Bring football back to SLU

[bonwich]

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?

If college tuition has been rising at roughly three times the rate of inflation for more than two decades, why do universities 1) keep adding more and more multimillion-dollar non-education amenities to their campuses; 2) keep increasing the size and budget of their upper-administrative staffs?

[Bay Area Billiken]

If college tuition has been rising at roughly three times the rate of inflation for more than two decades, why do universities 1) keep adding more and more multimillion-dollar non-education amenities to their campuses; 2) keep increasing the size and budget of their upper-administrative staffs?

In answer to Question 1, as was said at Quincy, Football fills (student housing) beds (with male football student athletes). This is an issue at a school like Quincy with 1,300 students. And even at SLU with a 41.3% male, 58.7% female gender ratio, then it could well be an issue, if not now, then in the near future.

[Box and Won]

In answer to Question 1, as was said at Quincy, Football fills (student housing) beds (with male football student athletes). This is an issue at a school like Quincy with 1,300 students. And even at SLU with a 41.3% male, 58.7% female gender ratio, then it could well be an issue, if not now, then in the near future.

SLU needs to heavily emphasize that statistic when recruiting at all-boys' high schools.

[bonwich]

SLU needs to heavily emphasize that statistic when recruiting at all-boys' high schools.

One of my contemporaries, a rare SLU physics major who went on to do the even rarer SLU thing of getting a Ph.D. in physics, called this ratio the "distraction coefficient."

[bison137]

Fordham Football is bigger than Fordham Basketball, easily outdraws Fordham Basketball. Fordham Football is the biggest spectator sport at the school. At Fordham, Homecoming includes a Homecoming Football game.

Fordham Football plays on campus at Jack Coffey Field (next to Rose Hill Gym), which in its current setup has bleachers holding 7,500 on only the West side of the field. The team played before several overflow SRO home crowds this season.

This year the team was 10-0, which included a road win over FBS Temple, and ranked as high as 5th in the FCS until the star QB, Mike Nebrich (a FBS UConn transfer) was injured. Fordham finished 12-2, won its first round NCAA Playoff game before losing in Round 2. The team finished ranked 9th and 10th in 2 polls. The past Fordham QB, John Skelton, was drafted by the Football Cardinals and is in his 4th year in the NFL, now with the Tennessee Titans.

Re if Football has helped Fordham's image, one would think that defeating Yale at the Yale Bowl helps with Fordham alumni relations. The school is the 4th highest ranked Catholic University per the US News & World Report College Rankings.

Fordham had a good year in football - helped in large part by being a scholarship team in a non-scholarship league. It remains to be seen if there success will continue - but they definitely not been a football powerhouse in most recent years. Before this year, for example, their record over the previous five years was 22-33.

As for fan support, over the past decade they have claimed an average "official" attendance of about 4000 - but that includes a number of no-show alums who buy season tickets but often don't go to games. (Full season tickets only cost $50.) Prior to this year, you would find very few Fordham alums or students who view football ahead of basketball - even with Fordham having endured decades of futility in hoops. Also prior to this year, their best "official" attendance for any football season over the past 30+ years was less than 4800.

Football is a huge money loser for Fordham and virtually every FCS team, including everyone in the Patriot League. After calculating the cost of 60 scholarships, 10 coaches, huge travel expenses, etc, you then have to factor in the cost of another 60 women's scholarships.

[MB73]

It will never happen, we do not have the financial capabilities, but, again, if we introduced D-1 football at SLU and awarded 75 football scholarships, that would mean that essentially, we would have to take away approximately 75 men's athletic scholarships in other sports to provide balance to comply with Title IX.

Does anyone think that is fair?

[slufanskip]

One objection is about how Football will displace the SLU Soccer team. First, it will not. Using the Fordham model, Fordham fields teams in both Football and Men's Soccer. Second, that is a SLU Soccer team with 10 National Championhips, but none since the early 1970's, and one that has been drawing fans in the three (3) figures, as in the hundreds, for many games.

A SLU Football team could play at Busch Stadium or the Edward Jones Dome. Or as noted above, the Medical School field could be upgraded during the early stages. Hermann Stadium need not even be touched for SLU Football, and could be maintained for SLU Soccer. This is the art of compromise.

Next are the usual objections about Title IX and costs. In answer, no one can explain how Fordham can have FCS Scholarship Football and SLU cannot. No one can explain how Georgetown can have FCS non-scholarship Football and SLU cannot. The latter has been a debate at Georgetown, as the rest of the Patriot League is following the Fordham lead and going to scholarships, while Georgetown, as far as I've read, is trying to maintain non-scholarship football in the same league.

My point is these peer Jesuit institutions to SLU are finding the ways to have Football. Let's not just dismiss Football as impossible because it is not impossible. It is being played elsewhere.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/02/14/football-scholarships-patriot-league-distances-self-ivies

Look at that link and especially the Comments. A code breaker sits in the Comments from a Bucknell poster. Once even a non-scholarship program (like Georgetown, Dayton, San Diego, Valparaiso, or Butler) gets to 57 financial aid equivalents and merit based (academic scholarships), that team (and any other 60-65 FCS scholarship team) can go on the road and play a "buy" game against a FBS opponent, a game that can bring a six figure guarantee home with it.

You see this plays right into the Bill Snyder K-State model, the one Snyder first used to rise K-State from the abyss and get it Bowl eligible, the one borrowed by Gary Pinkel and his Mizzou Get Bowl Eligible Program, also used at Iowa State and now even at Illinois. They get the win (although Fordham messed with that theory this season by winning at FBS Temple) and the FCS program gets the check to deal with those SLU Football is impossible issues like Title IX and the cost of Football.

I cite some Midwestern FBS schools as examples that have been playing FCS schools, albeit most of them are FCS scholarship teams.

Being a road Football mercenary does not have to last forever. You do that while you are building the program, to pay for it, at least in part. And that is only 1 or 2 at the most games on a 12 game schedule.

Is saying the soccer team draws in the 3 figures many times the equivilent of saying the basketball team draws under 6K many games?

Why the need to knock soccer to push football? In 1999, 01, and 03 SLU led the nation in average attendance. In the last 6 years '07-'12 SLU has finnished in order beginning in '07 ... 10th, 9th, 14th, 21st, 12th, and 17th. SLU averaged 1454 and 1885 in '11 and '12

And really ... what do you expect this football team to draw? I'd wager you'd have some games with the dreaded 3 figures. You know the hundreds

The day any other sport at SLU draws in the top 20 in average attendance you let me know.

[For-DaLove]

It won't happen. Keep dreaming, people.

[drkelsey55]

Just invest in charter flights for the basketball, baseball and volleyball teams.