Spring Break
Where is our football team?
James Mason
Issue date: 12/7/07 Section: Sports
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There are few options for stadiums in the area, like Franklin Field, and with all the interest we could definitely field a team. Sometimes it seems like the only thing that needs to be done is hire a coaching staff and order uniforms. Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Perhaps the best way to understand Drexel's situation is to look at some of the programs in the area, and the conference a Drexel team would probably compete in, the CAA.
Temple University is the home of the only Division 1-A football team in the City of Philadelphia. Without a stadium on campus, their home games are played at Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles. Their student body is twice the size of Drexel's, but their athletic programs have been comparable in recent years.
The Temple University Owls football program was gaining a reputation as a perennial loser. Since 1985, the Owls have had just one winning season. Without a true home stadium and lackluster fan support, the practicality of having a team began to come in question at Temple.
Yet, after finishing 4-4 in Mid-American Conference (MAC) play, the Owls seem to be headed in the right direction after years of being the doormat of the Big East conference. Temple University Athletic Director Bill Bradshaw said the university's commitment to the program has helped the team start to turn things around.
"There was a commitment to 1-A football and a commitment to supporting football at the Division 1-A level," Bradshaw said. "That started a road back, which allowed us to hire a coach like Al Golden (Temple's head coach) and to join a conference like the MAC, which started Temple on its way to having a successful program."
This was not always the case. In 2004, the university's Board of Trustees formed a special committee to review the viability of the program. Options included moving to the Championship Subdivision, also known as Division 1-AA, moving to Division II, or discontinuing the program altogether.
After an extensive study, the board made their recommendations in early 2005.
They decided it was in the school's best interest to keep the team and in May, the Owls joined the Mid-American Conference for football. By keeping its team, Temple remains the only Football Bowl Subdivision team in Philadelphia. Bradshaw also said that Temple football is not only important for the university, but also the city.
"Without Temple, Philly would be devoid of Division 1-A football," Bradshaw said. "There are only two [Football Bowl Subdivision] teams in the state. With a student body of over 35,000 and a school on the move, the Division 1-A football program fits the direction that the university is headed in."
One Philadelphia team that didn't make it was the LaSalle Explorers football program. After ten years of play, the team folded following the 2007 season. LaSalle was a part of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for football, and fielded a non-scholarship team, like many of the other schools in the conference. However, the conference slowly dissolved, leaving the Explorers with little options.
"There was no conference that we could join that was a regional, non-scholarship conference," said John Lyons, Associate Athletic Director of LaSalle University. "There are three teams left in the region that are playing non-scholarship football. We got in a situation where it was whose left to play. If we play a higher level program, we're putting the student athletes in jeopardy."
Fielding the team cost the university around $300,000 per year. Although the team did not make money, the university would have continued to play if there was enough like opponents in the area. In fact, facilities and not costs were the biggest problems for this team.
"The biggest challenge could be facilities," said Lyons. "You don't have a practice facility, a separate playing facility, there are restrictions of where you can play, who you could play, that would be the biggest restrictions you could have."
LaSalle's situation spells bad news for a potential Drexel non-scholarship team. The costs of doing that would be something that the school could afford, but for the Explorers, the outside factors made having a varsity team impossible.
The division that a potential Drexel team would likely compete at is Division I-AA or the Football Championship Subdivision. Drexel's athletic conference, the CAA, added football to conference play for the first time this season. In its first season, five of the conference's teams made the 16-team playoff. This was a huge accomplishment for the conference.
"Because of the level that we play at and the great success it brings us a great deal of national exposure, albeit in a different circle than the Penn States of the world," CAA commissioner Tom Yeager said. "I think for our schools that sponsor football and the other schools, it gives us important visibility in the fall."
Unfortunately for the CAA, the success on the field does not translate to financial success. Instead of $17 million dollar payouts, Yeager estimates football costs each of his conference's schools between $2.5 and 4 million dollars a year. Despite its high cost, football remains important to schools for bigger reasons than money.
"Institutions in our relative level believe that the investment in football is worth it to the university in a number of other ways," Yeager said. "If it was straight accounting, it's not going to make money, but what it does potentially for the identity of the student body, the affiliation on campus, getting alums back on campus, the pride, that's the immeasurable part of it all."
Yeager estimates that it would take three to four years for a school to start a team from scratch at the D 1-AA level.
"There are so many factors involved, I think that it normally it's going to take three or four years to get all the elements in place," Yeager said. "To do it right, facility costs, hiring coaches and other support people, etc, that's the thing that gets missed a lot. People think that just by getting equipment and practice and we're ready to go."
Yeager also added that there is no pressure for CAA schools like Drexel and Georgia State that don't have football to start a football program. One school in the CAA that is starting football is Old Dominion, which will start play in 2009 and join the CAA in 2011.
What does all of this have to do with Drexel? Temple's situation shows how hard it is to compete at the Division 1-A level. Without the right support from the school, a program could easily fall into years of depressing play. At that point, it becomes essentially worthless to have the team, as it will do little to boost student moral, school spirit, bring alumni back on campus, and the other things that football programs can do for a school.
LaSalle's situation shows how hard it is to have football on a small scale.
Although the costs of the team were manageable, finding schools with similar situations within traveling distance can become difficult. That would even go for a Division II or III program. Additionally, it's my opinion that when students say they want football, they want big time, Penn St. football, if not Division I ball.
At the Division 1-AA level, all of the facts are out there. It becomes an issue of whether football would be worth the $4 million a year commitment to Drexel, not to mention the costly restructuring of the athletic department which would have to occur. For now, perhaps it's most feasible to keep moving forward with the sports we have.
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