Sunday, November 13, 2005

Mining for Gold

The Wall Street Journal's Weekend Edition has a superb piece on teams that have turned it around. What is the impact of a winning football team on a university? Texas El Paso, for example, had three consecutive two-win seasons, then spent $15 million on facilities improvements in 2002. It hired Mike Price, above, as coach a year later. Last season, the Miners won eight games and played in the Houston Bowl. This season, Texas El Paso is 8-1. And athletic director Bob Stull says the increased exposure because of the turnaround has helped the university increase enrollment from 14,695 six years ago to 19,264 today. The Journal's online edition is pay only (no wonder the publication is struggling), so you might want to venture to your local newsstand and snare a copy. And don't blame us, we're only the messenger.

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