WACO, Texas — The trophy case inside the home of Baylor athletics is nearly overflowing with awards.
In a 12-month span where the school has won two national championships, four Big 12 championships, and now a Sugar Bowl, the admissions boost could be evident next fall semester.
“We really see the numbers go up when our athletes thrive," Vincent Phillips, assistant director of undergraduate admissions for campus visits, said. "It causes folks to want to look into the school. I really feel like when folks take a look into who Baylor is, it’s a done deal.”
Baylor is at the top of the sports world in college athletics and the success is being sustained. Their men's basketball team is the number one team in the nation, their women's basketball team is in the top-15, and Dave Aranda is sticking around in Waco to coach the Bears next season.
"I think it depends on what you’re looking for, but if you want a top tier research institute that has Christian bases, Christian foundation plus plays athletics at the highest level, and you can’t say we’re not at the highest level right now, I mean there aren’t many schools that can fit the bill like that, like Baylor can," John Morris, voice of the Bears, said.
Morris attended and graduated Baylor and sent his three kids there.
Current Baylor junior and class senator Drake Toll made a nine-hour trip to watch the Bear play in New Orleans.
“Not going to the game honestly never crossed my mind, I think from the very beginning of the season, if Baylor was gonna make the postseason, I was gonna be there, no question about it," he said.
Schools with great athletics was a huge factor in where he chose to go to school.
“I go back to 2012, the year of the Bears, the reason I'm at Baylor," he said. "I was 12 years old at the time, Robert Griffin III, Baylor baseball being super regional, Baylor basketball being so good, that’s why I came here, I wanted to see great athletics, so a guy like me, if Baylor was at the pit of college athletics, I wouldn’t be here.”
In 2021, Baylor enrolled more than 20,000 students for the first time ever.