UMass wants to be one of the big boys in college football, so they joined the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the NCAA. Thus, it now spends twice as much annually on football as it used to; the annual tab is now $8,200,000. At the same time it was unable to expand its graduate school history program because it could not afford to spend $20,000 to hire a teaching assistant. One student notes, “I’m sure the upgrade is meant to get us more publicity, but my tuition
goes up 7 percent and at the same time, we’re adding more football
players attending for free.”
What UMass and the other 25 colleges thinking about moving up the football ladder hope to get are better quality students, more admissions, television riches, national exposure and ecstatic alumni donating money by the bushel. But Scott Cowen, Tulane's president, does not think these goals are attainable easily, “What any school moving up in football should ask itself is this: what
are the real costs of the benefits? You will get more
visibility and exposure, and at first, that seems like a very good
investment. The problem is that once you wade in for keeps at the F.B.S.
level, you face facility improvements, escalating coaching salaries,
added staff and more athletic scholarships. The cost curve is extremely steep, and unless you’re in a power conference, the revenue is flat.”
But, maybe, there are already enough schools competing at this level. That point is made by John Lombardi, former president of UMass, Florida and Louisiana State, “The number of F.B.S.-level football teams is already too large to be
sustainable. And the teams at the top are a very strong,
organized group. As more schools join at the bottom, it’s going to force
the N.C.A.A. to restructure. They’ll have to start putting F.B.S. teams
into categories. So there will be a second tier again, and that’s certainly not what a
lot of these people joining now had in mind. What happens then?”
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