Re: On the subject of football, what's the value of playing football to an AE school?all? -- America East Forum

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Date Posted: 21:00:50 05/02/03 Fri
Author: NU Hoop Fan
Subject: Re: On the subject of football, what's the value of playing football to an AE school?all?
In reply to: Urban Barrister 's message, "On the subject of football, what's the value of playing football to an AE school?all?" on 15:30:22 05/02/03 Fri

First, to counter Mainejeff's point, NU's field hockey team has competed in the NCAA quarter finals (the Elite 8) twice in the last 4 seasons, and 2 times in the last 10 made the Final Four.

Up until the Don Brown Era at NU, I was almost 100% against scholarship football, since NU stunk, and hadn't made a commitment to compete at the level it was cometing at. I thought the cost didn't justify the tangible benefit, because 1-AA football is as big a negative NPV, low IRR project as you could possibly imagine.

Brown came in, McCaw gave him more (but not all) of the resources, and the team began to win. Now call last season for NU a flash in the pan, but the support that came from Alumni and students when the team got good was incredible.

Alumni don't care if the women's field hockey or indoor track are winning, however, when NU is on the front page of the Globe Sports section on a Sunday for FOOTBALL of all things, people take notice.

I heard from more alumni this fall when the football team was winning thatn I have in my years since graduation.

1-AA football will never be a moneymaker, but if NU can leverage its momentum, I may be swayed further.

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[> Re: On the subject of football, what's the value of playing football to an AE school?all? -- NUGrad, 09:37:47 05/03/03 Sat

>Picking up on my last message about the CC standings,
>why would an AE school want football in the first
>place? While I can understand why a school that has
>had football for a hundred years (UNH or Maine?) is
>reluctant to give it up, it still doesn't seem like a
>very good investment for the AE schools that field
>teams. I mean, what are the odds that football at
>those schools will ever be anything more than a fun
>way for students (and, perhaps on Homecoming, alums)
>to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon.
>Even the worst DI programs cost loads of money (see
>Buffalo, for example), and unless you're in the unique
>position of possibly being able to move up to D-IA AND
>land your team in a great conference (like UConn may,
>depending upon how things shake out), at best, you're
>going to have a good team in a mediocre D-IAA league
>that gets little if any ANY regional or national
>exposure.
>
>I mean, how many people -- other than students of
>member schools -- can name last season's champ in the
>Sunbelt Conference? Or the Mid-American? Or the
>Pioneer? Bing grad, I probably couldn't even tell you
>the names of every AE team that has football, not to
>mention what league they're in and how they did last
>year. (Maybe it's different if you live in Portland
>or Burlington as opposed to NYC?)
>
>For that reason, tt seems to me that BU made the right
>choice when it dropped football (though it'd be great
>to hear if BU folks feel otherwise). Personally, I
>doubt anyone was choosing to attend BU because of its
>football team (I know when I was in HS, no one did),
>and it must've been a huge drain on their resources.
>And for similar reasons, I don't understand why Albany
>and SBU are so keen on dumping money into their
>programs, given the same issues plus a lack of any
>real history or success in the sport. What's their
>ultimate goal? Do they really think that someday
>they're going to have a Top 20 D-IA program that
>competes for bowl game invites? If not, then what's
>the point?
>
>By contrast, throwing money into basketball, as many
>AE schools -- like BU and Bing are doing, seems like a
>much better investment. The teams play more games at
>home, the programs cost much less to operate, and if
>win the automatic berth, you get great national
>exposure -- exposure you wouldn't be able to get for a
>football program unless you were a Top 20 team AND
>received a bid to a decent bowl game. (Heck, I bet
>Bing gets more national exposure this year through the
>success of its golf and tennis teams than any football
>school in the AE has gotten through its football team
>over the past ten years.)
>
>Let's hear it from all those football fans.

Football teams are not a good investment. They're not supposed to be. Schools field football teams because they are an integral part of the college experience. If you look at football from a dollars and cents standpoint probably no one at the 1AA level could justify having a team. BU made a mistake when they dropped football and when Silber leaves they'll correct that mistake like Villanova did a few years back. There is a "bring back BU football" organization and website, but they know that until John "the accountant" Silber is gone it isn't gonna happen.

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