There’s been a lot of talk lately about how the prestige of a successful athletic department paves the way for a boost in enrollment.

At SIUC, it’s only a theory.

Athletic leaders and school administrators tout the value of winning sports teams when the issue of divvying out huge pay raises for coaches arises.

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But, so far, those words spewed so frequently have absolutely no weight.

Saluki athletics have been stellar for several years running now.

And what’s happened to enrollment, the core of any university, during the same time?

It’s spiraled devastatingly downward.

Conference tournament sweeps, lengthy winning streaks, superstar athletes and NCAA Tournament berths have done nothing for SIUC in terms of alleviating its enrollment woes.

Season after season, Salukis in all athletic realms make impressive marks on the local and national scale. In a few cases, some of the university’s finest have peaked in the world record books.

Year after year, semester after semester, student numbers dip and SIUC’s already strained coin purses lose loads of cash.

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The issue isn’t whether a talented young coach deserves an enormous pay raise. A person such as Chris Lowery deserves every single cent in his paycheck.

The issue is whether the university capitalizes on keeping good people on campus.

So far, SIUC has failed.

When administrators were mulling Lowery’s pay boost, a main defense to criticism was that a nationally recognized basketball team with a solid coach at the helm is good for the university as a whole.

While current students, community members and Saluki faithful around the world felt pride in the boys and maroon and white, there’s little likelihood that applications are going to come in by the droves just because SIUC has a good team.

We have a hammer throw world record holder, but she’s not the key to rekindling SIUC to the university’s enrollment glory days.

A quick look at the numbers shows that successful Salukis do not equal stronger student numbers.

Maybe someone dropped the ball. Maybe the marketing teams – the university and athletics department have separate units – relied too much on the free press and failed to hype SIUC with campaigns of their own.

Or maybe athletics are just for show and a way to instill pride in those who care about sports and their school.

Either way, success on the court or field has nothing to do with success in enrollment.