I'm at a small D3 school as well (2500 students). I offer 6 sports a year. Most of my participants are athletes, too. I'd say about 75%. Flag football is struggling for me mostly because classes don't end until 5 and practices. Volleyball on the other hand is skyrocketing. It seems like evening sports fair far better than late afternoon ones. Try to schedule indoor activities later at night if you can. I also enlisted the help of the RAs and RCs on campus. The student RAs have to do so many programs a semester and intramural sports counts as a program. We also take students to the state and regional NIRSA tournaments that help drive participation.

Basketballref, can you explain your free agent night a little more?