels as institutions layoff faculty and staff specifically to pay student athletes.

Optics are real. It's difficult to understand when you're the one being let go, and making a pittance compared to the NIL money an athlete is making. The reality is that if the NIL money isn't used properly, the athletes go elsewhere and suddenly revenue drops from athletics because nobody wants to watch sub 500 teams or purchase merhcandise, or donate large sums. That leads to even more cuts.

And the optics at D3 schools are also present. While NIL money usually isn't a factor, when schools cut staff, majors, minors, and don't cut athletics, it's a tough pill to swallow when you're packing your personal items.

At the d3 level, as you all know, athletic programs mean enrollment, and in some places, some sports are actually net positive when it comes to revenue vs cost.

[MCScots2013]

TSSAA is sponsoring lacrosse (a recent development I believe) and MC's new track facility has a turf field with lines that seem to suggest lacrosse is coming soon.  Men's and women's combine roster is what, 75 students?  Another couple million in annual revenue to the College, I suppose.  No idea how much it costs to outfit each player with equipment.

Switching gears:
What are some thoughts on Greek life for small colleges and universities?  Evidently Maryville has a committee to explore allowing Greek life on campus to help boost enrollment and retention.  There is currently one frat with a presence on campus, DKE, through a charter with the city (does that even count??).  Does Greek life seem to have a positive effect on increased enrollment?  Another way to compete with mid-size universities?

[WUPHF]

In 30 years working in higher education, I have never heard of a small college or university purposefully bringing social fraternities or sororities to campus as an enrollment strategy. But for a variety of reasons, I like the idea.

[WUPHF]

There has been a widely discussed trend of students looking to go south for college.

For an institution such as Maryville, they may have decided that the Greek letter organizations can help them better capitalize on the trend.

https://www.boston.com/news/the-boston-globe/2025/10/10/yo-you-got-to-go-why-more-students-from-the-northeast-are-heading-south-for-college/

[MCScots2013]

Jury's still out on whether or not they'll do it.  I think I'd be more surprised if we did it.  Bryan Coker (President) has some experience in that world from prior positions.  Might have been at UT when the, shall we say, "unorthodox consumption of alcohol" thing happened.

To your second point: there was a time when Maryville had a ton of kids from NJ and PA, 70s into the 80s maybe.  When I was there, of course Tennessee had the lion's share, but Florida was a close second.  Georgia is creeping up there, too, especially amongst athletes.  If memory serves, I was told back in the day they gave preacher discounts so preachers could send their kids to school at a much lower rate (hence out of region state mix).  I don't think that practice is still in place.

Would love to see them parlay adding lacrosse and Greek life into attracting more from the northeast.  Their parents might want to come down with them and take advantage of the no income tax.  Can trade that for tuition dollars!

[CNU85]

Here is some info on what Greek Life looks like at CNU. I can't say how things impact other institutions, but at CNU Greek Life is integral to the student experience and involved in the community. We have 23 organizations involved.

CNU Greek Life

[CNU85]

Some more info

CNU Greek Village

[y_jack_lok]

Switching gears:
What are some thoughts on Greek life for small colleges and universities?  Evidently Maryville has a committee to explore allowing Greek life on campus to help boost enrollment and retention.  There is currently one frat with a presence on campus, DKE, through a charter with the city (does that even count??).  Does Greek life seem to have a positive effect on increased enrollment?  Another way to compete with mid-size universities?

My sense is that Greek life in the 2020s isn't as big a deal as it was in the 1960s when I was at RMC. At that time, RMC was all men and there were about 750 students when I graduated. There were nine fraternities on campus. Today enrollment is coed with about 1,800 students. I suspect there are about the same number of men now (perhaps a few more) as back then. Now there are only six fraternities plus five sororities and one coed Greek organization. So twelve in all. Proportionally speaking there should be at least 18-20. Also, membership in individual fraternities is not quite as robust today. Having said that, the fraternity I was in, SAE, is thriving. But it is hard for me to see that adding Greek life would be that big a draw in terms of recruiting students in this day and age.

[jknezek]

W&L has always been strongly Greek. When I was there in the late 90s there were 16 fraternities and 5? Sororities. Something like that. The school was 90% Greek and if you weren't in a house, you were looked at as a drag on the social life. Fraternities paid for everything, and brothers paid for fraternities. So not being in one was kind of freeloading. Being independent meant you were just barely more welcome than the VMI Keydets that were always trying to sneak in to parties and events.

Now the school has 11 fraternities and 6? Sororities. But participation has dropped to 70%. So even at a highly Greek school, one that used to be almost completely dependent on the fraternities to make Lexington interesting, participation has fallen significantly. The honor code explicitly disallows fake IDs, so bars are a no go until you are actually 21, so I'm guessing drinking and partying are simply less of a draw these days and the school's efforts to build around outdoor and specialist clubs and interests is paying off.

Honestly though, I don't know what's changed, my own fraternity has shifted quite a bit over the years, and I don't have much interest.

But I doubt adding Greek life will be a huge draw. My rising h.s. daughter has no interest in Greek life and it is not a component of her college search process.

[Kuiper]

At many small liberal arts colleges without Greek systems, sports teams often function similarly to fraternities, including mostly living together in on- or off-campus houses that nominally may not be restricted to members of the team, but functionally operate that way.  Having an actual Greek system might be a bit more inclusive for non-athletes, but I doubt that they would generate the critical mass of non-athlete males to displace the existing team-based groupings.  My sense is that what kids are looking for when they seek out the bigger, rah rah, DI schools is not the Greek system, per se, but the bigger school and big-time sports, which often comes with a wider variety of social outlets, including frats.

From an enrollment yield perspective, the big benefit of sports for smaller schools is that coaches "recruit" students and often appear to offer them a preferred path to admission.  Students feel like they are wanted.  You can expand that to include other types of activities where recruiting could and does happen (debate, Model UN, band/orchestra, robotics, theater etc), but it's kind of hard to do with frats and sororities.

[WUPHF]

For the vast majority of small colleges and universities, there are few things, if anything, that they can do to create a huge draw.

[DagarmanSpartan]

W&L has always been strongly Greek. When I was there in the late 90s there were 16 fraternities and 5? Sororities. Something like that. The school was 90% Greek and if you weren't in a house, you were looked at as a drag on the social life. Fraternities paid for everything, and brothers paid for fraternities. So not being in one was kind of freeloading. Being independent meant you were just barely more welcome than the VMI Keydets that were always trying to sneak in to parties and events.

Now the school has 11 fraternities and 6? Sororities. But participation has dropped to 70%. So even at a highly Greek school, one that used to be almost completely dependent on the fraternities to make Lexington interesting, participation has fallen significantly. The honor code explicitly disallows fake IDs, so bars are a no go until you are actually 21, so I'm guessing drinking and partying are simply less of a draw these days and the school's efforts to build around outdoor and specialist clubs and interests is paying off.

Honestly though, I don't know what's changed, my own fraternity has shifted quite a bit over the years, and I don't have much interest.

But I doubt adding Greek life will be a huge draw. My rising h.s. daughter has no interest in Greek life and it is not a component of her college search process.

In my time, CWRU was about 40% Greek.

Now, I'm told it's more like 20-25%.

Last I checked, 16 fraternities and 10 sororities.  While that percentage may not seem super high, Greek Life makes up a disproportionate share of the party and social life on campus.

[scottiedoug]

As a Maryville alum and resident of Maryville with decent ties with folks there, I hope they do not do the Greek route. It shows a lack of imagination to think recruiting and retention will be enhanced by creating yet another system to divide and segregate students. Part of the point of smallish liberal arts colleges is the building of community and not the encouragement of mini-cliques. I agree with another poster that the attraction currently of northern students to the South has more to do with the lure of D1/SEC sports mania than with anything that frats would "fix."

Lacross, on the other hand, might work. So would wrestling.