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Part of the argument for paying college football players is based on the income a successful program generates for a university.
Two years ago, TCU had never been a BCS Bowl, but then went to the Fiesta and Rose bowls in successive years.
The school’s admissions department saw a 138 percent increase in applications as compared to 2009. Considering that it costs $40 to apply to TCU, the school earned an extra $680,000 in the past two application cycles as opposed to if the number of applications had remained stagnant since 2009.
Is that entirely due to the success of the football program? No. But 60 percent of this year’s applicants were from out-of-state, whereas historically TCU’s applications base has been two-thirds Texans.
“For sure, (my prospective college) had to have a football team,” Kelsey Garvella, a high school senior from California, recently told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “As we all know, TCU has pretty good football.”
TCU's Bowl Binge
| Year | Record | Bowl | Nielssen ratings (viewers) | Applications (approx.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 11-2 | Poinsettia | 3.7 (5.1 million) | 8,000 |
| 2009 | 12-1 | Fiesta | 8.2 (12.8 million) | 14,000 |
| 2010 | 13-0 | Rose | 11.2 (20.1 million) | 19,000 |
