A few years ago, the Pope Center had Indiana University professor Murray Sperber as a speaker at a conference. Sperber is the author of several books on sports and higher education, most recently Beer & Circus. In B & C, he identifies the “Flutie Factor” — namely the belief that building a winning, big-time sports program is the way to grow your university, to borrow a Clintonism. Back in the 80s, Doug Flutie quarterbacked Boston College to success in some notable football games, and subsequently Boston College was flooded with applicants and expanded. Hence the name. Since then, Sperber writes, a number of schools have tried to do the same thing.

The trouble is, it usually flops. A good example he gives is the University of Buffalo (nee SUNY-Buffalo), which spent the requisite money to qualify for Division I (Jeff is right that it’s very costly) and since then has floundered as the doormat of whatever conference the school is in. No sporting fame. No enrollment boost. Just a lot of expense for the taxpayers.

If the Winston-Salem State move isn’t a fait accompli, someone ought to blow a whistle.