Holding, false start

Too many flags to overcome

THE UNIVERSITY of Arkansas at Little Rock won’t have a football team next year. And nobody’s going to miss it. For unlike most other fouryear colleges in this state, it doesn’t have one now.

That might be the No. 1 reason not to create a football team at UALR: It doesn’t have one now. To give up a football team is a big deal in the South. When high schools do it, it makes the paper. But to not spend millions to create one out of thin air? That just makes sense. Mostly financial sense.

A group put together to study the idea decided thanks, but no thanks, football.

The school’s football feasibility committee suggested the school focus on other athletics instead. And no wonder. Adding a football team might double the athletic costs at UALR. And for what? So that a couple-dozen students could play the game on Saturdays while another couple-dozen students watch? After all, in the first couple of years, nobody would expect a great product on the field. The sport’s initial costs would be . . . a fortune. But at least it wouldn’t make much money, either.

Here is what the study found: Football could increase UALR’s athletic budget from $11 million a year to as much as $23.4 million, not including rental or construction costs. (Not including construction costs!) Startup costs alone, for buying equipment and hiring coaches, would cost millions more.

A marching band would cost at least another 200K annually, and that’s after the 500K in startup costs.

And to comply with Title IX, the school would have to start at least two more sports for female students.

We remember last summer when this project got serious and students were signing petitions and folks were talking options. That’s when a group of consultants for the school urged caution, saying the campus “is challenged at times” to provide for its current needs and noted “resource constraints.” That’s the diplomatic way to put things.

The students at the school should be commended for showing such enterprise when they put together this idea and passed it around. Before the petition drive, we’d heard no talk about football at the school.

But those same consultants last summer showed that while many students like the idea of football, few might like the reality. A story in this paper noted that a survey showed support for football but, “Those numbers fell dramatically when respondents were asked about financial contributions outside of buying tickets.”

Football is fun. We like fun. But the question should be whether football should be a priority at UALR. And whether millions for startup costs, millions more yearly, and all the costs for a marching band and Title IX compliance could be put to better use. Especially in a state where the phrase “woo pig sooie” is taught from birth.

Come fall, the piggies and ASU will be on television. And college teams from Magnolia to Searcy will be on the radio. We’ll all be able to enjoy football again.

And at UALR, students there will still be focused on history, design, biology, chemistry, business, computer science, criminal justice, communication, public administration . . . . In the great scheme of things, it’s better to focus on the great scheme of things.