Deb Farris: WSU To Look into Bringing Football Back in Next 3-4 Years

[Kung Wu]

I have a question for you guys --

Is it possible that FB has started down a long slide? With all of the concussions and related CTEs, I wonder how rosy the football picture is long term. There are already countless stories of physicians and parents not letting their own children play FB because of the CTE problem (which can be caused by repetitive trauma and does not require one to even suffer concussions).

The lawsuit brought by former NFL players seems to be gaining traction. Recently, helmet manufacturers were added as an additional defendant. What would the impact of one big trial verdict be?

I know that there is a ton of money to be made in football right now, but boxing was once the country's most popular sport as well... until people stopped doing it because of the long term side effects.

How much weight should one put into weighing this issue when evaluating whether football should be reinstated?

Good point. I'm leaving my appendix in tact until we get our heads wrapped around this potential downfall.

[tw805]

I have a question for you guys --

Is it possible that FB has started down a long slide? With all of the concussions and related CTEs, I wonder how rosy the football picture is long term. There are already countless stories of physicians and parents not letting their own children play FB because of the CTE problem (which can be caused by repetitive trauma and does not require one to even suffer concussions).

The lawsuit brought by former NFL players seems to be gaining traction. Recently, helmet manufacturers were added as an additional defendant. What would the impact of one big trial verdict be?

I know that there is a ton of money to be made in football right now, but boxing was once the country's most popular sport as well... until people stopped doing it because of the long term side effects.

How much weight should one put into weighing this issue when evaluating whether football should be reinstated?

That's not why boxing went to hell. It's because the big fighters started refusing to fight anything but the little guys, the officiating was terrible, and they started ripping the fans off, charging pay-per-view prices for every little thing.

Come to think of it, it's exactly like college football.

[KC Shox]

Where we going to get 200 million dollars for a new stadium? No idea right? Then this football discussion is mute.

[XManCometh]

I have a bad feeling about football at WSU. The team won't be competitive for at least 3-5 years and by that time the fan base that was pumped for it will have dwindled. Plus, this isn't going to be an FBS school. We'll be a FCS school that will play some very obscure teams. Do the fans want to go see the likes of South Dakota State or Youngstown State play WSU in 25 degree weather in late November?

Also, to the guy that said we needed a 50k seat stadium:

Not going to happen. Think 20k at the most. WSU is going to be an FCS school for quite a long time.

Also, the cost to start up the football program will take money away from baseball, volleyball, track and pretty much everything else, because it's going to be in the red for AT LEAST 5+ years, as basically no college football program makes money.

Face it guys, losing football at WSU was the greatest thing to ever happen to the University. Bringing it back will never happen. If you want football, go to Friends and watch those games.

[1972Shocker]

Come on @XManCometh: let us know where you stand on this issue! ;-)

[KC Shox]

In order to be an FBS program, your stadium must at least fit 35,000, can someone confirm this?

[Shocker91]

I have a bad feeling about football at WSU. The team won't be competitive for at least 3-5 years and by that time the fan base that was pumped for it will have dwindled. Plus, this isn't going to be an FBS school. We'll be a FCS school that will play some very obscure teams. Do the fans want to go see the likes of South Dakota State or Youngstown State play WSU in 25 degree weather in late November?

Also, to the guy that said we needed a 50k seat stadium:

Not going to happen. Think 20k at the most. WSU is going to be an FCS school for quite a long time.

Also, the cost to start up the football program will take money away from baseball, volleyball, track and pretty much everything else, because it's going to be in the red for AT LEAST 5+ years, as basically no college football program makes money.

Face it guys, losing football at WSU was the greatest thing to ever happen to the University. Bringing it back will never happen. If you want football, go to Friends and watch those games.

While I would disagree that losing football was "the greatest thing to ever happen," I agree with XMan on everything else. This will DEFINITELY be an FCS program IF it ever happens. I don't think there's a great market for that kind of team around here, either. You want to see a good college football team? Head to El Dorado and see some BUCO ball.

[SubGod22]

In order to be an FBS program, your stadium must at least fit 35,000, can someone confirm this?

False. The only "requirement" which isn't enforced is that you have an average of 15K over a two year period. Many FBS schools don't actually achieve that and some FCS schools do.

[shox1989]

In order to be an FBS program, your stadium must at least fit 35,000, can someone confirm this?

They dropped the 30,000 seat minimum stadium several years ago.

[ShockerFever]

I have a bad feeling about football at WSU. The team won't be competitive for at least 3-5 years and by that time the fan base that was pumped for it will have dwindled. Plus, this isn't going to be an FBS school. We'll be a FCS school that will play some very obscure teams. Do the fans want to go see the likes of South Dakota State or Youngstown State play WSU in 25 degree weather in late November?

Also, to the guy that said we needed a 50k seat stadium:

Not going to happen. Think 20k at the most. WSU is going to be an FCS school for quite a long time.

Also, the cost to start up the football program will take money away from baseball, volleyball, track and pretty much everything else, because it's going to be in the red for AT LEAST 5+ years, as basically no college football program makes money.

Face it guys, losing football at WSU was the greatest thing to ever happen to the University. Bringing it back will never happen. If you want football, go to Friends and watch those games.

I think you're grossly exaggerating a few things to try to beef up your point a bit. Yes, we'd play obscure teams but if you're a fan of WSU, you'd be familiar with the typical Valley foes - MSU, SIU, Illinois State, UNI, etc. No, those schools don't attract any attention from me at all whatsoever during football season now, but let's not act like there are schools that we'd play are ones we'd never heard of before. 25 degrees in late November? Ya, I'd suppose that could happen. But it also could be 80 degrees too. The majority of the games would occur before November and most of the time that's the best weather around here. Let's not pretend like it's late January. There's a difference.

So what would you say to all of the schools starting up football now? That they're basically killing their athletic programs? Doubtful.

I think some of you aren't looking at the bigger picture. These same folks that don't want football also don't wanna be stuck in this conference for eternity. Welp, I can tell you there is exactly ZERO percent chance of a conference change happening in the current situation. I just don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to be progressive about this. Sure, there's gonna be low points. It's not gonna be a cakewalk. No one expects that. But to just be stubborn and shut down the idea just because of what happened 25 years ago, well is very retroactive, and I must say, very Wichitan, unfortunately.

The give up mentality that constantly flies from the anti-football segment is highly annoying and says a lot about your overall thinking and ideas.

[ShockerFever]

Where we going to get 200 million dollars for a new stadium? No idea right? Then this football discussion is mute.

Mute?

Are we joining the NFL?

[WuDrWu]

No casino? :-(

There is a much better chance of a casino replacing the golf course.

[Signman]

I believe you would want to start out by announcing that you intend to compete at the FBS (top level) as soon as possible. This would allow us to recruit DI talent and in the first couple of years you schedule softly with DII & FCS in hopes of building a winning tradition. I believe Old Dominion (one of our peer institutions btw) did this, had a great deal of success starting in 2009. They will be joining CUSA in July of 2013 and elevate to FBS at that time. They also average nearly 20,000 per game as their stadium only holds 19,818. I believe Cessna Stadium's capacity is close to 30,000.

[KraRam]

[QUOTE=Signman;333921]Financial inflation maybe, but the exact number for the loss in 1986 was $839,000 not $10,000,000.

The $10Mil hole came from Dr. Beggs directly to me. So the loss in 1986 may have been $839,000 but there was obvisouly a bigger issue in the budget.

[KraRam]

College Athletics By The Numbers: A Deeper Look at Profitability - http://sportsologist.com/college-ath...by-the-number/

A recent NCAA report (2004-09) stated that only 14 of the 120 athletic programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision made money. The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) includes all BCS conferences (PAC 10, SEC, Big 10, Big 12, etc) so odds are your favorite athletic program is losing money. - 12% of college athletic programs are profitable.

Football
There is a lot of discussion about football keeping athletic departments alive. Yes, football is one of only two sports (men’s basketball being the other) that ANY university reported as being profitable. At the same time, however, only 57% of football programs reported being profitable. Thus the other 43% of football programs are still part of the problem.