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“A bagpiper in a kilt led hundreds of Azusa Pacific University students and the school president into the Cougars’ stadium before kickoff against Whittier College earlier this season, a sun-splashed celebration of what once were two of the biggest brands in California small-college football.

Azusa Pacific had dropped the sport in 2020 after 55 years and Whittier in 2022 after 115 years, mainly for financial reasons.

The two are back on the field, not in a full reembrace of the sport’s tradition and what it can do to enhance campus culture, but for another reason: Administrators saw an opportunity to bump shrinking enrollment numbers, a problem shadowing hundreds of colleges and universities across the country. Football rosters, after all, can number about 100 players and the sport is seen as a popular marketing anchor.”