The Flutie Effect comes to Tulane

Hello!

The College Football Playoff has arrived! Hopefully, we don’t get a slate of blowouts like last season. Before you plop down on the couch, we have news about the playoff impacting Tulane’s bottom line, the world of prediction markets and the growth of women’s college wrestling.

And don’t forget to send your questions! I’m planning to do a mailbag, answering readers’ questions about NIL, revenue sharing and anything else involving the business of college sports. Send me a tweet or email me at [email protected]. Remember, there’s no such thing as a dumb question!

— Kyle

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THE BIG 3

Tulane gets Flutie Effect boost

The Flutie Effect has been a college sports talking point since 1985, one year after Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie completed an improbable Hail Mary to beat Miami and clinch the Heisman Trophy. BC’s enrollment grew 16 percent. 

Tulane is in the midst of its own Flutie Effect. Enrollment data won’t be available until next year, but the athletic department is seizing the momentum from the school’s playoff run. Athletic director David Harris tweeted that the Green Wave has collected $1.68 million in donations over the past month, a 373 percent increase from the same period last year. 

Incredibly, $100,000 of that $1.68 million came from former head coach Jon Sumrall, who left for the top job at Florida. (Sumrall will coach the Green Wave until they’re eliminated from the playoff.)

Tulane is already an elite academic institution, ranked among the top 70 national universities by US News and World Report. And as much as professors and other academics want to deny the impact of athletics, success in football and basketball can transform universities. 

Harris’ words to NOLA.com were not hollow:

“Obviously, this is a huge thing for us,” he said. “For our football program, for the department and the entire university to be in a position where we're playing on the biggest stage that college football has to offer, it allows us to take another step as far as our significance as a football program and significance as a university. I can't think of anything that's more significant than being able to have a chance to play in the College Football Playoff game.”

Northern Illinois experienced a 19.3 percent surge in college applications after it qualified for the Orange Bowl in 2012. Western Michigan’s total media exposure from its undefeated season in 2016 — which included a College GameDay visit to Kalamazoo and a Cotton Bowl berth — was valued at nearly $70 million. Cincinnati, TCU, Central Florida and Houston parlayed their Group of 5 success into power conference invitations. 

In basketball, George Mason, Butler, Wichita State and Florida Atlantic have all used Final Four runs to alter their images and reap enrollment and cash rewards. But no schools have improved through athletics more than Gonzaga and Boise State. 

In 1998, Gonzaga had 550 incoming freshmen, a $1 million deficit and a credit rating in free fall. Consider this: The athletic department considered eliminating a full-time men’s basketball assistant because of the financial strain. 

Then Gonzaga made a Cinderella run to the Elite Eight. The freshman class had 700 students in 1999 and 900 in 2000. The school built a brand-new arena in 2004. Enrollment has increased to more than 7,000 from 4,000, and Gonzaga’s endowment is now over $400 million.

From 2007 to 2015 — the golden age of Boise State football following its famous Fiesta Bowl win over Oklahoma — the university’s enrollment increased by 18 percent, foundation assets rose 59 percent, research grants and contracts were up 68 percent, and the number of university donors increased by 131 percent. 

That’s why advancing to the playoff is a big deal for Tulane and James Madison.

The spending is worth it.

College sports and wagering are not mixing well

Does a week go by when college sports and gambling aren’t intertwined? It doesn’t seem like it, and the news usually isn’t positive. 

This week, prediction market Kalshi notified the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that it was self-certifying markets on whether college players would enter the transfer portal, adding that it had no plans to offer trading on the portal. 

News of Kalshi’s submission drew rebukes from all corners of the sports world, including some dude named Matt Brown. NCAA president Charlie Baker issued a strong denunciation of Kalshi, prediction markets and prop bets. 

A Kalshi spokesperson told ESPN that the company regularly certifies markets that it doesn’t list. The filing with the CFTC includes Division I football and basketball players. Predictions are settled when a player publicly announces his or her intent to enter the portal or when he or she officially enters the portal.  

Kalshi was founded in 2021 and saw significant growth in 2025 as prediction markets gained approval and notoriety. In June, Kalshi was valued at $2 billion. Four months later, the company’s valuation had grown by $3 billion. 

Kalshi has been at the center of legal battles in multiple states, and sports leagues have not embraced prediction markets with the same level of acceptance as sports gambling companies. So far, the NHL is the only major North American professional sports league to partner with Kalshi.

Is wrestling the next frontier in women’s sports?

A few weeks ago, we wrote about the widening participation gulf between girls’ volleyball and girls’ basketball. 

Well, there’s another girls’/women’s sport with astronomical growth: wrestling. 

In January, the NCAA added women’s wrestling as its 91st championship sport. The first national champions will be crowned in 2026. And last week, Kent State announced that women’s wrestling will become its 20th varsity sport, becoming the fifth D-I institution to sponsor women’s wrestling. 

State appropriations will support the program. As part of House Bill 96, the university received funds to support program development, staffing and facility preparation. 

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, the 2024–25 academic year included 8,100 girls' high school wrestling programs nationwide and 74,064 girls participating in the sport, making it the fastest-growing high school sport in the country. Girls’ wrestling is a sanctioned sport in 45 states. 

Wrestling is inexpensive, equipment is minimal, facilities are easy to find, and it doesn’t require a massive number of participants. For these reasons, as well as the overall women’s sports growth movement, Kent State will not be the last school to add women’s wrestling over the next year.

NIL BLITZ

♦️ Defector Media talked to Matt Brown of Extra Points about ESPN’s athletic director simulation, which bears a striking resemblance to the game Brown created, Athletic Director Simulator 4000. (Note: ADS4000 is free for the rest of the year and absolutely worth playing if you haven’t yet!)

♦️ Tennessee AD Danny White doesn’t shy away from collective bargaining. He says it’s time.

♦️ South Carolina AD Jeremiah Donati sat down with the State to discuss revenue sharing and NIL payments.

♦️ Wisconsin-Green Bay basketball coach Doug Gottlieb is taking a leave of absence from his national radio show to concentrate on, ya know, coaching his team. (Perhaps this decision came a year late.)

♦️ The Virginia Tech athletic department received an anonymous $20 million gift, the department’s largest-ever single donation.

♦️ Clemson partnered with Everett Sports Marketing to juice its athletes’ NIL deals.

♦️ Spartan Ventures, Michigan State’s non-profit, tax-exempt corporation, is under fire from the school’s board of trustees.

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BATTER UP

Today’s Poll Question:

Last Edition’s Poll Results:

What is the perfect number of teams for the CFP?

• 4 - 2.5%

• 8 - 19%

• 12 - 32.9%

• 16 - 34.2%

• 24 - 11.4%