Category | Op Ed

No football team needed, vote ‘no’ in October

Published on August 31, 2009 by Gage Thompson

KSU is a curious college. It was a junior college for a commuter population and now is trying so gosh darned hard to grow up big and strong like the other schools on the playground.

It might be like a flagship university one day, but right now it’s in that awkward teenage phase: covered with zits and desperately wanting to fit in. First it was the dining hall. All the other kids had a dining hall, so KSU had to go buy one. Fine. Everyone wants to fit in sometimes. Now KSU wants a football team.  This is where the line should be drawn.

KSU doesn’t need a football team. KSU is a fine school right now, and a football team isn’t going to add anything to the quality of education. In fact, it will probably subtract from it considering the increase in drinking and all around stupidity that follows football wherever it goes.

Every dollar that is spent on football is a dollar KSU could have spent on frivolities like professors and chairs. Who needs that stuff? And it will cost millions of dollars.  Georgia Tech’s 2010 athletic budget  is close to $4 million in total. Keep in mind they already have their stadium.

KSU has about 20,000 students; to equal Georgia Tech’s budget we would need to shell out $200 per student, and I can guarantee you it’ll cost more than that to build a decent stadium.

The most compelling argument for football is that it will bring greater attention to KSU. I have to concede that it probably will, but is it the right kind of attention? Do we really want KSU to try to emulate these schools? Part of our allure is as a no-nonsense budget school where you can get an education without smelling the fragrant odor of stale beer and old hot dogs. A football program jeopardizes that olfactory well-being.

Has anyone ever considered that our hypothetical football team might stink? I hate to be the one to say it, but the only thing the “The Fighting Owls” have fought lately is traffic.

Would a bad football team enhance our image? No. A bad football team would make us the laughingstock of the region, and a decent football team would destroy our niche as an oasis of sobriety and relative maturity in the University System of Georgia. KSU loses either way.

This issue is a lost cause though. Everyone knows the outcome of this vote. I can only take solace in the fact that I will probably have graduated when the massive tuition hike kicks in.

In the meantime, if I want to pay for the privilege of going to a football game only to see my team lose it isn’t that much of a trip downtown to catch a Falcon’s game. Maybe they’ll finally get the consecutive winning seasons they’ve been chasing for 43 years. I for one won’t be holding my breath for either team.