Underdog no more, Missouri embraces football success

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Around the University of Missouri campus, the cheer "We're No. 1" is usually limited to the renowned journalism school.

But as a football team mired in mediocrity for decades flirts with a chance at the national title, the Tigers' on-field success seems contagious.

The university's admissions office reports a 20 percent increase in undergraduate applications. Development officers are finding donors more receptive to opening their wallets. And the school's alumni association is hearing from forgotten graduates eager to reconnect with their alma mater.

"This is uncharted territory," said Barbara Rupp, admissions director at a school still referred to by many in the state by its regional designation, the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Missouri (11-1, 7-1) is ranked No. 1 in both The Associated Press and BCS polls after thumping archrival Kansas last week to win the Big 12 North and earn a trip to the conference championship game Saturday in San Antonio.

A victory over No. 9 Oklahoma (10-2, 6-2), the only team to defeat Missouri this season, would earn the Tigers a trip to the BCS championship game Jan. 7 in New Orleans.

Rupp cautioned that it's difficult to determine whether the surge in interest by high school seniors is related to the football team's success.

Admissions officers, economists and other researchers have pondered that question since at least 1984, when Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie's dramatic Hail Mary pass clinched a win against Miami and vaulted the private Catholic school into the nation's consciousness.

That supposedly led to a large increase in applications the next year, but the long-term impact of such athletic success on other aspects of college life -- coined the Flutie effect -- is still debated.

Still, there's no doubt that the Missouri campus is enjoying its moment in the national spotlight after a long drought of athletic accolades since the legendary Dan Devine roamed the sidelines four decades ago.

Across the country, alumni in far-flung cities such as Miami, Phoenix, Seattle and Los Angeles gathered en masse to watch the 36-28 defeat of Kansas -- a team ranked No. 2 at the time -- in one of college football's oldest rivalries.

More than 300 Tiger faithful attended the Los Angeles watch party, with an additional 100-plus cheering in Phoenix, said Todd McCubbin, executive director of the Missouri Alumni Association.

"We're hearing that wave across the country," he said. "It's happened throughout the season, but now it's really building to a crescendo."

Campus fundraisers are also taking advantage of Missouri's newfound football prowess. While it's still too early to directly link any hefty donations to the surprising season, they say the winning climate certainly helps cultivate donors.

"Being No. 1 in football is great for fundraising," said Beth Hammock, the school's director of development external relations. "Everybody's excited when they hear a Mizzou person on the phone."

School spokesman Christian Basi put it even more bluntly: "When people feel happy, they send money."

On Wednesday, the buzz on campus surrounded the release of this week's Sports Illustrated, featuring quarterback and Heisman Trophy contender Chase Daniel on the cover.

Students scurried to snap up the magazine from the campus bookstore, which ordered 1,200 copies -- more than 100 times its typical weekly allotment. The big order even eclipsed the store's usual best-seller, Cosmopolitan magazine, which sells 500 copies each week.

At the journalism school, the nation's oldest and approaching its 100th anniversary, faculty have long been accustomed to drawing interest from students and professionals across the country and the world.

Yet when Brian Brooks, associate dean and professor, fields calls from prospective students and their parents these days, football invariably becomes part of the discussion. After 33 years on the faculty, that's a first, he said.

"This year, none of those conversations end without the football team coming up," he said. "And I'm not the one bringing it up."

Rupp, the admissions director, said that football allows academic recruiters to "get a foot in the door" and sell the university's other attributes. Even before this year, campus enrollment at the 28,000-student school has steadily increased at a clip of 2 percent to 5 percent annually.

She added that Missouri's success at attracting "high ability" students -- defined as those who score 30 or higher on the ACT college entrance exam -- extends well beyond any perceived spillover from sports.

This year, applications from that coveted demographic have increased by 90 percent, Rupp said.

"Those kind of students don't choose their university based just on the success of the football team," she said. "We know they're looking at us for all those other reasons."

At Poplar Bluff High School in Southeast Missouri, senior class counselor Lucy Wheeler offered a similar assessment of her best and brightest: Football wins may make for great school spirit, but selecting a college involves more substantive decisions.

"My students have always been interested in Mizzou," she said. "I wouldn't say the football team has one iota of influence. It's our state school."