The Final Four Effect: Faculty and alumni

Adam Stern
Executive Editor
Commonwealth Times Sports’ Twitter

Considering it was always going to take months, if not years, to figure out the exact effect of VCU’s Final Four run, you could understand why Sybil Halloran was a bit bemused the first time she was asked how big of an impact the run would have.

“Twelve hours after the Sweet 16 game,” Halloran said with a smile.

Halloran is director of undergraduate admissions at VCU, and she, like so many of her fellow faculty, was just one of tens if not hundreds of VCU employees that were thrust into the middle of a wild – albeit wonderful – couple of weeks during the Rams’ Final Four run.

A few months later, Halloran was able to reflect upon the past and perhaps more importantly, start to look toward the future of what the Rams’ run will translate to as she talked to the Commonwealth Times in her office on Franklin Street on a steamy, late-June afternoon.

What’s assumed by most is that VCU’s foray into the Final Four will be a big benefit to the school. The question that remains, though, is how much and how soon?

“Because of the timing of the Final Four … it was too late to have much of an impact on applications (for fall of 2011),” Halloran said. “What it’s potentially doing is affecting how many students choose to enroll.”

“Based on what we’re seeing – students who are saying yes once accepted – we have seen an increase.”

No shocker there. And in terms of prospective students for beyond this upcoming fall, the potential numbers are encouraging as well. On a normal day, VCU.edu, VCU’s strictly academic website usually receives 3 million hits a day. On the day VCU mowed down Kansas to reach the Final Four, the website hit a mind-numbing 11.2 million hits.

“That was not the athletics website; that’s to admissions, about VCU, where is VCU,” said VCU’s director of public relations Anne Buckley. “Stuff like that, you don’t get that interaction and interest normally, and it really speaks to what having a team go that far does for you.”

It’s also a big money maker. And after the Rams’ run, VCU Barnes & Noble manager Amy Randolph knows that as well as anybody.

In a two-week span from when VCU reached the Sweet 16 to when they were knocked out of the Final Four, the bookstore sold as much merchandise as they usually do in a year. By the end of June, they had finally sold out of all 65,000 tournament-related tee-shirts that were originally priced at $20 a pop then went down to $5 after the initial buzz.

“We sold everything we have,” said Randolph.

Presumably, the Final Four run will also extend it’s helping hand all the way to VCU’s alumni association. Alumni were a vastly visible presence at the team’s six different games held throughout March and early April, and according to John Blohm, vice president of Development and Alumni Relations at VCU, hopefully that trend should continue.

“It’s hard to predict the long-term effects, but we hope our alumni will continue to be proud of their alma mater and help spread the word about the university,” Blohm said. “(The players) … gave us the opportunity to tell the VCU story of hard work, determination and will to succeed.”

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