Crummy college football programs

[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]College football is littered with crummy programs that need to be downsized, if not actually eliminated. Some Division-I programs have outlived their usefulness and others should have never seen the light of day. [/font]

Read the rest of Arne Lang's latest column by going to the NEW Rx home page at www.therx.com

Charlie :digit:

Jeff Garcia is a San Jose State grad. He should donate the salary he has been stealing for the last two years.

BUFFALO

Buffalo resurrected football in 1977. Over the next 22 years, the school had five winning seasons. The school then jumped to Division I, a giant step that was a giant blunder.

One didn’t need to conduct a feasibility study to recognize that a D-I football team would be a hard sell in inclement Buffalo. At the turn of the millennium, there was only one college team in an NFL city (the University of Washington) that ranked in the top-20 in home attendance. College teams in Philadelphia, Nashville, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas and San Diego were drowning in a sea of red ink.

The University of Buffalo has the largest undergraduate student body of any school in the New York state university system. However, of the roughly 15,000 full-time students, only 20 percent live in dormitory housing and only one percent are in fraternities.

It’s plain stupid to take on the expense of running a D-I program at a commuter school where proportionately few undergraduates are immersed in campus life. Moreover, if there is an NFL team in the immediate area, one can’t get the newspaper and TV coverage necessary to “build a brand” without incurring hefty advertising expenses.

:monsters-


I have made over 20 dimes betting against this crappy team. Plaease stay where you are Buffalo

You know this is an interesting topic but kind of an incomplete article. The San Jose St undergrad info was stunning. I am not sure how to feel about the FAU reference. The attendance sucks for sure but I wouldn't lay it on the "loyalties" of the locals. There is no such thing as "loyalty" in south Florida.

Nobody is more successful than UM but they play to many empty seats for all but the biggest of games. If they drop the opening game to FSU, which they won't and it kills me to say that, watch the attendance sink.

The commuter school and NFL team comparisons would seem to make sense but the University of South Florida, which is in Tampa, are doing pretty well. USF is faced with multiple adversities. Commuter school, NFL team, and the two biggest; Seminoles and Gators. Plus a few Hurricanes. They only averaged 27,000 last year but believe me people care about this team.

Finally, why would you include FAU in the article and not Florida International University? These two schools have a ridiculous amount of similarities. These include: Proximity, two campuses, attendance figures and blah blah blah. I know its boring but if you compare the two schools and their football programs the only big item that separates them is FAU's success.

If you are going to write and article like this and name names. Shouldn't you be fair in your condemnations? I know the response would be he couldn't include all schools in the article but to include FAU and not FIU is ridiculous.

Oh yeah, I have absolutly no connection with FAU or any part of Florida below Tampa.