How a Texas college used football to avoid higher education’s ‘population cliff’

That sound you can’t hear comes from administrators at colleges, private schools, and universities all over the nation who are currently gasping as they stare at the edge of the world not knowing if this time it’s flat, and the horizon is a deadly cliff.

For the last several years, all of higher education has braced for the upcoming “population cliff” that started forming after the recession in 2008; no one is sure the extent of the collateral damage. In 2008, Americans stopped trying to have babies, and now that birth rate decline will hit higher ed’.

Beginning next year, schools will start to feel this. It’s just a question of how extensive the damage is. Could be a small thunder shower that results in a few branches knocked down; could be Category 5 hurricane that results in the leveling of a town.

“In the northeast, there are significant concerns at small, private universities,” Texas Wesleyan president Emily Messer said in a recent interview. “There is a small private university that closes every day across the nation,”

She’s is not being literal, but the level of concern is that high.

According to a report published by HigherEdDive.com, since 2016 there have been 121 college and universities that have closed, announced plans to close, or consolidate. Between New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, that number is 31. Expect these numbers to rise.

The combination of COVID, the cost of attendance, the decline in birth rate, and a decreasing number of males attending colleges has put higher education in a struggle to make itself relevant, and “worth it” for potential customers, i.e. students.

One small school that looks to survive this maelstrom with maybe but a branch or two on its front yard is Texas Wesleyan. It can thank the expected limited damage to its location; Texas has one school that has closed since 2016, and the population growth serves as a shield to places like TWU.

Also, thank football.

As higher ed’ recruits new students, TWU has used as a hook for potential students the chance to continue to play sports. The crowds are small, and NAIA does not always look like NCAA, but for a young person it is the opportunity to extend a football career that will be over soon enough. That can be more than enough to want to attend college.

For TWU, football has worked. It does not mean this plan would work in Providence, R.I., Worcester, Mass. or Bangor, Maine but it does in Fort Worth, Texas.

The school announced in 2016 that it would play football again for the first time since it closed the program in 1941. The team started to play in 2017, and kids have noticed.

“Some of the kids we’re recruiting are first generational kids to go to college, and this is an opportunity to get an education. They are trying to change their lives and do something different than they’re used to,” TWU coach Brad Sherrod said. “I sell that piece to it, because it can change their lives.”

There are approximately 160 men on the Texas Wesleyan football roster. They don’t all play, but they’re a part of the program with a chance to potentially play. At a Texas, a number like 160 doesn’t make much of a difference. At a Texas Wesleyan, 160 makes a difference.

“That’s 160 more kids. That’s 160 tuitions,” Messer said. “A lot of those kids receive scholarships, but it’s 160 more (students).”

TWU currently has 2,653 students enrolled. That is largest enrollment the school in East Fort Worth has had since 2012. Messer said the school saw a record number of applications this year.

What former coach Joe Prud’homme began with nothing has morphed into a strength of the school. After not finishing with a winning record in their first four seasons, the Rams are now one of the better programs in NAIA. Between 2021 and 2023, the team was a combined 24-5.

Prud’homme left in the spring, citing mostly burnout. The school hired Sherrod, a Duke alum and former UT-San Antonio assistant; the team is currently 4-0 and ranked 18th in the latest NAIA Top 25 poll.

As good as all of this looks, this growth and development has not all been perfect, or without pain.

The school announced plans, and is currently building, an on campus football field complete with a track, field house, stands, and concessions. The football team practices on the field now, but they still have to play their games far away from campus. Securing the funding for that was “a process.”

They originally played their home games at Fort Worth’s Farrington Field, but now play at Crowley ISD Multi-Purpose Stadium. The hope/plan is to play the home games on campus by ‘26.

Prud’homme’s exit was unexpected, and the administration tried to convince him to stay. Budget modifications throughout the athletic department hit TWU as they have nearly every other school.

Messer said the school would like to add more sports in the future; she said women’s flag football is a consideration. The school added women’s beach volleyball last year to bring the number of sports the university sponsors to 19.

TWU is not where it wants to be, but the risk of adding an expensive football program has worked enough that the little school in East Fort Worth should avoid the cliff that is coming to all of higher education.