KU became a star during the World Cup. Can the university attract more international students now?

From a Viral Moment to a Recruitment Playbook

KU Athletics' Instagram posts featuring the Algerian national soccer team broke records for the department. A video thanking Team Algeria for stopping by Allen Fieldhouse pulled in 44,600 likes, while a clip of Algerian star Riyad Mahrez scoring the equalizer against Austria on June 27 gathered 101,000 likes. According to Deputy Athletics Director Jason Booker, these became the most-viewed social media content in the department's history.

Keep in mind that for international students, the usual "pull factors" — living nearby, having family who attended, or growing up watching the team — simply don't apply. Jan Boehmer, a sport management professor at the University of Michigan, explains that algorithmic curation on platforms like Instagram fills that gap, identifying users who are likely to resonate with a school's content. Patrick Crakes, principal of Crakes Media and a former Fox Sports senior vice president, calls social media a "discovery platform" that solves the "what to watch" problem for casual fans abroad.

What This Could Mean for You

So if you're a student in Algeria or elsewhere in Northern Africa who suddenly sees KU content in your feed, what happens next? The university is already moving to capitalize on its visibility in the region. Booker noted that KU's enrollment team is exploring how to recruit students from Algeria and Northern Africa, building on the foothold established during the World Cup hosting stint. There's also a recruitment push planned in London this fall to bring the Jayhawk name to a European audience.

For you, that could translate into new scholarship pathways, expanded English-language support, and stronger international affairs infrastructure on campus. KU is already the Big 12 Conference's most valuable athletic brand at $620 million, ranked 39th nationally — and FIFA delegates who toured Rock Chalk Park back in fall 2024 praised the facilities. Accessible campus interpreters helped make Lawrence a comfortable home base for a global team, which is the kind of practical scaffolding that gives international applicants real peace of mind.

What to Watch For

The pattern here matters beyond Kansas. Universities are increasingly using major sporting events as soft-power recruitment tools, and social platforms are doing the heavy lifting on discovery. If KU opens new recruitment offices, scholarship windows, or regional partnerships tied to these World Cup connections, that's a signal worth tracking — especially if you're weighing schools with growing international ambitions.

Broader technology trends — including the kind of AI and cloud advances driving how major companies reach global audiences — are quietly reshaping the playbook universities use to find students like you. A single viral moment can now stretch into a multi-year recruitment strategy, and the institutions that move fastest on it will likely be the ones offering you the smoothest path from "I saw a video" to "I'm enrolled."