Xavier FCS Football???

[xubrew]

It's not a stretch. Look no further than Indiana State for a case study. They have competing alumni over funding for football or basketball. I get that people want football at X. But comparing to other sports at X is not a fair comparison. The cost to run a football program at any level far exceeds what X spends on other sports.

Indiana State is a public institution with scholarship football. That's not at all the same thing as a private school with non-scholarship football that plays in the PFL. A general PFL football budget is $1 million a year. That's for EVERYTHING! Salaries, travel, game day expenses, equipment, EVERYTHING. There are non-revenue country club sports that spend more than that. If a school in the PFL were to suddenly spend $5 million on football, the league may actually vote them out.

I believe every single PFL program is supplemented by the institution. It's not any sort of extra expense to the athletic department. It's literally "OK Mr. AD, your total expenses are $1 million this year?? Here's a check for $1 million! Glad to hand this over to you!! We took it out of the $4 million we made from the tuition all the players collectively paid!!" It's a straight up D3 model.

Xavier football will be D1 or it will not exist. It cannot play anything but DI football if it wants to play DI basketball. It would be in the same division as Indiana State. It would simply be non-scholarship and play a bunch of other non-scholarships.

Correct. It would TECHNICALLY be D1, but PRACTICALLY be D3.

[D-West & PO-Z]

Not sure I buy the it costs the school nothing, they make more off tuition argument.

There have to be other factors or unintended consequences to consider, right? I am not positive what those are but one might be, insurance. Does there need to be some sort of new insurance the school takes out to protect themselves now that they have added the dangerous sport of football?

Also most of these students probably wont be paying full tuition right? I would think a large % of the general student body gets some sort of scholarship. So it isnt as much in tuition as some have suggested.

If it is such an easy no brainer revenue generator, which is what is being suggested. Why isnt every small school without football doing it?

[Jehoya]

Seems to be some twitter talk, and talk on other boards, if X bringing back football in some small capacity. Anybody hearing anything on this? Also, seems to be some talk X is looking at starting a med school 🤔

[GoMuskies]

First I've heard of it. Someone should start a thread about it.

[xubrew]

I understand what you are saying. Let’s say for shits n giggles average student pays 35000 after aid etc so that’s 3.5 mil… a positive of 2.5. My guess is that if it was a net 2.5, Xavier would have done this a long time ago.

Getting back to why Xavier didn't decide to do this a long time ago, I think it's because people just didn't understand how it would/could work, so they just decided that it wouldn't. The new president seems to think differently. She came from a private school that had football, so she knows how it can work, and that a lot of the reasons people come up with as to how it won't work just aren't valid reasons. That's my guess as to why it's happening now.

Not sure I buy the it costs the school nothing, they make more off tuition argument.

There have to be other factors or unintended consequences to consider, right? I am not positive what those are but one might be, insurance. Does there need to be some sort of new insurance the school takes out to protect themselves now that they have added the dangerous sport of football?

Also most of these students probably wont be paying full tuition right? I would think a large % of the general student body gets some sort of scholarship. So it isnt as much in tuition as some have suggested.

If it is such an easy no brainer revenue generator, which is what is being suggested. Why isnt every small school without football doing it?

My answer is that I have no clue. Maybe they feel it isn't part of their culture. Maybe they don't fully understand how it can be beneficial. Maybe the benefits it can provide don't match the immediate needs or wishes of the school.

Now I have some questions...

-Why do all of the small private schools who do have football continue to have it?? If it's not ultimately a financial benefit for the school, then why would so many of them continue to do it?

-Why have so many schools decided to add it??

-Why have so many schools that have added it decided to not immediately cut it if it turned out to not work out for them?

-To better state the question above, why haven't there been any noticeable outcries from schools that recently added football about how doing so depleted resources for the rest of the athletics department and campus that are no longer available because of football??

[nickgyp]

Sounds good to me. I always wanted to go to med school and with four years eligibility left, I think this might work.

[xudash]

Seems to be some twitter talk, and talk on other boards, if X bringing back football in some small capacity. Anybody hearing anything on this? Also, seems to be some talk X is looking at starting a med school ��

Ha! How is this info getting out!! I guess we are in the quiet "spread it around a little" info phase.

[D-West & PO-Z]

First I've heard of it. Someone should start a thread about it.

Reps!

[D-West & PO-Z]

Getting back to why Xavier didn't decide to do this a long time ago, I think it's because people just didn't understand how it would/could work, so they just decided that it wouldn't. The new president seems to think differently. She came from a private school that had football, so she knows how it can work, and that a lot of the reasons people come up with as to how it won't work just aren't valid reasons. That's my guess as to why it's happening now.



My answer is that I have no clue. Maybe they feel it isn't part of their culture. Maybe they don't fully understand how it can be beneficial. Maybe the benefits it can provide don't match the immediate needs or wishes of the school.

Now I have some questions...

-Why do all of the small private schools who do have football continue to have it?? If it's not ultimately a financial benefit for the school, then why would so many of them continue to do it?

-Why have so many schools decided to add it??

-Why have so many schools that have added it decided to not immediately cut it if it turned out to not work out for them?

-To better state the question above, why haven't there been any noticeable outcries from schools that recently added football about how doing so depleted resources for the rest of the athletics department and campus that are no longer available because of football??

Good questions.

I am not aware of the schools who are similar to Xavier that have recently added it. Which schools have added it in the last 5 or so years? I would love to see how its going for them. Maybe X is really on to something and it is straight profit and added experience to the school. That would be great!

[XUGRAD80]

Good questions.

I am not aware of the schools who are similar to Xavier that have recently added it. Which schools have added it in the last 5 or so years? I would love to see how its going for them. Maybe X is really on to something and it is straight profit and added experience to the school. That would be great!

The closest match that I can think of is Mt St Joesph’s, right here in the west side of Cincinnati. It’s got 1800 undergrads, it’s a private Catholic university, tuition averages 18K after student aid, and while it plays D3 ball, it’s very competitive at its level on a national basis. Their annual football budget is around 450K. It started the program in 2007, so it’s in its 15th year. I have no idea how they draw, but it hasn’t seem to be detrimental to the rest of their mens and womens programs. They are a non-athletic scholarship program too.

Thomas More also started football around the same time. Their mens and womens BB programs are both ranked in the top 5 preseason in NAIA this year and have been extremely competitive nationally at their level for several years. Their football budget is around 700k, but they also give out athletic scholarships. In fact, they left D3 and moved back to NAIA so they could give scholarships and play more schools in the area, thus cutting down on travel expenses.