Can Bass Fishing and Football Save Michigan’s Private Colleges?

But numbers are not wholly incidental at Concordia or at the other small private colleges in Michigan facing declining enrollment and a shrinking pool of potential students. Like Concordia, many have responded by focusing on a value proposition beyond small class sizes and professors who know your name: sports, the chance for high school players to compete for a few more years or for weekend athletes to play sports they couldn’t play in high school. Colleges have added football and basketball, bass fishing and lacrosse, hockey and cornhole, figure skating and ultimate Frisbee. And many students and their families have shown themselves willing to pay thousands of extra dollars a year to attend a private college if it means four more years of competition.