Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 4/20/04 Section: Opinion>>Columnists

JENNIFER MCLAIN [Click to enlarge]

"We've lost a lot of experience, but we've also gained a lot of athleticism at the quarterback position," coach Fitz Hill said in a Spartan Daily article last week.

What Hill should be most concerned about, however, is losing the football team's Division I-A status, realizing that not everybody is as concerned about the quarterback as he is.

Or maybe all the hoopla caused by Spartans4Sanity, a group petitioning to end Division I-A football play, will be ignored.

After the Academic Senate meeting Monday, it was decided, more or less, that the new president will walk into a tough decision to possibly "demote" the Spartan football program from Division I-A to Division I-AAA in the Big West, forcing the team to reduce its spending.

As the football team continues to lose, it also continues to pluck resources off the university's money tree. In fact, it takes $3.5 million from this withering tree, diverting funds away from numerous lecturers, classes and educational opportunities.

According to the referendum passed Monday by the Academic Senate, "The funds now committed to D I-A competition could provide for hundreds of course sections and improve library, counseling and other services important to faculty and students." The referendum requires football spending to be cut from the general fund by 1.8 percent.

This referendum is reasonable, especially considering the amount of people who are actually affected by the football program.

After almost four years at San Jose State University, I've spent more than 4,000 hours at work, 800 hours at a bar and 1,200 hours studying. My collective time at the Spartan football games? Two hours.

And you know, I'm sure most students' numbers are pretty close to mine. According to information released by Spartans4Sanity, only 10 percent of SJSU students, who are all granted free admittance to the games, attend football games.

"The average Spartan undergraduate is 24 years old, significantly older than the national average. Approximately 70 percent of our students have jobs that require them to work at least 20 hours a week. Many are married and/or have children ... These are simply not the types of students who will spend four hours of their precious time to watch a football game."

Lawrence Fan, sports information director for intercollegiate athletics, asked what events could be attended on campus where there is a crowd of more than 1,000, 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 or 25,000. Besides a Prince concert or graduation commencement, only the football team has attracted such a large group. Last season, SJSU showed it could meet the Division I-A criteria of 15,000 fans per game, averaging 15,080. This showed an improvement from the previous season, which averaged more than 10,000.

However, critics are quick point out that without the sold-out crowd of more than 31,000 at the Grambling game - which likely attracted more fans because of the famous Tiger Band rather than the actual football game - SJSU would have never met the criteria.

Furthermore, if only 10 percent of the fans regularly attending games are students, that means it is community members who are going to the games. If football is more valuable to the community than to the students, why is there such a demand for Division I-A? Surely, the community would be just as happy to watch Division I-AAA football games.

The community, however, is not the only group of people who want our football program to stay in Division I-A.

While Spartans4Sanity has made dozens of statements asserting there is no need for Division I-A football, the fact is that too many people still want a football program associated with such prestige, regardless of how much money could be saved: Of the more than 3,000 staff members at SJSU, only 266 signed the Spartans4Sanity petition.

Meanwhile, on the field, football players get ready for the new season.

Fan said that the football players' focus has been on practicing and dealing with academic course loads, not dealing with the excessive amount of "booing" the program is receiving.

But why aren't the football players speaking up? One expects a group of athletes, who constantly focus their time on playing offense and defense, to know how to step up their defense on and off the field. Why aren't football players speaking up and exclaiming how valuable football has been to their education? Why aren't football players shouting that this program is needed? And why aren't football players explaining to their peers the reasons for staying in Division I-A?

In a phone interview with Fan, he said college athletes have many positive qualities. According to Fan, a report released by the NCAA showed that the graduation rate during six years for student athletes is 56 percent, compared to the general student graduation rate of 35 percent.

Among their strengths, student athletes are great at time management. They are required to maintain full-time student status and maintain a minimum grade point average of 2.0.

And while the dedication, time management capabilities and educational value student athletes gain compared to students who do not have the talent, dedication or perseverance to play at collegiate level is not debated, the issue at hand is, why is the football team hanging on to its Division I-A status?

While the football program can provide 77 to 85 scholarships a year for its close-to-100-player team, the program should "take one for the team" - the academic team - and reduce its amount of spending to provide more classes and information for students and faculty, even if it means they would compete at a Division I-AAA level, where they might just have a winning season.

Jennifer McLain is the Spartan Daily arts and entertainment editor.

"Oxymoron" appears every other Tuesday.

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