Winning Connections: How Conversation Intelligence Powers College Athletics

If you think student-athletes have it tough, consider the teams of NCAA coaches, advisors, and counselors working behind the scenes to help them balance academics and athletics.

That, in itself, can feel like an Olympian sport.

This becomes even harder when institutions lack the tools to coordinate across departments, deliver timely, personalized messages, or spot struggling athletes before they fall behind academically or miss practice.

Whether during tournaments or everyday campus activities, the right Conversation Intelligence Platform can help college athletics departments to simplify the recruitment process, increase athlete engagement, and optimize interdepartmental communication. 

Real-Life Benefits of Conversation Intelligence for Student-Athlete Communications

Conversation Intelligence empowers NCAA athletics professionals to communicate more strategically with student-athletes and prospects, from recruitment and tournament season through graduation. 

Here are the top three ways it can help institutions level up student-athlete outreach.

1. Achieve Higher Response Rates and Quicker Student Coordination Through Personalized Messaging

Targeted communication allows colleges to support student-athletes beyond typical academic milestones. This includes helping them:

• Coordinate with professors to request assignments in advance or take exams at alternate times
• Access financial aid (athletic-based scholarships), tutoring, and well-being resources while staying focused on both training and classes
• Feel valued by celebrating their athletic achievements with the campus community 

Mongoose Text uses AI-driven automation to help college staff send personalized, timely messages to student-athletes across campus. Coaches and advisors can use the segmentation tool to send team-based group texts, like game updates or schedule changes, or reach individual students directly. 

Using real-time app notifications and AI assistants, counselors can prioritize and respond promptly to inquiries from prospects, student-athletes, and their families during working hours.

Meanwhile, sentiment and resolution insights provide them with an overview of how their messages land and what they can improve.

2. Boost Sports Event Attendance with Timely, Targeted Reminders

Traditional email updates and physical tournament signage often fail to capture students’ attention amid packed schedules.

With Conversation Intelligence, college athletics departments can send personalized last-minute event reminders directly to students’ phones without going through lengthy formatting and approval processes.

An East Coast university used Mongoose’s Conversation Intelligence Platform to send automated, graphic-based messages during tournament season, quickly promoting what was happening and why it mattered. Student-athletes and fans responded immediately, raising awareness and increasing event turnout.

Institutions like Knox College took it a step further by sending mascot-driven messages to newly admitted students. Featuring Blaze, the Prairie Fire mascot, these messages helped grow social media followings and boosted engagement on the college’s TikTok and Instagram accounts ahead of the game season.

3. Improve Cross-Functional Collaboration with a Unified Communications Platform

When an institution has athletes on campus, staff often need to provide extra support to help them achieve their academic and athletic goals. Delivering that support relies on efficient communication and collaboration across departments, which is easier when staff connect with students from the same platform.

For example, if a student-athlete struggles with mental health after a tough season, their class attendance, grades, and overall engagement can start to suffer. More often than not, the coach is the first to notice this change in motivation and behavior and flag it to athletic trainers, academic advisors, and counseling staff. 

Departments can use Conversation Intelligence solutions to coordinate in real time to provide timely, relevant resources and empathetic support, addressing the student’s mental health and academic challenges. 

Monitoring progress and ensuring the student continues receiving the right support at the right time is also a team-driven effort with Mongoose’s Conversation Intelligence Dashboard. 

Take the Lead in Student-Athlete Engagement with Mongoose

The institutional support student-athletes receive, from application guidance and academic advising to career coaching and athletic mentoring, impacts more than their learning experience. It also shapes their transition into the working world and their future engagement as alumni.

So not surprisingly, a student-athlete’s strong connection to their alma mater significantly increases the likelihood of giving back. According to a 2020 Gallup study, NCAA student-athletes (28%) were more likely to donate to their alma mater than non-athlete graduates (17%).

Help your institution improve collaboration across departments, and build meaningful connections with prospects and athletes through AI-powered conversations that drive performance on and off the field. Book a demo today and get the ball rolling.

Author: