Students snapped up the magazine from the campus bookstore, which ordered 1,200 copies — more than 100 times its typical weekly allotment. The big order even eclipsed the store’s usual best-seller, Cosmopolitan magazine, which sells 500 copies each week.

At the journalism school, the nation’s oldest and approaching its 100th anniversary, faculty have long been accustomed to interest from students and professionals across the country and the world.

Yet when Brian Brooks, associate dean and professor, fields calls from prospective students and their parents these days, football invariably becomes part of the discussion. After 33 years on the faculty, that’s a first, he said.

“This year, none of those conversations end without the football team coming up,” he said. “And I’m not the one bringing it up.”

Rupp, the admissions director, said football allows academic recruiters to “get a foot in the door” and sell the university’s other attributes. Even before this year, campus enrollment at the 28,000-student school has steadily increased at a clip of 2 percent to 5 percent annually.

She added that Missouri’s success at attracting “high-ability” students — those scoring 30 or higher on the ACT college entrance exam — extends well beyond any perceived spillover from sports. This year, applications from that coveted demographic have increased 90 percent, Rupp said.

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“Those kind of students don’t choose their university based just on the success of the football team,” she said. “We know they’re looking at us for all those other reasons.”

At Poplar Bluff High School in the southeast part of the state, senior class counselor Lucy Wheeler offered a similar assessment of her best and brightest: Football wins may make for great school spirit, but selecting a college involves more substantive decisions.

“My students have always been interested in Mizzou,” she said. “I wouldn’t say the football team has one iota of influence. It’s our state school.”

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