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: 09:37:47 05/03/03 Sat
Author: NUGrad
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

>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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