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usf87

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  1. If football is such a financial drain on an institution why is it that so many schools have added football to their programs? Since 2000 more programs have added football than dropped it. And it's all levels, from NAIA to DIII, D2 and D1. Look at these schools: Dropped football since 2000: Massachsetts-Boston - 2000 Swarthmore - 2000 Mt. Senario (dropped all sports) - 2001 Cal State-Northridge (I-AA) - 2001 Canisius (I-AA) - 2002 St. John's (I-AA) - 2002 Fairfield (I-AA) - 2002 Massachusetts-Lowell - 2002 Morris Brown (dropped all sports) - 2002 N.J. City State - 2002 Siena (I-AA) - 2003 E. Tennessee St. (I-AA) (returning in 2015) - 2003 New Haven (returning in 2009) - 2003 St. Mary's (I-AA) - 2003 Si-Tanka (school closed) - 2004 Allen - 2005 St. Peter's (I-AA) - 2006 Paul Quinn - 2007 LaSalle (I-AA) - 2007 Added since 2000: Mount Ida - 2000 Northern Montana - 2000 Paul Quinn - 2000 East Texas Baptist - 2000 Greensboro - 2000 Mary Hardin-Baylor - 2000 Shenandoah - 2000 Averett - 2001 Louisiana College - 2001 Minnesota-Crookston - 2001 SW Assemblies of God - 2001 Virginia-Wise - 2001 Christopher Newport - 2001 Florida Atlantic (I-A) - 2001 Rockford - 2001 Utica - 2001 Edward Waters - 2001 Florida International (I-A) - 2002 Shaw - 2002 St. Augustine's - 2002 St. Paul's - 2002 Allen - 2003 Briar Cliff - 2003 Charleston - 2003 Coastal Carolina (I-AA) - 2003 Endicott - 2003 Huntingdon - 2003 SE Louisiana (I-AA) - 2003 Waldorf - 2003 Webber International - 2003 North Grenville - 2004 Ohio Dominican - 2004 N.C. Wesleyan - 2004 Seton Hill - 2004 Texas College - 2004 Becker - 2005 Central State (OH) - 2005 Brevard - 2006 Dixie St. - 2006 LaGrange - 2006 U.S. Maritime Academy - 2006 Morrisville St. - 2006 Xavier (club) - 2006 Birmingham Southern - 2007 Faulkner - 2007 Gallaudet - 2007 Marian - 2007 NC-Pembroke - 2007 St. Vincent - 2007 Vermont (club) - 2007 Campbell (I-AA) - 2008 Dordt - 2008 Lake Erie - 2008 Lincoln - 2008 St. Scholastica - 2008 Old Dominion (I-AA) - 2009 Colorado St.-Pueblo - 2008 Kentucky Christian - 2008 Grand View - 2008 Incarnate Word - 2009 New Haven - 2009 South Alabama (I-AA) - 2009 Charlotte (I-AA) - 2012 Programs Launched in 2013: Alderson Broaddus University Berry College Florida Tech Hendrix College Houston Baptist University Mercer University Oklahoma Baptist University Reinhardt University Southwestern University Stetson University University of North Carolina at Charlotte Warner University Programs Launching in 2014-2016: College of Idaho George Fox University Limestone College Missouri Baptist University Paine College Southeastern University East Tennessee State University Kennesaw State University Lyon College Finlandia University University of New Orleans Source: http://www.footballfoundation.org/News/NewsDetail/tabid/567/Article/53890/record-number-of-colleges-add-ncaa-football-teams-in-2013.aspx
  2. The only difference is that Fr. Biondi is on his way out. A new president will be announced in mid 2014 who is hopefully open to the idea of bringing back football, unlike Biondi. Yes, hopefully. If the new president approves of at least creating a committee to research the possibility of bringing the sport back, then I'm all for it. If the committee says "no" then so be it. We'll drop the subject and nothing more will be said about SLU football. In the meantime, this is a tremendous opportunity for the proponents of SLU football to grab a hold of and pin their hopes on. Yes, it's a lot of "Ifs" but what do we have to lose? Is that too much to ask?
  3. I don't know how it works in the NCAA, but I do know in NAIA they split the athletic scholarships however they feel the need. I believe a football team has 24. They can split that into 36 or 48 or however many they think they need to accommodate the players' needs. Fordham and Holy cross have smaller endowments than SLU, yet have football programs. And it's not just endowments, but a lot of the expense can be offset by corporate sponsorship, by simply hanging their corporate banner in or around the facilities. Look closely at the Hermann Stadium scoreboard and there's the name of a brewery on it; the Chaifetz Arena jumbotron flashes corporate ads, check out the sidelines and up in the rafters, there's more corporate banners than you can shake a stick at. Major corporations would be happy to advertise on SLU property. There's a lot of aerospace, software, automotive, tourism and other businesses in St. Louis and Missouri. They want and need to advertise. Ok, so we let some major corporation name our field with their name. Imagine some tv or radio announcer saying something like "welcome to the Boeing Stadium on the beautiful campus of Saint Louis University" someday.
  4. Thanks, Box. I knew going in that this wasn't the venue for this post, but a colleague suggested I try the forums to test the waters, so to speak. They should have called this site billikensmensbasketballonly.com.
  5. So you're saying top-notch schools like Georgetown, Holy Cross, Fordham, Old Dominion, WashU, Harvard, Yale, Princeton (I could go on…) have all knowingly or unknowingly introduced 75 rapists on each of their campuses? You're saying that 75% of any football team (assuming a 100-member roster) are all rapists? You're thinking of Florida State and other major state schools who routinely recruit convicts to play for their program and give them a free education that have no business playing football or attending whichever institution they happen to play for. They're off the streets for four years before resuming their life of crime, since we know they have no marketable skills other than being physical. You're saying this applies to SLU? There's already been a case of rape on campus (or attempted rape) - no football. What's your point?
  6. I'm sorry you got held back in your remedial reading courses. Yet another kid left behind.
  7. Title IX does not prohibit adding men's sports. Adding football would improve SLU's gender equity by enrolling more male students to a campus which is now disproportionately female (41% male vs 59% female, based on SLU university profile collected in 2012). As long as another women's sport is added to balance the equation. SLU currently has 8 men's sports, the women's has 9. How does Title IX come into play here?
  8. I read with interest the "Annual Plea for Football at SLU" threads posted on this message board. I believe it's time to resurrect the topic, but with renewed vigor this time. I graduated from a small school in Indiana (U of Saint Francis, NAIA), and played some soccer there. We didn't have football at the time and basketball was untouchable. As a student I (and fellow classmates) often wished we had a football program. The president we had during my collegiate years was a stodgy old nun (think Fr. Biondi) who was satisfied with the status quo and didn't do anything to promote the school. The school atmosphere was stagnant, kids would go home on weekends and there was nothing to do on campus besides shooting pool and playing ping-pong at the student center. The school enrollment had plunged to an all-time low of appx 600 students (full and part-time, undergrad and grad), to the point that there was talk of closing the school down. This was in the early 80s. In 1990 a successor was appointed as new president - another nun. She was younger, dynamic, progressive, forward thinking and open minded. She was also a graduate of Saint Francis, having spent the 70s living in the dorms while she prepared for her novitiate. Ironically she received her PhD from SLU. In '97 one of the administrators suggested we start a football program. He wasn't exactly laughed out of the room, but the suggestion wasn't taken seriously. He was insistent and tried several more times. The local media got on the band wagon, saying they wouldn't even have 50 spectators come to a game, let alone field a successful program. Finally, the president resigned to the idea and gave her blessing to start a football program. They hired a head coach by the name of Kevin Donley (currently the winningest active coach in NAIA football) to start a football program from scratch. He had nothing, no lockers, facilities, field, players, staff - nothing. The closest thing resembling a field was the existing grass soccer field. After hiring a staff they recruited some players. Mostly local kids who wanted to continue playing football at the collegiate level but were considered too small by NCAA DIII and D2, let alone D1 programs. They had one thing most players at the upper divisions lacked - heart. They played their first varsity football game at Saint Xavier University in Chicago - and beat them 56-28. They lost seven consecutive after that, and ended with a 2-8 record. Dismal, but it was expected of an inaugural program. More of the same was to be expected the following years. Except…the next year, and only one year into the program, they finished with an 8-3 record, received votes in the national rankings, won their conference and played in the NAIA tournament. Since that inaugural year they have not had another losing season. They won 10 consecutive conference titles, played in consecutive national tournaments, finished as runners-up three years in a row in the title games, and as of 2013, won yet another conference title and advanced as far as the quarterfinals. They routinely accept and start transfer student-athletes from D1 programs like Ball State, Purdue, Indiana State, Indiana, and the like. All these kids have an impact right off the bat and contribute to a winning tradition. Not just the transfers, but the legitimate first-year starters and red-shirts. They're hungry and want to play - and win. They beat bigger programs like Indiana State, Valpo and Butler. Butler won't schedule them anymore because they got tired of getting whipped year in and year out. What they built for themselves was commitment to, and the belief in themselves and the program. Now Saint Francis boasts a student enrollment of over 2,000, opened a satellite campus near Chicago, has a strong alumni following, has built - or in the process of building - new dorms and additional facilities on campus, and home football games are well-attended, with standing-room-only on homecoming games. All thanks in large part to a football program no one believed in. They have respectability, clout, media exposure and kids wanting to attend Saint Francis. Yes, I know SLU is D1, not NAIA. Yes, I know money is handled differently in NCAA than NAIA - but not much. Only the venues are bigger. There is a changing of the guard. Biondi is on his way out, and the search for a new president is currently taking place. The search committee has reached out to the university community and asked what qualities we should be looking for in our new president. Emails, surveys and town-hall style meetings took place and opinions gathered. One of the requirements for the new president is belief in SLU athletic programs and the commitment to further those programs. I've personally taken informal surveys around campus and asked students, staff and faculty what they thought of bringing football back to SLU. All would like to see it, and all expressed concerns that we would s**ck. Yes, I agree. We would s**ck our first year or so. It all depends on the head coach and staff in place. The commitment and belief in themselves and the program. And the president's blessing. When I asked one of my colleagues about football here at SLU she told me about a meeting she attended with Fr. Biondi and one of them asked about bringing back the football program. His response: "Over my dead body." With that attitude it's no wonder he got a no-confidence vote and on his way out. We need a president that is open-minded and open for debate. Football is expensive, agreed. But you need to spend money to make money. It's also a powerful recruiting and marketing tool. More alumni would come back to SLU and attend a homecoming football game. And donate. Who goes to a homecoming where soccer is the featured sport? I've looked across campus and practically every piece of structure, be it a building, conference room, office, park bench, statue, sculpture, classroom, tree, has a plaque dedicated to its generous donor. There are willing donors out there. They want to give to SLU. So why not football? And it's not just the SLU community that would benefit from the football program. It's also the city of St. Louis: home games translate to visitors, hotel reservations, restaurant goers, museum and theater goers, potential students wanting to attend SLU, whether as a student or a participating student-athlete. Should we turn down their money? What about facilities? I've taken the liberty of sharing these links: Georgetown College (NAIA) http://www.georgetowncollegeathletics.com/f/Facilities.php Field-turf, seating capacity 5,000, expandable to 20,000 University of Saint Francis (NAIA) http://saintfranciscougars.com/sports/2011/12/8/AT_1208111150.aspx?&tab=2 Sport-turf, seating capacity 3,000, expandable to appx 12,000 Saint Francis has a small campus, and is landlocked - surrounded by neighborhoods on 3 sides and a cemetery on the south side. Lindenwood University (D2, formerly NAIA) http://www.lindenwoodlions.com/sports/2012/6/21/FB_0621125209.aspx Astro Play turf, seating capacity ? Also consider Fawcett Stadium, NFL's Hall of Fame stadium, also has a small footprint http://www.profootballhof.com/enshrinement/fawcett_stadium.aspx They all take up the same footprint as Hermann Stadium and/or the Medical Center Stadium. Start out small, but design the stadium to be expandable. Start out in the FCS with the intent of joining the FBS at a future date. Look at schools like Troy, AL (former NAIA), UConn, Boise State, USF (S. Florida) - they all started in the "lesser" divisions and are now competing in the FBS. One final note: there's a small school in Oklahoma - University of Tulsa - a small, nondenominational, private school founded by Presbyterians. Total student enrollment is less than 5,000 with a much smaller endowment than SLU. They have a successful FBS football program, and recently beat Notre Dame. If I may quote Coach Donley on his foundation to build the football program at Saint Francis: "To develop quality young men into meaningful contributors to our community and to win some games along the way." -Kevin Donley SLU can compete - and will.
  9. Test...test...test
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