No. 15-seed St. Peter’s University is strutting to the Sweet 16 after stunning No. 2 Kentucky and later No. 7 Murray State — and its improbable Cinderella run will invariably provide the school a major boost.
The small private New Jersey Jesuit university of fewer than 3,000 undergrads has gained nationwide attention after its 85-79 overtime victory against the Wildcats. The punchy team from Jersey City’s storybook run isn’t just bringing glory to the school’s basketball program but also, if the history of March Madness is any indication, will end up giving the university a financial and academic shot in the arm.
“It’s epic!” St. Peter’s President Eugene Cornacchia told the Washington Examiner about the past week. “It’s incredible. It’s a huge boost to our visibility across the country and probably even across parts of the world.”
Cornacchia said the school is expecting a huge influx in applications and interest and has already assembled a team to monitor and maximize that wave. He noted that the school accepts applications right up to May and has already seen a modest boost in new applications.
WAGERING ON MARCH MADNESS TO HIT ALL-TIME HIGH AS STATES LEGALIZE SPORTS BETTING
Further adding to the intrigue of St. Peter’s is its unique mascot — a peacock. Visitors to the basketball team’s Twitter account, which has accumulated thousands of new followers, are greeted with the cheeky hashtag #StrutUp plastered across most of its tweets, a nod to their feathered mascot.
SWEET HISTORY!!
Rip up those brackets! We’ll see you in Philly!!!#StrutUp? pic.twitter.com/UDZ5UzLfNc
— Saint Peter’s Men’s Basketball (@PeacocksMBB) March 20, 2022
St. Peter’s is just the latest to generate waves for a March Madness run. In 2013, No. 15 Florida Gulf Coast University, located in Fort Myers, Florida, knocked off No. 2 Georgetown in a 78-68 win. FGCU, which was in just its second year of eligibility for the tournament, went on to beat San Diego State University.
While most of the country had never heard of FGCU before the 2013 season (the school was only established in 1991), commentators were quick to brand Fort Myers “Dunk City” in recognition of the surprising success.
Mitch Cordova, FGCU’s vice president of student success and enrollment management, said the university saw explosive growth after its 2013 run. Because most students have already accepted offers by the time March Madness rolls around, he said the biggest effects were when the high school class of 2014 began applying.
He said FGCU saw a 30% overall increase in the number of applicants after the Eagles’ Sweet 16 run. The Dunk City factor was even more pronounced in those applying from out of state, where name recognition was much lower. Out-of-state applications spiked 88% the year after FGCU’s breakthrough tournament.
Cordova said that while applications dipped slightly for the 2014-15 school year, they rose again the following year.
With the number of applicants on the rise, the university has been able to increase its caliber of student. The school’s average high school GPA prior to the establishment of Dunk City rested at just 3.35, but by the time the 2016-17 school year rolled around, it had increased to 3.81.
“I think the take-home from at least the applications is that we had some staying power with the Dunk City effect,” Cordova told the Washington Examiner, adding that the average SAT and ACT scores of accepted students also increased in the years after FGCU made the Sweet 16.
The increase in FGCU’s national profile was not just good for applications and academic interest but also in donations and alumni engagement.
In the 2012-13 school year, the university topped its fundraising goal and brought in $14 million. Just two years later, that number had more than doubled, with $33 million raised — far more than its $18 million goal, according to the university. In the two years after its 2013 March Madness run, the school’s foundation had more than doubled the number of scholarships it was able to award.
Cordova added that after the 2013 basketball season, alumni participation increased, and new alumni chapters sprung up in cities across the Sunshine State and the country.
Kirk Wakefield, a professor and Baylor University’s executive director of the Center for Sports Strategy and Sales program, told the Washington Examiner that winning begets more applicants, which typically allows schools to increase the academic quality of the student body. Also, because of increased donations, the school can offer more scholarships to gifted students who might not normally be able to afford tuition.
Another team grabbed the country’s attention during the 2013 tournament — Wichita State University. The aptly named Shockers became the first and only No. 9 seed to advance to the semifinals after upsetting No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 2 Ohio State.
Bobby Gandu, Wichita State’s director of admissions, said the university set a record for freshman enrollment the year after they made the Final Four. He said that in March and April of that year, the school experienced a 38% increase in voicemail traffic, and the school’s Facebook page experienced a tenfold increase in post viewership and a twentyfold increase in likes.
“The media coverage, the merchandising — it really just kind of snowballed, and it’s kind of a wonderful problem to have,” Gandu told the Washington Examiner.
He said season tickets to see the Shockers play also ballooned to an all-time high after the success of the 2013 season.
St. Peter’s is already experiencing the initial boom in school merchandise sales described by Cordova and Gandu.
Cornacchia said St. Peter’s merchandise has been selling like hotcakes, and the school has had to keep reordering to meet the demand. He said that since the start of last week’s run, the university has sold about $40,000 worth of merchandise — an enormous increase from a typical week in which the school sells just a mere fraction of that.
“That’s just what we’ve sold in our own campus store. We also have outside vendor relationships that sell from other sources,” he explained. “When the dust settles, I suspect we’re going to have a very nice tidy sum of money to look at there from all of that.”
At FGCU, merchandise saw a 200% increase from March Madness right afterward, and those sales have remained much elevated from their pre-2013 levels.
“Having been here, people were just flooding the bookstore. I remember the bookstore was empty. You couldn’t find a shirt, a sweater, anything that had an FGCU logo on it,” Cordova recalled, adding that he heard stories of people buying FGCU shirts off the backs of fans who had traveled out of state for the Sweet 16.
While there have been some headline-grabbing upsets during this year’s tournament — No. 12 Richmond defeating No. 5 Iowa, No. 8 North Carolina knocking out No. 1 Baylor, and No. 10 Miami (FL) ending No. 2 Auburn’s season — St. Peter’s has been the biggest story of the tournament.
Joe Favorito, a longtime sports marketing consultant and a professor at Columbia University, told the Washington Examiner that St. Peter’s Cinderella run is unique.
He pointed out that the university is a small, affordable Jesuit inner-city school. Favorito said St. Peter’s might receive attention from a different audience than what a big public school that makes an attention-worthy run in the tournament might garner.
“If you are a kid from a metropolitan area who is looking to go to an inner-city school, that gives St. Peter’s a leg up now,” he said. “It really could be a potential enrollment opportunity for kids who are kind of on the fence.”
Cornacchia, St. Peter’s president, also said the campus itself is one of the most diverse in the country, with students coming from all races and walks of life. The school is about 40% Hispanic, 20% African American, and 7% Asian, according to Niche.
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Cornacchia told the Washington Examiner that he can’t think of another time in his tenure when he has seen so much school pride for St. Peter’s.
St. Peter’s is set to play the No. 3 Purdue on Friday.
