by our College Data Analytics TeamThis page takes a deep look at Basketball at Western Carolina University, a winter sport — team by team, topic by topic, with gender and cross-sport comparisons throughout. WCU plays at the level of NCAA Division I-FCS as a member of Southern Conference.
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The WCU men’s basketball team fields 16 athletes, with an NCAA multi-year squad size of 48. The most recent cohort included 52 athletes in this program for its academic reporting.
The WCU women’s basketball team lists 12 student athletes, with an NCAA multi-year squad size of 53. Academic data covers 56 athletes in this program for its academic reporting.
Across both rosters, WCU fields 28 basketball athletes — 16 on the men’s side and 12 on the women’s.
Of the 11 varsity sports WCU sponsors, basketball ranks #5 by total roster size.
The men’s basketball program is staffed by 6 coaches — 1 head coach and 5 assistants. In all, 5 work full-time and 1 part-time. Leading the program is Tim Craft.
The women’s basketball program is staffed by 6 coaches — 1 head coach and 5 assistants. Staffing-wise, 5 are full-time and 1 part-time. Leading the program is Jonathan Tsipis.
Side by side, the men’s program carries 6 coaches to the women’s 6.
Among the school’s 11 sports, basketball ranks #2 by total coaching staff.
These numbers are reported to the U.S. Department of Education’s Equity in Athletics survey.
The WCU men’s basketball program reported $1,508,101 in revenue against $1,508,101 in expenses, breaking even on the year. That works out to about $16,620 in operating expense per athlete, or $265,914 per team.
The WCU women’s basketball program brought in $1,182,919 in revenue against $1,182,919 in expenses, right at break-even. This comes to about $15,173 in operating expense per athlete, or $182,074 per team.
Side by side, the men’s team brought in $1,508,101 to the women’s $1,182,919 in revenue.
Among the school’s 11 sports, basketball ranks #2 by revenue, or about 17% of the school’s total athletics revenue.
The men’s basketball team posted an Academic Progress Rate (APR) of 935 (973 on a multi-year basis) and a Graduation Success Rate of 89%. The program kept 97% of its athletes, with 98% remaining academically eligible.
The women’s basketball team earned an Academic Progress Rate (APR) of 985 and a Graduation Success Rate of 92%. It retained 97% of its athletes, with 100% remaining academically eligible.
Between the genders, the men posted an APR of 935 and the women 985, with graduation success rates of 89% and 92% respectively.
Relative to the school’s average team APR of 980, basketball sits below average at 960.
When WCU places on one of our Best Schools for a Sport list, we note it here. To rank well, a program needs strong athletics and a quality education.
If we don’t have data on a particular metric for this sport, it won’t appear above.