SJSU to drop football?

[SonomaCat]

This isn't exactly MSU athletics, but some of the themes that come up are interesting. It also lets us pat ourselves on the back for being more successful fundraisers in a small population like Montana as compared to a huge urban area of the Bay Area. I think MSU is a tab bit more efficient than SJSU in this regard:

SJSU senate targets football

ADVISORY VOTE WOULD CUT FUNDING

By Becky Bartindale

Mercury News


In a move that could threaten San Jose State University's 110-year-old football tradition, the Academic Senate voted by secret ballot Monday to limit funding for sports teams and recommended withdrawing from Division I-A and the Western Athletic Conference altogether.

The action is meant to send a strong signal to the new university president -- who could be named as soon as today -- that in tight budget times, academics take priority over football. However, presidents have ignored faculty recommendations on athletic funding before, most recently in 1993.

``We're not opposed to football per se, but Division I-A has costs we can't afford,'' said James Brent, the political science professor who pushed Division I-A withdrawal through on a 21-11 vote. He conceded that dropping out of Division I-A ``probably means having to get rid of football.''

Although the senate vote is only symbolic, Brent said he hopes ``it will counter what the president will hear from a group of very loud boosters who don't have the best interests of the university as a whole at heart.''

The Academic Senate -- a group of faculty, students, staff and administrators that advises the president -- also voted to put the question of withdrawing from Division I-A and the WAC before the entire faculty in a referendum later this term.

The vote is the first formal faculty recommendation to emerge from a yearlong debate over athletics funding that has heated up as budgets have tightened, and the football program has struggled to fill seats and win games.

Both candidates who are finalists for the university presidency spoke out last week against taking quick action on the football question and pointed to the beneficial relationships that intercollegiate athletics bring the university.

Proponents of withdrawing argued that few students attend games. And despite publicity about needing to boost attendance to meet NCAA guidelines to stay in Division I-A, the university barely made the required 15,000 average attendance per game last year. Private fundraising to support the program also is down, they said.

A referendum, like the senate vote, would be advisory only. But it could put political pressure on a new president as the university gears up for some of the worst budget reductions in decades.

The senate proposal calls for a cap on the amount of general fund dollars used for athletics, and suggests that any savings be transferred to academic programs. General fund money now accounts for 58 percent of the $11.8 million athletic budget.

The university could substantially reduce spending by eliminating Division 1-A football, Brent said. He said San Jose State could stay in Division I and play all other sports in the Big West Conference, which does not require its members to play football.

The university also could play Division I-AA football in a different conference. Today, San Jose State is one of six among 23 CSU campuses that field a football team, and one of three in Division I-A.

In a four-page e-mail that was circulated on campus, Interim President Joseph Crowley called for all interested parties to talk about the future of Spartan athletics. He urged against voting to withdraw from Division I-A, though he supports scaling back general fund contributions to 35-45 percent of the athletic budget.

Figuring out what to do with the athletic program requires ``careful, comprehensive examination of the financial and other ramifications for the university,'' Crowley said. He suggested that a withdrawal could hurt financial donations from alumni.

That resonates with Ed Mosher, class of 1952, a donor who serves on several university committees, most of them involved with fundraising.

``If San Jose State threw out Division I football, I'd write them out of my will, never step foot on the campus again and resign all the boards I'm on because they would become just another mediocre state university,'' Mosher said.

During an emotional, two-hour senate debate, proponents of withdrawing from Division 1-A cited the loss of lecturers and course sections to budget cuts.

Noting that the English department gets much less money than athletics, English Professor Nancy Stork said, ``I don't mind being smaller than athletics. But when I am turning students away and meeting students who can't get the classes they need, I feel we are letting down students.''

Faculty members who opposed the idea said there had not been enough time to consider the potential fallout and the debate was lopsided because there was no presentation made by the athletic department. Although he was invited, Athletic Director Chuck Bell was traveling and could not attend.

``If athletics can pay for itself, it's a great luxury to have,'' said senior Huy Tran. ``But it's getting a large portion of the general fund, and it doesn't make sense for our priorities as a university.''