The University of Saint Francis (Ill.) has experienced a significant revitalization of its athletics department, thanks in part to the data-driven insights provided by Return on Athletics® (ROA).
Between the 2019-20 and 2021-22 academic years, the University of Saint Francis saw an 11.16 percent decrease in student-athlete net tuition and a 25.90 percent decrease in net return. Despite stable student-athlete enrollment, this suggested the university was spending significantly more on the same number of students.
Instead of expanding athletics offerings to address this trend, the University of Saint Francis turned to ROA data to enhance the efficiency of its current programs – a decision that ultimately led to a significant increase in student-athlete net tuition and net return during the subsequent two years.
When discussing ROA’s impact on this financial turnaround, the University of Saint Francis’ Vice President for Administration and Finance, Julee Gard, noted, “To us, it has been very, very valuable in the way we can slice and dice it (ROA data). It helped us uncover how much we were spending and how much money we weren’t making at the end of the day on some specific teams.”
You can learn more about the specific ways the University of Saint Francis utilized ROA data to optimize its athletics offerings in the case study here.
Return on Athletics® (ROA) is the only resource available to maximize the business performance of NAIA athletic departments. Through the collection and analysis of member data, ROA leverages simple and consistent calculations across 250 small colleges and universities to provide the most complete athletics department financial data available. Please see here to learn more about ROA and what it can do for your institution.
Each year, Return on Athletics® (ROA) captures data from across the organization to track what’s trending across NAIA athletics and how those trends can be used by institutions to make decisions. From emerging sports to the amount of financial aid awarded, sports expenses, and net return, these trends are the benchmarks NAIA institutions can use […]
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Return on Athletics® (ROA) is a free NAIA member resource that helps institutions make more informed, data-driven decisions about their athletics programs. By bringing together institution-, sport-, and student-level data, ROA provides insights into enrollment, retention, financial aid, and athletics finances, enabling campus leaders to evaluate performance, identify opportunities, and strengthen long-term financial sustainability. How […]
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