I can believe it. Higher education I think is going through a disruption/change nationwide. Through in budget cuts, declining enrollment, population shifts, etc then I can see the small liberal colleges and some of the states schools here being in trouble.
I haven't lived in Dayton for a while but from what I can tell CJ, Alter, Carroll have lower enrollments now than the early 2000s. I don't think Dayton and
Xavier from what I can tell are having in trouble attracting students but I imagine they are fighting over a smaller pool of students coming out of parochial education in Ohio and regionally.
Athletics are a great marketing tool for a university and I'm sure Xavier has been able to elevate their profile regionally and nationally from their basketball team. I'd be curious how much the location of their student body has changed over the last 10-15 years. I don't know but I'd guess they've got a higher profile in places like Chicago, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, etc now than they did in the early 90s.
Maybe someone here knows better than I but my understanding was that Xavier was essentially a commuter school for Cincinnati area Catholic high school kids in the 70/80s
